NGZ celebrates women excellence in arts

By The Standard and Newsday | Mar. 10, 2022 | 2 Min read

International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8 in honour of the cultural, political and socioeconomic achievements of women.

BY CHIEDZA MAZHANGARA

AS part of commemorations of the International Women’s Day, National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) celebrated its female students through a #BreakTheBias mural painting activity on Tuesday in Harare.

International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8 in honour of the cultural, political and socioeconomic achievements of women.

This year, it was commemorated under the theme Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow.

The #BreakTheBias mural painting activity saw eight female students showcasing their skills in painting as they painted the NGZ walls on Park Lane Street (in Harare) with the assistance of officials from CaliGraph.

The paintings caught the attention of passersby. Some women, who expressed interest, were invited to join the session.

Colours such as red, orange were used mainly as these were considered to be women’s favourites. The end product of the wall painting was to design a portrait of well-known women such as Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation minister Kirsty Coventry, the queen of mbira Stella Chiweshe as well as the Great Zimbabwe chevron pattern.

Coventry, who was also involved in the wall painting, posed for a group photo with the students and their instructors.

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“The whole painting looks beautiful,” she said.

Speaking at the event, NGZ education officer Nesta Muzukira said the painting activity was inspired by women who made progress in the arts industry.

“The idea came from those women who have accomplished a lot in terms of development in different areas in Zimbabwe be it entertainment, sports or visual art. The idea is to celebrate women and not see them as people who are meant to carry out family duties only,” she said.

“Women should be seen as people who are also able to accomplish something, thus the idea behind the mural and that is why we have different ages and races”.

She added: “The mural also has some symbols which symbolises Zimbabwe, for example the chevron pattern. We also used female colours such as pink and the idea was to generally celebrate women and a majority of the artists were female students and some of these are up-and-coming artists as well who associate with the National Gallery of Zimbabwe”.

Officials from Gender Media Connect took time to celebrate the day with the artists as they gave a hand in the painting.

Speaking on behalf of Gender Media Connect, Nyaradzo Makombe said the mural was dedicated to women who had made significant achievement in society and as well as leadership.