Holiday Art Camp begins at Gallery
TODAY the National Gallery of Zimbabwe will start the second term Holiday Art Camp, supported by La Rue. The Camp will focus on harnessing the New Education Curriculum and offer the relevant material for applicable transfer from the hobbyist to the scholastic sphere. The Camp will serve to create a space in which young people can gain knowledge of visual art and develop their creative abilities. An allowance to learners to express themselves in numerous media and techniques boosts self-confidence to them in as much as it empowers them to attain an interest to occupy them, and potentially take up art as a career.
The programme will tie in running exhibitions such as Unpacking the Vision; From Rembrandt to Mubayi and Mahatma and Me, an exhibition by Indian artist Vibhor Sogani. The educational facet set by the Gallery space encourages learner’s observational skills and reappropriation senses. Participants are given a platform to explore their creative capacities whilst receiving cognitive development through the application of the intellectual information gained through these gallery tours onto their working surfaces.
Instruction in Drawing, Painting and sculpture is at the core of the five day programme and elements of digital media are instructed as well. Participants are instructed by practicing art and design practitioners in different noteworthy categories through the Atelier method. This method establishes a working environment which has learners operate under the watchful eye of the instructors; the result being a stylistic variation in all the work produced. The participants enjoy creative freedom and learn artistic work ethic in an open environment that is friendly and encouraging to experimentation. The learners will be at an advantage to find inspiration around them embodied in the works of past and present masters.
The content of the Camp is largely appealing to the learners and has over the last two years, evolved to meet the interest of the participants. Activities include the creation of expressionist works in oil, acrylic or pencil crayon, color mixing, creation of three- dimensional works with paper or clay and illustration. Participants will make pictures using aluminum foil of their favorite themes. Divided into age segmented classes; Pre-School and Primary School groups have a schedule that commences at 9:00 hours up until 13:00 hours. Refreshments are served at 10:00AM. Participants aged from 13 to 18 years also start at 9:00 hours, however finishing their programme at 1500 hours.
The Holiday Art Camp is designed to adopt a formal approach with regards to the instruction of participants as it takes into account the needs of the student’s full-time commitments to mainstream academic pursuits in the School Curriculum whilst offering a practical bypass to help relieve the pressures of learning. The camp not only serves as a retreat in scholastic terms, but it also allows children to learn a discipline through fun experiences which make their grasp on the discipline in a memorable way.
As every other edition of the Holiday Art Camp, the five day experience culminates in an exhibition of the learner’s artworks. These artworks, as through the process of their creation are then exhibited to professional standard. As earlier mentioned, the finish and presentation of the artworks is a matter that participants are instructed to consider in the exhibition of their works. A graduation ceremony takes place on the last day of the camp, wherein the participants receive Certificates and prizes for the best works.
La Rue, a local art Supplies retailer, has supported the Holiday Art Camp from its inception. “Our association with the National Gallery of Zimbabwe has contributed immensely to our expansion” said Kudzai Nemapare, the La Rue Manager. “Our clientele base has increased through the National Gallery of Zimbabwe’s countrywide programme reach. This has added in growing our network base and providing the best products for existing and newer clients.” La Rue provides art materials towards the realization of the Holiday Art Camp.
The Holiday Art Camp will kick off today and end on Friday at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare. Registration is ongoing.