Brief History of Insaka International Artists Workshop
The Triangle Workshop was first started and established in 1982 at Pine Plains in New York, U.S.A. by the sculptor sir Anthony Caro and the art collector Robert Loder. Over 2500 artists have participated in the network of workshops based on the Triangle model over a period of 20 years.
Since then the idea has continued to spread. In Zambia, Anna Kindersley worked with Zambian Artists like Patrick Mweemba, the late Godfrey Setti and Friday Tembo to put Mbile in motion and on the map of art activities and the first Mbile International Workshop took place in 1993, a small committee of artists and non artists founded Mbile as a non profit grassroots organization, the first Mbile workshop was held at the Eagles Rest in Siavonga and every year after that until 1999 when Mbile was discontinued. After three years without international art workshops in Zambia , Insaka International Artists Workshop ( Insaka International Artists Trust IIAT ) was established as a non profit and non-governmental organisation and a registered professional artists affiliate , to Zambia National Visual Arts Council. It began as an artists website development project in 2002, to link to other similar workshops around the world , for artists to use as an interactive communication tool that will open up artistic opportunities.
The other task was to consolidate an office structure for workshop and administrative operations in order to formalize workshop organization. Since then a website has been on the international artists network , Insaka International Artists Workshop has organized three international workshops in 2003, 2004 and 2005 respectively. In this period a total number of 63 Zambian and international artists participated in the workshops held at Eagle Rest, Siavonga and Chaminuka Nature Reserve, north of Lusaka. From 1993 to date, through Mbile and Insakartists workshops, 156 Zambian artists have attended international art workshops, making it the single largest contributor to visual arts development in Zambia in the last 14 years of art history.
Currently IIAT operate from Rockston Studios 1985, Offices at 27 Elm Rd Woodlands, Lusaka. IIAT organises and promotes local and international artistic talent to work for a internationally standard format of fourteen days workshop, at least once, almost every year, of sharing knowledge, interacting, and learning from each others experiences to develop intercultural dialogue among artists, in a peaceful, cool atmosphere, away from the busy city life. This has also witnessed career development of artists who have benefited from the Zambian Workshop experience, applying the new found skills further in other artistic encounters around the world. These workshops have been made possible over the years by generous donations from individuals, donor agencies, companies and other funding institutions. Attached is list of previous sponsors of workshops in Zambia. Organising artists Lutanda Mwamba ,Vincentio Phiri and Zenzele Chulu, have shouldered the weight of mobilizing and organization to this exhibition and would like to pay tribute to supportive efforts of John Roberts, Geoffrey Phiri, Karen Musonda, Mwiche Nambeye, Kate Naluyele, Laurey Nevers and Mulenga Chafilwa.
