By Agnes Ann Hutchings
As a Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO), Springstone Art Gallery, located in Avondale, Harare, is a an independent organisation that is cognisant of the role of art as an agent for socio economic development, and a conduit for providing employment in the creative economy.
The gallery provides institutional capacitation for over 350 Zimbabwean visual artists and about 500 rural based craftsmen and women, most from marginalised communities such as the Tonga, Nambiya and Budya peoples as well as communities in Mudzi, Chiweshe, Hurungwe and Binga through the promotion and exposure of their art and crafts to international markets. The gallery also offers technical and conceptual education on art to indigenous artists.
Springstone Art Gallery serves as a memory bank for Zimbabwe’s cultural history, indigenous belief systems, traditions and spiritual way of life. It serves as a diplomatic interface and as a window of decorum for cultural exchange, diplomacy and the promotion of mutual socio-cultural understanding between Zimbabwe and a host of embassies and technical and trade missions.
An important mandate of Springstone Art Gallery is to ensure indigenous knowledge transfer via comprehensive art exhibition and artists’ workshops as an essential part of the successful development of innovation and excellence in the arts and creative industries of Zimbabwe.
Springstone’s contribution to the national inventory of visual arts is recognised by the Zimbabwean Government, UNESCO, Paris; Smithsonian Institute, Washington, USA; AICA Paris; the Tate London; MoMa New York, and various arts and cultural associations in sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and America. The Gallery, situated at 5 Idlehurst Way, Avondale, on the property belonging to Michelina Andreucci –Ponter was endorsed internationally as a premier destination for cultural engagement in Zimbabwe and appeared in a feature in the international platinum card magazine Destinations.
Founded in 1994, as a Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO), on a private property in Avondale by Michelina Andreucci Ponter and Dr. Tony Michel Monda, the Avondale based Springstone Art Gallery preserves Zimbabwe’s cultural heritage and material culture for posterity, education and the preservation of indigenous values. In 1995 the Gallery, containing numerous archival Zimbabwean art works housed at 5 Idlehurst way in Avondale, was recognised worldwide as an international centre for research in contemporary African art and Zimbabwean material culture and its interface with global art and design, history and trends.
The various art and cultural activities, exhibitions, seminars and workshops carried out at Springstone have been published in various local and international newspapers from the 1990s to early 2000s, in the New York Daily News, The Art Times, The Smithsonian Institution and ACASA newsletters based in the USA, CFA London, Safron Books, and documented at the Courthauld Institute, UK. In Zimbabwe, local newspapers such as the Daily News, The Chronicle , Independent Zimbabwe, The Herald, The standard and Sunday Mail have published archival content on Springstone Art Gallery.
Over the years, Springstone Art Gallery published several essays, brochures, monographs, catalogues and books on Zimbabwean art, artists, indigenous material culture, social anthropology, archaeology and musicology. This rare and important documentation on Zimbabwe, under the stewardship of
Dr.Tony Michel Monda- formed some of the ideological and practical content of Zimbabwe’s education curriculum. Under his management the Gallery played host to a large number of important international artists, writers, university professors, students and cultural experts . Monda also delivered public lectures on the content, context, materials, history and artistic production in Zimbabwe.
Springstone Art Gallery houses both historical and contemporary artworks, particularly stone sculpture that reflects the development of Zimbabwe’s premier art form, acquired and collected by Michelina Andreucci from its nascence in the 1950’s to post-independent Zimbabwe as well as the new mixed-media developments of the post-independence generation, and African art from Mozambique, South Africa, DRC, Rwanda, Nigeria ,Cote D’Ivoire, Uganda ,Malawi, Zambia ,Kenya and Tanzania acquired with co-curator Tony Michel Monda a renowned Zimbabwean artist, collector and art critic.
