Gallery empowers female artists

Bulawayo (New Ziana)-The National Gallery in Bulawayo is working on various programmes to improve the participation of women in the arts sector, an official said on Friday.

In an interview, National Gallery regional director, Silenkosi Moyo said this was after it had been found that found that female artists were generally few in the sector in terms of representation and participation.

She added that even ZimStats had noted the gender disparity in the arts, and the gallery was intentionally promoting female artists in areas such as resourcing.

“We have discovered that female artists are generally few in terms of representation and participation. Even ZimStats documents indicated that there is gender disparity,” she said.

Moyo said the gallery was working to identify female artists in marginalised communities to mainstream them in the arts sector.

“We are trying to identify those who don’t know that there is a gallery to fuse them in different programmes and promote their trade,” she said.

Moyo said the gallery was also trying to amplify the voice of female artists through collaborating with different organisations such as UN Women, African Union and Msasa Project to ensure visual female artists are represented in all development programmes.

New Ziana