Talent Village: A unique social space
Zimbabwe Talent Village has partnered Roots Café and Culture to create a conducive environment for those in the art industry to mix and mingle with business people so that they broaden their horizons.
VISUAL artists, sculptors, musicians are some of the artists who are to benefit from this platform. Situated in the high density suburb of Mabvuku, the place also offers a venue for weddings, conferences, workshops and trainings. In an interview, one of the directors of Roots Café and Culture, Munyaradzi Chidodo said they have decided to come up with such an initiative to offer a luxurious place for artists so that they get a place where they can meet, exchange notes, exhibit their works in a friendly environment that offers everything.
“Our aim is to create an environment that is conducive for artists to relax at the same time they are doing business, marketing their works. When we talk about artists we mean everyone who is in the industry ranging from musicians to visual artists,
“We want them to grow and market their projects abroad. We also have a platform for exhibition that is made up of various artists, entrepreneurs and inventors of new products and services. Combined, they evolve into Roots Café and Culture, an exhilarating experience of business integrated with leisure making a blissful ambience,” he said.
He said the place also provides different cuisine, from traditional dishes to modern ones.
“As I have said that we want to create an environment that artists will relax and do business, we also have different food from traditional dishes to modern ones, it is a relaxed environment and one need his or her stomach to be full in order to fully relax,” he said.
Chidodo added that Roots Culture and Cafe is a project that aims at providing a network base for young, developing and significant entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe.
“The market acts as a dynamic hub of products inspired by very different backgrounds and motives of entrepreneurship. Arts is business and those in the industry are entrepreneurs so we want to harness new products as an exhibition at a point of sale while advertising and broadcasting them and the proprietors to the public. Distribution is one of the toughest stages in business and the market is aimed at easing just that.
“The market is not a usual site of business. Proposed to be hosted in partnership with the Talent Development Village, business at the Roots Café & Culture is within an environment of recreation. It depicts a stage for customers and entrepreneurs to interact with each other on a more social platform about the product and potential business prospects.
“Business is conducted whilst in a relaxing environment amongst like people, or different people all together, realising the distinction of the societies they live in. Roots Café and Culture can be regarded as a series of excursions - a hybrid of domestic and business tourism, only without the hefty fees often demanded in the industry,” he said
According to the chairman of the village Newman Chiyadzwa the village also seeks to identify, nurture and develop different talents in the country.
“By coming up with this village we are trying to develop different talents in Zimbabwe, be it music, stone work, painting among other art disciplines that promote our culture,” he said.
The centre has sites where there are facilities for those interested in theatre production, dancing and instrument making as well as a place for painting.
Chiyadzwa said the arts village will not only be a centre for people in Mabvuku but for people across the country.
“We are not limited to Mabvuku but we want people from all over the country to come and have their talents nurtured here,” he said.
For him, resources available at the village are enough to accommodate many artists.
“We are trying to have facilities that can even accommodate some foreigners for cultural exchange programmes. We want this village to be one of the biggest thing our arts industry should come up with,” he said.