By Arts Reporter
British Council has partnered with local arts organisations to keep the charcoal burning in the differen art genres through it’s Creatives ZW unlocked project.
The initiative which commenced at the beginning of this year has been disrupted by the 21 day lockdown.
It is run in three phases, and the British Council collaborated with Connected Sahara, Andani Africa and Savannah Trust.
A statement explained how the Creatives ZW Unlocked project works.
“Creatives ZW Unlocked is an ecosystem research project commissioned by British Council, in partnership with Connected Sahara. As part of the research process, Connected Sahara and the ecosystem researchers Savannah Trust and Andani.Africa will drive a multi-sited research process including interviews, surveys and an online crowd sourced map. The research is three phased. The first phase has been the development of the desktop study, completed in early January.
“The desktop study undertook to understand the current nature of Creative Industries in Zimbabwe based on existing data, and from this to identify areas of potential and gaps in knowledge that we might look to fill.
“The desktop research also informed the approach to attempt to build on the baseline research conducted by Culture Fund and Nhimbe Trust in previous years, in order to garner comparative data over time,” the statement reads.
Phase two focuses on researching the different fields in the arts.
The phase is explained as follows, “From the desktop research and in discussion with British Council, it was agreed to focus the research on four fields identified as high growth areas: Music, Visual Arts, Digital Story Telling and Festivals; and on three cities: Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare. The second phase of the research is the interview process in which certain key individuals have been invited to give a more in-depth perspective of the Creative Industries in each city.
“These interviews are being undertaken throughout the month of February in all three cities. The interviews are oriented toward understanding the identified opportunities and gaps in the sector that might significantly impact the Creative Industries if approached strategically. Understanding the work that is currently being done, policy changes and new programmes underway will help clarify this.”
It is the last phase which most artists would be keen on.
“The third phase is an online survey and crowdsourced map, which seeks to gather a large base of data on various arts organisations across the country and map these as cultural assets to better understand Zimbabwe’s creative potential.The research will be shared in various forms at the conclusion of the research period in the middle of 2020. A social media campaign of infographics and visual communications will share the data in ways that are accessible to the sector as a whole. The full research report will also be available to individuals on a request basis. The report will be presented in all three cities as part of a collective conversation on how to take the learnings of the research further as a sector.”
Artists have since been called to participate in the survey by logging on to www.andani.africa to add their information. The biggest reason for this survey is to create a better database for artists. Artists have been challenged to play their part in disseminating information about #creativesZWunlocked on social media.
The British Council has in the past contributed to the Harare International Festival of Arts (HIFA), Shoko Festival and Intwasa Festival partnering such events to keep arts in motion in the country.
This latest intervention could go a long way in determining the course the industry should take as creating a database could be the initial phase to come up with a formidable industry.
