Help Gift get to California Institute of the Arts

My name is Gift Kgosierileng and I was born in Paballelo, a small rural town in Upington,

north of South Africa. I am a visual artist and my main medium of practice is clothing and

costume design. My ultimate goal is to showcase the importance and beauty of African values

and heritage to the world through clothing and costume design. I am hugely inspired by both

African and South African artists who have worked so hard to present the beauty of this

continent to the rest of the world.

However, I believe that there is still a lot to achieve and some cultures and population groups

as Khoi and San people are underrepresented. This is the exact reason I have made it my

mission to represent these cultures, which happen to form part of my own intricate and diverse

heritage. I have been recently accepted by the Carlifonia Institute of Arts to advance my studies in costume and scene design I am the first Khoi San man to have been accepted. As this institution of higher education is held at such high regard and has a

global influence, I believe this is a great start to achieve my ultimate goal as mentioned above.

I hereby wish to appeal to your organisation or individual to assist me with funding in order to realise this

goal. California Institute of Arts has awarded me with a renewable merit scholarship of $20000

which will cover most of my tuition. I am currently in need of $60000 . These funds will

contribute to my accommodation, transportation, cost of living, book and equipment’s, medical

and the outstanding balance of my tuition fees.

This investment will not just serve the dream of one African individual but it also carries great

ripple opportunities for any future projects I will embark on in my continent. Art has played a

great role in creating occupancy In a country that has a great rate of unemployed youth. I am

determined to play a significant role towards the creation and maintenance of employment

opportunities in my country, which will go a long way toward our economic growth.

I wish to eventually build a school/creative hub that would be run as a non profit organisation to develop arts in SA and contribute to job creation.

I also sell The Kgosi poncho which can be viewed on my instagram page @nomodernslave @thekgosikimono. Purchasing this will also help.