Malaysia's Tourism Ministry Out To Promote Work Of Loca Artists Abroad

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 (Bernama) -- The Tourism Ministry of Malaysia will help promote local artist and their work abroad, especially to countries with the potential for tourism. Its Minister Dr Ng Yen Yen said the ministry would pick countries whose people liked to travel so that they would also visit Malaysia after the promotions. She said this after launching an art exhibition at the National Visual Arts Gallery (BSVN) here, Friday. The exhibition, from Nov 30 to Jan 20 will feature 200 paintings and prints produced by Ali Mabuha Rahamad from 1970 to 2011. Yen Yen said prior to the BSVN event, Malaysian artists were taken to Shanghai which had opened the eyes of the people there to the beauty of Malaysian art. "We will continue to work with BSVN if it wants to be involved with programmes abroad," she said. Meanwhile, Dr Ng said the ministry was also in the process of promoting works of local artists within the country. She said the promotion would be carried out under the 1Malaysia Contemporary Art Tourism Festival 2011 which would take place for three months in Kedah, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Pahang, Johor, Melaka, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and Sarawak. She said local art works worth RM14 million were sold during the festival in July, August and September last year. -- BERNAMA