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Art students work on a mural at the Hivos country office in Harare

At the Gallery
Ever since the Hivos Culture Frame came to a close in Zimbabwe after a period spanning a decade last year, more than $700 000 had been disbursed to art institutions specialising in multiple disciplines, groups and cultural organisations.

Although the Culture Frame has been consummated in Zimbabwe and a shifted northward to operate in Malawi, Hivos continues its operations in Zimbabwe while its humanist mission with focus on development in communities being the key component of its activities.

The support of the National Gallery School of Visual Art and Design manifested as early as the initiation of the Culture Frame and for almost a decade, the beneficiation of Zimbabwe’s art sector commenced with a generation of artists who have reached greater heights due to Hivos’ long serving endowment.

Post-culture frame, the relationship is still effectual, as recently a team of students from the National Gallery School worked on a mural at the Hivos country office in Harare.

The mural delineates Hivos’ key concerns in Zimbabwe, namely sustainability, energy, sexual rights, technology and unity.

From its initial drafting phase by artists instructing at the school, the mural included these various essentials in order to best reflect the commissioning organisation’s mission in an expressive light, albeit provide a graphic detail that is appealing to the audience or visitors to the office.

The mural can be divided into five panels which illustrate the functions of the organisation from the presentation of the sun shining throughout the mural, firstly powering a solar panel mounted on a hut; the foreground consisting of a rural community engaging in agrarian activities, behind them a transition to a more urban setting stands a woman holding an emphatic loudspeaker that encapsulates the freedom of expression component.

In the centre of the composition, seven figures with hands held provide the unity component and to the right of the group; three young girls watch the entire scene as a representation of their rights to education, reproductive health and equity are encapsulated by all the elements in the composition.

Noteworthy is the tree in the background which somewhat carries versed virtues; growth, enlightenment and potential are embodied grossly by the tree’s metaphoric nature.

Tambudzai Madzimure, the project manager for Open Society at Hivos stressed that the commissioning process for the mural sought to create opportunity for the students and was driven by the already standing relationship with the National Gallery School of Visual Art and Design.

“The mural provided a chance to break the white walls and take the gallery to the people,” she said.

“The history which Hivos has with the school made it the perfect candidate to carry out this project and as with projects such as this, we try to create opportunity where budget permits us.”

With regards to the murals location within the Hivos office yard, Madzimure pointed out that the general aim was geared to bring expression into the space, beyond that, the organisation advocates for social facets such as freedom of expression and thus wanted to play a part in promoting that aspect through cultural activities.

The mural was a perfect vehicle to establish that organisational tenet and there is hope from Hivos, that there is engagement between artists and society as a whole.

“We hope that more companies and organisations embrace placing art beyond the four walls and have seen many murals materialise around the city” Madzimure added.

“With the plethora of artists there is potential for more murals as a great number of public spaces and durawalls are vacant and lack aesthetics”.

The Hivos mural was completed last week.