eBusiness Weekly
Leroy Dzenga
The quickest way to understand any society is through consumption of its artistic content. Zimbabwe is no exception as the country`s rich culture is prefaced in work of creativity and craft.
Among institutions which have been providing a platform for Zimbabwe to be seen through imagined aesthetics, the National Art Gallery in Harare stands tall.
Sadly, art thrives when people have fractions of their income to dispose and the current economic space only allows many to foot their bills with little or no surplus.
This has impacted operations of many artistic organisations with some folding along the way, those who have remained have relied a lot on corporate backing which has grown to be vital.
Executive director at the National Art Gallery Doreen Sibanda outlined the need for arts entities to foster good relationships with the corporate sector.
“As a parastatal we get our salaries paid entirely by government and we used to get operational funding to be able to run on a day to day basis.
Sadly the operational funding is no longer coming as it used to and to stay afloat we have had to look for partners both local and international that are interested in the arts that are prepared to fund projects in return for collaboration, visibility and it`s been working for us,” said Sibanda.
Visible were the collaboration when the National Art Gallery celebrated six decades in existence last year.
“Last year when we had our 60th anniversary, we invited corporates to walk with us and Metbank were corporates who heeded our call. We were having a huge international conference and we really needed to spruce up and they supported us for repainting of the entire gallery,” Sibanda said.
The intervention meant that their space was in speck when it hosted the event of high repute.
“It meant that when the international visitors came for the conference we looked very good everywhere was clean, the gallery space, the behind the scenes,” she said.
The relationship between art and corporates is not only at a benevolence level where corporates simply pump money into projects in a linear manner.
Under Sibanda`s guidance, the gallery has been reaching out to business trying to increase its appreciation of the creative world and the benefits it can derive from working closely with artists.
“One of the projects that we have with corporates is to enable them to enhance their space through artworks. We also look at corporates as people who have means and influence, we try to help them reflect their ideas or their identity through art,” she said.
Office spaces should show that people are proud of their heritage, we have been working very closely with institutions like Metbank to enable their environment in terms of to show who they are international outreach and sophistication.
“Ventures of that nature helps increase appreciation of what arts can do for corporates and we should be seeing more of those.”
Sibanda added; “We always say to the corporates, people with means and influence saying their spaces should reflect their thinking how they are proud of being African and Zimbabwean.”
Art conversations should continuously be held to raise awareness.
Sibanda is of the opinion that appreciation of art is acquired it is not a natural feeling and says interest in different creative disciplines is growing.
With increased corporate uptake and support from individuals Zimbabwe can become a robust artistic country as it was just after independence.
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