World Culture Day: Creatives Tipped on Commercializing their Work

Uganda on  Friday 20, joined the world to celebrate the World  Culture day under the theme “Culture Post Covid-19, Rebuilding Uganda’s Creative Economy.”

A number of events were held to celebrate the culture day, these included a symposium, music dance and drama, among others. The event was held at the National theatre in Kampala.

Speaking at the symposium, Dr Muhumuza Micheal a lecturer Department of Performing Arts and Film at Makerere University, said  the creative art as part of culture has a big role to play so that they can create attention, attract investors and government support.

Meanwhile, Woltar Breamhost from Europa Nostra Noted that creatives need to get innovative if they are  to benefit from their works post Covid-19.

“We need to innovate, we find new ways of making money and new ways of distribution, during covid time everybody went to culture, reading books, watching movies, dance, all these things we went to are culture related, we need to find new ways of working together new ways of objecting our intellectual property and gaining from it,” he said.

Grace Nakabugo a lawyer, IP Expert Associate at MMAKS Advocates, noted that creatives  can make money by commercializing their work through Intellectual property, licensing, partnering with publishing companies.

She revealed that artists can use their intellectual property as collateral to borrow from financial institutions.

“When someone has a trademark, copyright or a patent, it is equal to having land and culture, with your certificate, you can walk to the bank and say my name is Pallaso (a top Ugandan Artist), these are my songs and albums, because they know if we can lend money to someone with a car, they can crash the car, same to Pallaso if he defaults, they  can use Pallaso’s work to collect there money,” Bahungirehe noted.

Commenting on the Symposium, Robert Musitwa the UNCC Public Relations manager, noted that they decided to start with a symposium to exchange knowledge on how the creative industry can get out of poverty, and develop post Covid-19.

He asked UBOS to provide them with statistics to help them know how much the culture sector is contributing to the country’s GDP.

Speaking on the sidelines of the celebrations, Ssebagala Andrew the Uganda National Cultural Center (UNCC) Production Manager, asked Ugandans to love and feel proud of their culture if it (culture) is to be promoted , preserved and developed.

“As UNCC, We are asking everyone to love his or her culture to love what we are as Ugandans. At UNCC, we believe that if you live and love what you are, you will prosper and develop, people in countries like China love their culture, they love what they are, I believe these are some of the reasons they are developing at a high rate,” said Ssebagala.