We’re looking forward to our Summer exhibitions and are collecting furiously from all over the country. We had a great trip out to Tengenenge, the world-famous Sculpture Community based in the middle of nowhere!
Tengenenge (watch this documentary) is now owned by world-renowned Zimbabwean Sculptor Dominic Benhura. It was great to see all the artists after about 3 years that I personally hadn’t been out there (I had a baby!). Even though many of the artists are working for the Chinese who are mining out there, they still managed to prepare us some work. And we’re happy to still support them after 10 years. We also drove right out to Guruve, Mudindo and Raffingora to visit artists there too, a very remote area in the North West of Harare. There are about 50+ artists working in small villages dotted around the most amazing landscape. It was lovely to see everyone again and we took our child along so we could prove why I hadn’t been for a while đŸ˜‰
On a different note and a sad one, the great First Generation artist Fanizani Akuda died a couple of weeks ago, I felt privileged to be in Harare so I could attend his funeral and was happy to contribute in a small way. It was good to see so many people at his funeral, a respected figure in the Zimbabwean stone sculpture movement. Rest In Peace Fanizani.
We’ve just donated over US$1,500 to the charity we support here in Harare, Inter-Country People’s Aid. They’re doing great work here on the ground. It’s really good to work with local NGO’s, they know what they’re doing and they’re not faced with major Political problems, as I’ve heard some people are when they’re trying to set up projects here.