Zimpapers Logo

The Monkey Nuts

Last Friday saw the second in a series dubbed “First Fridays” being run by the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and aiming to offer an opportunity for members of the public to engage with the gallery after hours. First Fridays seek to present alternative music into the Gallery atmosphere and create a space for art lovers and music lovers to experience an evening of diverse genres of music in the museum space.

Launched last month, each of the series takes place every first Friday of the month and has a theme, which has to do with space and time. The National Gallery anticipates that by having different themes to the event it will attract new and different audiences.

The National Gallery suggests that having a theme also creates mysteries and that this works to heighten curiosity. The first of the First Friday series, which was in November, featured Hip Hop outfit, The Monkey Nuts. The National Gallery has declared it a success.

In bringing The Monkey Nuts to the National Gallery, the belief is that this will help connect younger audiences with the Gallery, demystifying the notion of the gallery as being somewhat elitist.

Explains, Curator for Education at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Tandazani Dhlakama: “We have partnered with The Monkey Nuts for the next few First Fridays but each one will be different, (Panorama Magazine).

“We have engaged The Monkey Nuts as curators of music. Just like an art curator curates an exhibition by bringing different artists under one theme, The Monkey Nuts bring in different musical and visual elements together.”

The Monkey Nuts produce an arresting mix of Rock, Hip Hop and Afro-Electro Music; the blend ultimately attracts the attention of listeners across sub-cultures; the rhythm of Rap interlinks with guitar strums to which head bangers can rock to.

Synth wave elements trigger an eerie soulfulness to the sound that reminds one of mid-tempo acts such as Little Dragon with vocal deliverance that leans towards a more positively charged flow close to De La Soul.

The National Gallery says the first of these series “was very successful”. An environment with music, beverages and visual art to hang out in is what is attractive to the Millennials.

However, the event is not just limited to the Millennials; people of all ages are free to attend and enjoy themselves. The overall enterprise for The Monkey Nuts’ listener is charged story-telling carried by the current of a powerful beat.

“The first one was very successful,” explains Dhlakama, “because it had a variety of people including local fashion designers, artists, and people from the diplomatic community and expatriates who came to enjoy the show.

“This is meant to offer people an opportunity to engage with the gallery after hours as we are open until 9pm such that if you work for a bank or you are an accountant and you do not usually have the time to come to the gallery you can come on a First Friday after work and you can hangout afterwards.

“The fact that people came and toured the gallery shows that the First Fridays was a success and, also the fact that people who do not usually come to the gallery actually came, means that this was a success. First Fridays is a meeting point of visual and performing Arts.”

The First Fridays initiative seeks to present alternative music into the Gallery atmosphere and create a space for art lovers and music lovers to experience an evening of diverse genres of music in the museum space.

First Fridays is going to run for a very long time and for this coming one, the National Gallery is excited because of new contemporary art exhibitions while a pop up art sale will take place on the evening, consisting of affordable artworks from a wide variety of visual artists.

The event offers individuals access to new running exhibitions in the Gallery thus creating a multifaceted ambience for culture lovers.

Dhlakama says the National Gallery supports gender equality and women empowerment. To this end the National Gallery has an amazing women’s exhibition in March 2017.

“We have partnered with the 16-Days-of-Activisim before; we have also partnered with 1 Billion Voices, which is against domestic violence. The Monkey Nuts will likely collaborate with female artists in the near future as we continue having the First Fridays. The last one we had there was a female poet who opened the evening,” explains Dhlakama.