The best of young Zimbabweans’ writing, painting and sculpture is on show at the National Gallery until the end of the week.Report by our staff
The first-floor exhibition represents first and second place certificate winners selected from
2 374 poems and essays and 2 402 works of art from competitions run by the National Institute of Allied Arts.
Beverley Abrahams, director of the literary festival, and her team of markers, judged entries from 43 junior and 24 senior schools. She said that the standard was extremely high this year and she was pleased to see work coming in from schools that had not entered in the past.
Hellenic Academy entered the largest number of paintings and 18 senior and 50 junior schools sent in their work. The Visual Arts’ festival is curated by Laurin Cawood, a teacher at St Christopher’s, a special-needs school that forms part of the Hellenic campus.
Raphael Chikukwa, deputy director at the gallery, said the exhibition had attracted a lot of interest, with teachers and schoolchildren coming to view the pieces.
“It is a good exhibition this year, with the categories clearly indicated and it is easy to see what the work is called, who did it and which school they attend,” he said.
The contests are part of the four annual festivals organised by the National Institute of Allied Arts, which is coming up to its centenary year.
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Every March, it hosts Vocal and Instrumental festival, sponsored by Mashonaland Holdings, while Deloitte sponsors the Speech and Drama festival each June. Innscor Africa sponsored this year’s Visual Arts festival for the first time.
Additional support comes from CBZ Bank, the American Embassy and the British Council.
