Zimpapers Logo

Saki Mafundikwa

Knowledge Mushohwe
Today, every form of education is in danger of becoming obsolete if its principals ignore the three important factors — the effect of technological changes on teaching practice, the needs of the society it serves and the continuously changing demands of the industry it feeds into.

Education, being a dress rehearsal for professional life, can never survive in a vacuum.

For it to retain its relevance, education has to embrace the changing environment, and if it is to maintain a strong bond with industry, it has to be tailor-made to suit the needs of the work environment.

Art education in Zimbabwe is still in its infancy and is still struggling to relate to all factors around it.

For precisely this reason, Chinhoyi University of Technology, one of a few tertiary institutions offering art qualifications in Zimbabwe, recently invited educationists, academics, industry captains and student representatives to a stakeholders’ consultation workshop to review their art academic programmes.

The workshop gave the university the opportunity to announce, subject to school senate and ministry approval, a complete line-up of their art degrees – Bachelor in Science Honours in Graphic and Multimedia Design, Bachelor in Science Honours in Fashion Marketing and Retailing, Bachelor in Science Honours in Creative Art and Design, Bachelor in Science Honours in Fine Art and Bachelor in Science Honours in Clothing Fashion Design.

The expansion of the School of Art according to the University, is in part a response to gaps that exist in our society.

Dr Bere, the Dean in the school of art and design asked pertinent questions while reading his speech.

”Zimbabwe has a rich fine art tradition; its stone sculpture tradition ranks among the best in the world. Yet, there is a dearth of scholarship in fine art in the country. We grow (or at least used to) a lot of cotton in Zimbabwe, yet our clothing industry has all but collapsed. Why is it that in a country with a great stone sculpture tradition valorised worldwide there is no university level scholarship and research in fine art? Why is it that in a country with vast supply of cotton there is not much left of the textile industry”, Bere asked.

Art education has to make sense to society, its main purpose is to positively impact on the people around it.

The observation by Dr Bere that there are holes in the Zimbabwean art story shows that, through research, art can be tailor-made to fill the gaps all around us.

The Bachelor in Science Honours in Graphic and Multimedia Art in particular, appears to be a response to technological changes as it strives to ‘produce highly skilled and dynamic personnel that will meet the increasing demand for graphic and multimedia designers in applied arts, design and multimedia industries”.

For about fifteen years, Saki Mafundikwa’s Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (ZIVA) has been the only tertiary institute pioneering education in the form of digital art technology.

This is an embarrassing statistic, given that other African countries, notably Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, have already developed several projects inspired by digital animation.

The latest Chinhoyi project has the potential to more than double the number of exponents in this exciting new area.

Animation has proven to be popular in Zimbabwe as evidenced by the popularity of American animation movies such as Madagascar, Shrek, Monsters Inc., Shark Tale, A Bugz Life, Antz, Ice Age and Cars.

Animated series such as Family Guy and American Dad have also been critically acclaimed by the Zimbabwean public.

South Park, an award-winning adult American animation series may become an inspiration to Zimbabwe’s new animators.

The creators of the show, Matt Stone and Trey Parker started working at the project while still university students, yet South Park has grown to become one of Comedy Central’s highest rated shows, and is slated to air through to 2016. The audience for digital animation exists in Zimbabwe, and the technology to produce it is widely available on the Internet.

The Bachelor in Science Honours in Graphic and Multimedia Art may fill the content vacuum in the country, especially with the developments in the broadcasting media that are set to open up new channels of communication for both audio and video presentations.

Part of the participants to Chinhoyi University of Technology’s Shareholders’ Consultation Workshop came from the textiles and clothing industry, notably Edgars, Truworths and Topics.

The participants applauded the introduction of the Bachelor in Science Honours in Fashion Marketing and Retailing, viewing it as the ideal platform for both fresh students and industrialists to learn about latest trends, techniques and theories associated with fashion design.

There is need to counter the negative impacts of the Zimbabwean market flooding of cheap imports while the country searches for its true fashion identity.

It is also important, the participants stressed, that as part of the requirements for students enrolling for the first time, a portfolio is submitted for consideration.

That way, only individuals with creative abilities and a passion for art may get the chance to build on what they already possess.
Art education in Zimbabwe is set for a makeover that will use New Media technology to enrich both industry and the community.