Exploring future of art-spaces
GLOBAL events over the past two months have led to questions about the future of museums in Africa.
The coronavirus Infectious Disease-19 (Covid) is not unique to the African continent. It has affected all countries worldwide.
What, however, informs the question in the first paragraph is the realisation of the challenges that many African countries will face as they focus their efforts, energies and resources on fighting Covid-19.
For art spaces such as the National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ), the aftershocks of the COVID -19 pandemic will last for long and museums — big or small —will suffer from these effects.
The NGZ comprises branches in Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare.
“Today the needs of African governments are endless because of the pandemic and their expectations are like an oversize shoe. The major questions is, what is the future of African Museums,” reflects NGZ’s acting director, Raphael Chikukwa.
“How can governments support museums, galleries and other cultural sectors in times of Covid–19 and after?”
The answer, he believes, is that arts and culture remain an effective mechanism for providing support towards social cohesion and community engagement.
“Now is the time to prepare lasting changes in the museum sectors in Africa and this is a period of rethinking inventions. It’s a whole new chapter to understand new digital audiences, and it’s going to be a new reality but a muchneeded reality for a 21st century gallery.”
The closure of the NGZ ahead of the nationwide lockdown meant the livelihoods of artists, who are dependent on the gallery for marketing their work, were disrupted. Similarly affected were the café and the bookshop/gift shop that are within the gallery complex.
The lock down remains a hard pill to swallow for the café. It had events that same week of the closure, in the wake of the Government’s declaration.
While an assessment of the NGZ’s 2020 exhibition programme is still work in progress, the gallery is also working on a database of artists whose livelihoods were disrupted by the lockdown. The reason to establish whether there can be relief for them through the parent ministry — the Ministry of Youths, Sport, Arts and Recreation.
“For us as a public institution, the lockdown has been a lesson. We need to boost our social media activities using Facebook, virtual gallery exhibitions and other platforms. This is a reality check for us to think about virtual tours and online exhibitions, live content, seeking feedback, podcasts and engagement from the online audiences,” explains Chikukwa.
“Now is the time to “rethink, redesign, re-arrange, re-strategise, refocus and recreate in more radical ways looking into the future of our galleries through the country in these trying times of the pandemic that has turned the whole world upside down”.
This assessment and review extends to the NGZ spaces in Bulawayo and Mutare.
But when life returns to normal, the first exhibition the NGZ will host is by contemporary Cuban artist, David Palacios, entitled Point of View.
And when the return to normal finally arrives, an exhibition marking 40 years of self-rule will headline the calendar of exhibitions at the National Gallery in Bulawayo.
The exhibition will move to Harare and Mutare, respectively, after Bulawayo.
The exhibition is part of the NGZ’s commemoration of Zimbabwe’s Independence.