When I come to Henry Tayali, I am often asked a version of the same question - 'What do you paint?' The automatic assumption is that I must be an artist to be hanging around, let's disregard my intermittent sketching and fiction writing (which I have been assured by my very generous friends here makes me an artist) and say that I am interested in art. It is a reasonable question to ask, I have only come across one person who does not class herself as an artist, and she has assured me she is going to start painting.
The individuals that work here and also with the partner groups Insaka Artists and AAW are not special because they work without any pay and don't necessarily sell much (though this is impressive), but because they are without artifice or prentention and have so much acceptance for anyone who comes and expresses an interest and what they do. I spend so much time here, surrounded by art - sculpture and paintings are to be found in the offices, in storage spaces as well as in the gallery itself - because by scratching the surface, I have found a new aspect to Zambia that wasn't sure existed.
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