Blending Zimbabwean Art and Culture
Art is one aspect of life that has been unanimously embraced in all its shapes and forms , one painting, one sculpture can tell a story of a hundred years ago. The beauty of art is there is no one true meaning, as there are so many points to view it Let’s appreciate and love any form of art around us. Check out these places;
NATIONAL ART GALLERY
The Zimbabwe National Gallery is a gallery in Harare devoted to the exhibition and restoration of the modern art and visual heritage of Zimbabwe. Frank McEwen, a British citizen credited with bringing Shona Sculpture to the spotlight, designed and directed the original National Gallery of Rhodesia. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother formally opened the Gallery on 16 July 1957 and the late Queen Elizabeth II attended the sixth Zimbabwe Heritage Exhibition there in October 1991. From a personal point of view, every time I visit the gallery I bump into so many thought-provoking pieces, from poetry, paintings to sculptures. The experience is always worthwhile.
CHAPUNGU SCULPTURE PARK
In Masasa, Harare, Zimbabwe, Chapungu Sculpture Park is a sculpture park showcasing the work of Zimbabwean stone sculptors. It was created by Roy Guthrie in 1970, who played a key role in promoting the work of his sculptors worldwide. One way to do this was to display the sculptures in a traveling show called "Chapungu: Tradition and Legend-A Civilization in Stone" in the Botanical Gardens. Chapungu has one of the largest Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture collection in the world! If you visit, it would be nice to leave with a souvenir from their boutiques there. Again, to my food lovers, the Cocoa Tree provides a welcome stop for coffee, tasty chocolates, and cakes, and The Shop Café uses fresh produce to create a healthy, creative and tasty vegetarian buffet lunch. This a must-visit place.
MATOBO NATIONAL PARK
If you are more into natural sculptures then you better be on your way to Matobo hills. Matopo/Matobo is a corruption of a Venda word, "matombo" which means stones in Tshivenda. The heart of the Matobo or Matopos Hills, a region of granite kopjes and wooded valleys beginning some 35 kilometers south of Bulawayo, southern Zimbabwe, forms the Matobo National Park. Over 2 billion years ago, the hills were formed with granite forced to the surface, which eroded to produce smooth "whaleback dwalas" and broken kopjes, strewn with boulders and interspersed with thickets of vegetation. Geography students would enjoy this tour. The grave of Cecil Rhodes, founder of former British colony Rhodesia, is carved into the summit of Malindidzimu. Now there is both art and culture in one place.
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