The role and challenges facing district cultural officers in the promotion and development of visual arts in Tanzania.

This study was designed to investigate the roles and challenges facing District Cultural Officers (DCOs) in the promotion and development of visual arts in Tanzania. The study had four specific objectives with related to research questions. The objectives were: to assess the extent of support which the Council administrators give to DCOs in promoting and developing visual arts in Tanzania; to find out how DCOs work with visual artists in promoting and developing visual arts related activities; to examine the attitudes of visual artists towards the support given by DCOs in promotion and development of visual arts; and to examine managerial and administrative challenges in promoting and developing visual arts. The study was carried out in seven districts, and it involved a total of 83 respondents. Simple random sampling was used which included 69(83.1%) visual artists as well as purposive sampling which included 7(8.4%) DCOs, and 7(8.4%) Council Directors. The findings of the study showed that there is no support given to the local artist by Cultural Officers who are very important persons in their profession. The study concludes that in order for the Cultural Officers to perform well their day today activities of promoting and developing arts including visual arts, their post has to be made a full department with comprehensive budget. The study recommends that apart from the financial support needed by Cultural Officers to perform their day to day activities of promoting and developing visual artists, they still have to be creative by collaborating with other nongovernmental organizations and individuals in raising funds and other support through, for example, conducting exhibitions during national events, seminars, festivals, workshops and in an attempt to follow the stages in the Value chain theory as the guiding process.