NATIONAL Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) in Bulawayo will today host a workshop themed Art Legacy and Estate Planning for Visual Artist that will also accommodate other artists through Zoom.

The gallery’s acting regional director Silenkosi Moyo (pictured) told NewsDay Life & Style that the workshop, to be facilitated by a legal firm, will focus on will writing, among others issues.

“Death is a morbid subject and yet it must be discussed and planned for. Majority of the people have prepared for it by having funeral policies, wills and distribution of estate. Artists are not different in this regard,” she said.

“The biggest concern in estate management after the death of an artist is her/his art, that is planning for the care, storage, possible sale, or other disposal of the artwork as part of the artist’s estate planning.”

Moyo said at the workshop, artists would get to know what should be done with artworks and determine beneficiaries for the artworks after one’s death.

“The realisation that generally people have funeral policies and yet no discussion of artworks after death has been prominent, it is better to discuss it now with living artists than to discuss it when the artist is dead,” she said.

“At the workshop, artists will get time to create an art inventory and also know the laws and regulations relating to an artist’s estate.” Moyo said the workshop would become an annual event since the gallery welcomed new artists every year who needed to be educated as well.

“The workshop would be held physically in all other areas under the geographic sphere of the gallery. We also want to build an evidence base of artists who actually make the workshop outcomes practical,” she said.

“I am encouraging visual artists to attend both physically and virtually so that they put in place their estate while still in the land of the living to avoid having the artworks being thrown away by beneficiaries who may not understand the value of the work and copyright issues related to that.”