By Iminza Keboge
Published January 24, 2019
A portal that highlights and promotes cultural and creative activities in the Zimbabwean capital, is about to go live.
The website, known as Creative Harare, is expected to “showcase creativity in the city of Harare, inspire and amplify conversations around arts, culture and creativity as well as market Harare as a preferred destination for cultural tourism,” ARTerial Network Zimbabwe, an all-Africa civil society whose initiative the portal is, says.
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The portal that lists cultural and creative activities and spaces and whose address is creativeharare.co.zw/, ARTerial Network Zimbabwe says, is to “showcases the vibrancy and creativity in the city of Harare.”
Other African cities that, like Zimbabwe’s Harare, are running this Arterial Network’s creative cities project mooted in 2017 are Congo-Brazzaville’s Pointe-Noire, Seychelles’s Victoria and Mauritania’s Nouakchott.
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“Through this programme, Arterial Network is committed to facilitating cooperation and partnerships between local authorities and cultural actors in a way that contributes to the development and implementation of artistic and cultural policies, strategies and programmes in African cities,” the pan African civil society says. “When the value of arts and culture is recognised in its own right, cities and their citizens benefit directly from social welfare.”
Meanwhile, Santiago Ribeiro, a Portuguese artist and promoter of International Surrealism Now that is touted as being the largest 21st century surrealist art exhibition in the world, is scheduled to exhibit his work for the first time in the British capital, London, February 22 – 24, 2019.
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Ribeiro’s work shall be exhibited at Chelsea Town Hall by Parallax Art Fair (PAF) that encourages exhibitors and designers to think not just about their art but about their business role as well.
As we were filing this arts roundup news came in that Oliver Mtukudzi, a Zimbabwean musician with following around Africa and the world had died while undergoing treatment in Harare on January 23, 2019.
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Oliver Mtukudzi, 66, died at Avenues Clinic in Harare, according to Gallo Records of South Africa who handled the late musician’s publicity.
Born in Highfield, Mtukudzi performed a fusion of afro-pop, South African Mbaqanga, Zimbabwean Jiti and Marimba over a 43-year period during which time he recorded 66 well loved albums.
