‘First Fridays’ bounce back

THE National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) in Harare will this evening host “First Fridays”, an event held at the gallery every first Friday of each month. It runs through different themes that vary from one month to the other such as comedy, film, music, poetry and storytelling.

First Fridays is an audience-building strategy created by the NGZ as a way of attracting the general public into their space through engagements targeted at particular age groups and specific audiences who do not ordinarily visit or get involved with programmes done at the gallery.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the monthly event had been postponed. And only opened to the public from July this year.

In keeping with today’s event theme “Sketch & Sip with Soul”, art lovers will, for a fee, stand a chance to explore the basics of art in a leisurely environment by way of painting and drawing while sipping on their favourite wine.

“We know people love art, but they should know how to appreciate it and understand how it goes as far as basics,” said Livingstone Muchefa, curator of education and public programming at the NGZ.

Also lined up is a guided tour of the gallery facility which, according to the organisers, is a way of getting people to appreciate art displays that are currently running such as an exhibition by three women artists.

Other open exhibitions include the

and ere will be a musical performance by Nokutenda Nyamakawo as well as open mic sessions.

e previous First Fridays event was a free entry hosted at the beginning of October and themed “Know Your Gallery” it involved free guided tours and open mic sessions.

“It has been a great experience learning about our target audiences and their expectations which have informed us in our events planning giving us more opportunities to share with patrons what the gallery does,” Dorcas Makotore told