Women creatives in the country have been asked to take their art seriously and treat it as a business.

The call was made in Blantyre on Monday during a workshop of female creatives.

Journalists participated in activities.

The workshop followed a stakeholders’ orientation meeting for the project on ‘Mainstreaming Gender Equality in Malawi’s Cultural and Creative Sector’.

“Women artists are doing quite a lot on the ground in different artistic disciplines but they need to rise to the occasion and take art as a business,” one of the facilitators of the training, Ezaius Mkandawire, said.

Mkandawire said the training exposed gaps, with almost all participants unaware of some of the instruments that are there to protect their art.

“We have the Electronic Transactions and Cybersecurity Act, for instance. Additionally, there is minimal knowledge on other gender-related laws. This knowledge gap became evident during a presentation on equality,” Mkandawire said.

He said the lack of knowledge exacerbated cases of vices such as gender-based violence in the culture and creative sector.

“The workshop was key because it empowered women creatives with knowledge on combating gender-based violence in the digital space,” Mkandawire, who is spearheading the project alongside Zilanie Gondwe, said.

Book Publishers Association of Malawi (Bpam) President Maureen Masamba said the workshop was timely and that it brought on board interesting topics for the growth of the creative sector.

“The workshop also connected us, women creatives, and gave us the platform to share ideas,” Masamba said.

Other topics that the women creatives were empowered on during the training included intellectual property and copyright law.

The Department of Arts is implementing the project, having received a grant from Unesco’s International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD) to the tune of $100,000.