Over 100 artists from the Chitungwiza Arts Centre contributed sculptures examining Cecil Rhodes’s legacy in Zimbabwe. From these, four Zimbabwean artists’ works were selected for an upcoming Oriel College exhibition. The selected pieces emerged from 110 submissions to an Oxford Zimbabwe Arts Partnership (OZAP) competition.” “On March 7th, judges selected Wallace Mkankha’s (34) “Blindfold Justice”…
By Elvis Dumba The European Union continues to support the Zimbabwean arts and culture sector with the EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Jobst Von Kirchman launching a sculpturing competition as part of the ongoing Culture Month celebrations. The Competition is part of World Day of Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development celebrated globally on May 21…
ONCE upon a time, there was the usual prelude used by folk storytellers to gain maximum attention from their audience, mainly children. For Shona-speaking storytellers they would expect the attentive audience to immediately respond by saying: “Dzepfunde (we are listening)”, which would encourage the storyteller to proceed. Among the many old Shona tales that children…
BY TENDAI SAUTA CHITUNGWIZA Arts Centre vice-chairperson Winston Nyekete last week said meaningful partnerships and linkages in the creative sector were important to ensure the realisation of artists’ rights envisaged in the country’s Constitution. Speaking at the centre where artists from various disciplines and members of the community, vendors and counsellors discussed the Constitution, Nyekete…
by Gretinah Machingura, Zhang Yuliang HARARE, — Despite obtaining a motor mechanics diploma at a private college in Harare, Tendekai Tigere Tandi finds himself surviving on stone sculpting, something that he started as a hobby while in his pre-school age. Tandi is one of Zimbabwe’s self-taught, third-generation stone sculptors at Chitungwiza Arts Center, and he…
BY TAFADZWA KACHIKO YOUTH, Arts, Sport and Recreation deputy minister Yeukai Simbanegavi has admitted that the Arts Development Fund was moribund and needed to be revamped to extend a lifeline to artists from different disciplines to bankroll their projects. Artists, who included award-winning filmmaker Melgin Tafirenyika, actor Albert Charichafa Brown, former PPC Imaginarium award winner…
We managed to get the behind the scenes processes related to making Shona Sculpture from Felix Mlungisi a contemporary scupltor based at Chitungwiza Arts Centre. Check out the video to get the backstage story of the beautiful sculptures you love.
Working from his base at Chitungwiza Arts Centre, Isaac Choloka is a towering figure just like the massive sculptures he loves to carve. Choloka started off as a cartoonist. One of his big sculptures had been selected to be put up at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa but in an unfortunate twist of events the…
Simon Samhere is your typical Shona Sculpture who is true to the culture. He believes it’s his duty to remind Zimbabweans of their culture and traditions as most people have lost respect for their culture and have been swallowed up by Western culture. Simon was initiated into sculpture by his brother Caleb Samhere and the…
Personal Zenda is a stone sculptor based at Chitungwiza Arts Centre. He joined the Arts Centre in 2013 working as an assistant to Tamuka Njanji washing and polishing his sculptures. Now a sculptor himself, Percy as he is popularly known makes sculptures in the form of human and many other figurative creations. Percy believes that…
