COVID-19: Potch artists turn to online platforms

Artists in Potchefstroom, North West, have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, propelling some into taking their art online to keep their businesses afloat and to strengthen their public profiles. 

One such artist is Joseph Nkaki, a local poet who calls himself Zenzo, and who has been unable to perform due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Nkaki says it has been difficult to keep his business running during the pandemic. “Due to coronavirus we have been getting into debt,” he said. 

According to Nkaki the restrictive nature of the regulations and the performance-centered nature of his art means that moving his business online has been challenging. He struggles to make money from doing his stand-up poetry and stage performances on a virtual stage.

He has a manager to deal with the business side of his performances because the demand for his performances in Potchefstroom required it. “Besides having a manager, I advertise my art via social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube,” he said. 

Another artist, Jonel Scholtz, a local visual artist in Potchefstroom also took her business online. Scholltz says that selling art online has been much easier.  “I sold a lot of art in the beginning of lockdown but as it continued, I started selling less because people’s money was getting tight and they did not have the finances to spend on luxuries like paintings.”

Scholtz, who also teaches art in Potchefstroom, says she has resumed her classes but lost clients due to the impact of COVID-19. “I only had four to six people attending now,” she said. She started a YouTube channel to demonstrate the creation of portraits and to market herself and her work.

“It was every artist for himself,” said Reece Swanepoel, a contemporary expressive artist in Potchefstroom. “If you don’t vigorously market your work, no one will. I use a combination of Instagram and Facebook and I find them to be surprisingly fruitful,” Swanepoel said.

Swanepoel, whose art is also displayed and sold at international galleries such as the Stopwatch Gallery in London, says that marketing is extremely important in today’s digital platforms. “In the art world you don’t sell actual work. You’re selling a brand, your name. And the artwork is a souvenir of that. A souvenir that holds growing value,” he said. 

Nikki Nel, a local start-up painter, believes there are opportunities for artists in Potchefstroom. “There is a lot of creativity amongst young people and young people are willing to play with new ideas. I think, with the student population, it is possible for Potchefstroom to become a beacon of local art and it would be a good thing. Especially if the marketing is done in the right ways,” she says. 

She has also been doing business online during lockdown by taking orders for requested art.  “You must work through the right media and social media channels, especially if you have a target audience. Then you have to use the right channels to promote your art to them,” she added. But not all local artists believe that there are opportunities for local artists.

Jean Lampen, a member of the committee of the Potchefstroom Art Society, says the arts in Potch are dead. “My gallery, Blou Gallery, was an official Aardklop venue [in the past] but only a handful of people visited the exhibition,” Lampen says.

“The digital exhibition we had in August [2020], through the NWU Gallery, was even worse. In 25 years my  experience of art in Potchefstroom has been that business and the community do not support local artists,” she added. – Business desk