A return to Mutare might be on the cards for one of Zimbabwe’s oldest arts institutions. The National Gallery of Zimbabwe recently received the bequest of land in the city, set apart towards the establishment of its branch in the foreseeable future.
The institution had operated a location in the montane city; having had a gallery at 122 Upper Third Street from 19 June 1999 to 31 December 2024.
The NGZ had a great run in its quarter-century at Kopje House, and as promised by its Board of Trustees and Directorate, the institution would find its way back to service the people of Manicaland and Masvingo provinces.
“We are thrilled in the way one is thrilled by news too good to have fully expected — the kind of news that makes you want to gather everyone you know and tell them at once,” said Justice (RTD) Maphios Cheda, the Chairman of the NGZ Board of Trustees.
The re-establishment of a Mutare branch adds momentum to the Ministry of Sports, Recreation, Arts & Culture’s efforts to leave no place behind, and it also answers a call by Vice President, K.C.D Mohadi, who challenged the gallery to look beyond Harare and Bulawayo.
“This is no small gift. Land, in our context, is never merely soil. It is inheritance. It is the resting place of ancestors, the site of memory, the collateral of a family’s future,” said Raphael Chikukwa, the CEO of the NGZ.
“When the Masamvus and the Rogers came together to set aside a portion of that inheritance for the Gallery, they were not simply donating property — they were making a statement about what they believe Manicaland, and Zimbabwe, deserve,” he went on.
In return of this act of faith NGZ has committed, in return, to building a gallery that Manicaland can call unmistakably its own — one that celebrates the region’s artists, nurtures its young talent, and stands as a living monument to the generosity shown by its own benevolent artists. There is an opportunity to turn the periphery into a centre.
At the present moment National Gallery of Zimbabwe only has 2 full fledged branches: Harare and Bulawayo. The arts ecosystem in the country desperately needs more spaces that celebrate and showcase Zimbabwean art, and a Mutare branch would be a big step towards satisfying that need.
