Eyene to facilitate ‘master classes’ in visual art

Standard People
BY TINASHE SIBANDA The British Council in partnership with the National Gallery of Zimbabwe will host a series of master classes from Tuesday to August 2 in Harare and Bulawayo.

The classes will be facilitated by Christine Eyene, a London-based art critic and curator of the African selection of the third edition of Biennial of World Images to be held in France in September.

“The programme will kick-start in Bulawayo on July 26 with the Bulawayo Conversations which will be co-presented by Eyene and Mthabisi Phili, a visual artist from Bulawayo, and will take place at the Bulawayo Gallery as from 10am to 12pm,” said British Council programmes officer Melody Sango.

Sango said the Harare Conversations, which will be co-presented by Eyene and Calvin Dondo, a renowned visual artist, will take place at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare on Friday from 10am to 12pm.

She said both of the presentations will be under the theme Reclaiming the Gaze: Art Criticism and Africa.

“Eyene will also be conducting workshops for photojournalists and artists who use photography as a medium and will be assisting them through reviews of their portfolios under the theme of Gwanza 2011, Pimp My Combi,” said Sango.

She said Eyene would also conduct a separate workshop for arts journalists which would seek to share and exchange knowledge on the art of critiquing.She said globally, governments and creative sectors increasingly recognise the importance of the ‘creative economy’ as a generator of jobs, wealth and cultural engagement.

“In our complex, interdependent world, strategies are needed to unleash the creative potential of all to respond to the cultural, economic, social and technological shifts we are living through.”

She said the Creative Enterprise master class series aimed to promote the sharing of professional skills and knowledge in the creative economy sector, particularly seeking to engage the local and international, and bridging the knowledge gap by acting as an interface between creativity, culture, economics and technology.