Empowering children through art
OVER the past couple of years, the perception that art does not bring food to the table has slowly been fading away, as more and more parents realise that just like any other profession, art is a good career path for their children.
However, for this shift in mindset to occur, there are vehicles that propagate change.
Besides the schools, there are organisations that play a key role in making society believe in art and these include the likes of Chipawo, Edzai Isu Trust and Allied Arts, among others.
One such platform nurturing future artistes is Let Them Trust. Each year for the past five years, the trust hosts a schools festival dubbed “Let Them Trust Schools Arts Festival”. The festival helps the scholars discover the artistes in them and hone their innate artistic skills.
We caught up with the Let Them Trust Schools Arts Festival project coordinator, Robert Gandanzara, who said things are shaping up ahead of this year’s edition.
Themed “No Limits”, the festival is slated for July 7 and 8 in the capital.
“We chose to run with the theme ‘No Limits’ because we believe that there are no limits to a child’s imagination and ambition. Rather, the limits tend to be societal.
“We as a society should engender their self-esteem so they can imagine and create a future of their dreams,” said Gandanzara.
He highlighted that their initiative tallies well with the new schools curriculum.
“The new curriculum emphasises the importance of arts and culture in schools and encourages children to cherish their Zimbabwean identity and value their history, heritage and cultural tradition.
“Let Them Trust has been advocating for these very same goals since our inception. In fact, that’s why the trust was formed in 2010 and has been pushing that same agenda ever since.
“In essence, the new curriculum is a welcome propagation of what the trust has been building over the years. The festival also incorporates traditional dance and music, modern contemporary styles as well as Afrocentric fashion showcasing our Zimbabwe,” highlighted Gandanzara.
The festival features various art genres that include music, theatre, dance, poetry and literature. Gandanzara also revealed that he and his team are pleased with the improvement of quality in presentations from students and the great response from schools to the initiative.
“The performance of the acts has improved significantly over the years. Much of the improvements can be attributed to the close interaction between the students and established artistes, and the workshops between the established artistes and the school children.
“The inaugural festival was held in 2012 at Churchill School and saw 12 schools participating. In 2015, we had 30 schools participating at our third edition and during that year, we incorporated students with special needs from various schools, including St Giles and Vimbainashe Learning Institute.
“The 2016 festival was attended by over 7 000 school children from 70 schools, now including those from Bulawayo provinces.
“This year we expect 35 schools to participate in the two day extravaganza slated for the Harare Showground’s and features schools from provinces such as Masvingo, Bulawayo and Mashonaland West,” he revealed.
Besides the festival, the trust has also developed systems to continuously interact with the students and help them hone their talents.
“Through the years, we have developed our programming to include other arterial elements in the youth’s daily lives.
“We incorporate workshops and discussion platforms in our programming, thus giving participants a voice, lending an ear and providing advice on how they can solve issues that affect them.
“Though we are not getting Ministry approval to enter into schools as a trust, we always attend schools festivals as caring mothers and fathers so that we maintain our direct engagement with the schools and the children,” explained Gandanzara.
Despite challenges, the trust keeps pushing.
“We now have many success stories. Two of our Let Them Schools Arts Festival participants are now in Zimbabwe Fashion Week as upcoming designers, having garnered favourable attention when they showcased their outstanding designs last year.
“Another student is now part of AfriKera Dance Trust. We have taken Chiedza Child Care Centre and Njube High to Chimanimani Arts Festival and funds permitting, we want to take all winners to other respective festivals.”