Several prominent artists frequent the Avondale-based gallery at 5 Idlehurst Way, for promotion, representation and patronage. These include first and second generation artists such as John and Bernard Takawira, Tubayi Dube, Kingsley Sambo, Charles Carlos Fernando, Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Bernard Matemera, Thomas Mukarobgwa, Joram Mariga, John Hlatwayo, Henry Munyaradzi, Sylvester Mubayi, Joseph Ndandarika, Albert Mamvura, Fanizani Akuda, Joseph Muli, Edward Chiwawa, Lazarus Takawira, Moses Masaya, Richard Mteki, Boira Mteki, Tony Monda, Cluad Nyanhongo,Gideon Nyanhongo, Colleen Madamombe, Bernard Manyandure, Hillary Kashiri, Luis Meque, Cosmas Muchenje, Ackence Makore, Brighton Sango, Arthur Fata, Fasoni Sibanda and a host of younger generation artists whose works were documented and represented in Springstone Gallery’s permanent art collection of over 700 artworks collected in Zimbabwe and throughout the region dating back from the mid-1950’s to now.
Springstone Art gallery retains the oldest and most comprehensive collection of contemporary stone sculpture in Zimbabwe.
Also represented are many of the younger generation of artists such as Derrick Macheka, Mavis Mabwe, Locardia Ndandarika, Stanford Derere, Richard and Raymond Chirambadare, Biggie Kapeta, Chrispen June, Phineas Kamangira, Maxwell Gochera Edronce Rukwodzi , Jemali Chituwha and Richard Mupumha amongst a host of others.
Historically curated by the internationally-trained art critic and art and archaeology historian, Tony Michel Monda, a renowned Zimbabwean art expert on the preservation and documentation of African art works, Springstone Gallery’s African antiquities and artefacts collection is world renowned.
Among Springstone’s comprehensive collection at 5Idlehurst Way, Avondale, are: Iron age artefacts, African masks, African Jewellery, Zulu and Ndebele beadwork, African textiles, Bambara mud cloth, Shona headrest, stools, Tonga doors, Tonga Pipes, Zanzibar artefacts and Zanzibar doors, Dogon masks and doors, antique African weaponry, antique Shona spears and battle axes, Ethiopian sceptres, silver Coptic crosses, copper ingots, African brass ornaments, Malawian chairs and masks, Southern African basket collections, reed mats, Baobab bark mats, walking sticks and a variety of sub-Saharan earthen ware ceramics and African traditional pottery as well as a unique array of antique African musical instruments including drums, aerophones and a variety of idiophones such as mbira and marimba.
From its inception in the mid-1990s, Springstone Art Gallery has curated and hosted several art exhibitions articulating the content and context of Zimbabwean contemporary art, making an indelible impact for tourism, commerce, education and public diplomacy. The Art Gallery has developed an international connoisseurship and following for Zimbabwe’s visual art and culture.
Art exhibitions held at Springstone and curated by the art critic Monda, bring new cultural andscientific knowledge to the country, impacting positively in the fields of cultural tourism, education, history and national identity and serves as a tangible mirror and reflection of Zimbabwe’s socio-cultural life and socio-economic matrix, its ecology, flora and fauna, belief systems and societal traditions over time. Springstone Art Gallery curates, preserves, documents and showcases the best of the nation’s artworks for posterity. Similarly the Pan African wing of Springstone Art Gallery includes works from South Africa to Nigeria.
Working through various media channels, including interviews with BBC, Channel France, Media 24, Voice of America, The New York times, The Guardian, New York Daily, Gemnation news, The San Francisco Art Chronicle, The Art Times, the Artist Magazine, Zimbabwe airline’s In-flight magazine, Southern African Arts Journal, the Connoisseur, Destinations and African Arts Journal, Springstone Art Gallery’s publicity team is responsible for the regional and international exposure of Zimbabwean art and culture. The Gallery provides an effective portal for the artists’ progress and outreach to society.
Following a strict process of selection, the private voluntary institution works closely with Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Arts, Sports and Culture and Foreign Affairs Ministry, representing the nation at several regional and international summits, including the G15 Summit in Malaysia, the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, the Zambian International Trade Fair Lusaka, Zambia, and the African, African-American Summit held in Harare.
Through its rigorous quality control, aesthetic integrity and authenticity, Springstone Art Gallery of Avondale is a crucial fulcrum to building value and wealth in the visual arts and creative economy of Zimbabwe. It serves as an important port-of-call for repositioning and re-engaging Zimbabwe in global cultural diplomacy.
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