Staff Writer
Youth Sport Arts and Recreation Minister Dr Kirsty Coventry was at the weekend mum on the much anticipated reopening of the entertainment sector when she officially opened the National Arts Merit Awards.
The arts practitioners have been making concerted efforts to try and engage Government to partially open the creative sector as they did with other sectors of the economy.
The NAMAs were held for the first time virtually given the Covid-19 pandemic which saw the ban on gathering and events.
“Traditionally NAMA honours artists that would have produced works within a specified period of one calendar year.
“COVID-19 and the associated National lockdowns impacted the cultural and creative sector’s productivity across the various disciplines,” she said.
Minister Coventry said hoped to save lives given the COVID-19 restrictions that Government has since learnt to live with.
“The National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, could not shelve the awards as the National Lockdown presented an opportunity to close Zimbabwe’s 40th Anniversary of Independence with the symbolic awarding of 40 living legends of the Cultural and Creative Sector. Incidentally, the NACZ is also celebrating 35 years of existence.
“The legends to be honoured today are people who have had an indelible impact on their different disciplines.
“These living legends include pioneers, innovators and consistent contributors in fields such as the manufacture of the Mbira musical instrument, Film, theatre, music, dance, visual arts, literary arts and the spoken Word,” she said.
“These legends have, most importantly, also contributed beyond just their artworks but most have ventured into mentoring and skills development. This has had a ripple effect as is seen in the transfer of their skills and technical knowledge to upcoming and established artists who, not only inherit the craft and genius of the Living Legends but are also becoming potential vectors of transmitting their experiences to future generations without end.”
The virtual ceremony dubbed #legends@40 NAMA was however, skewed towards music at the expense of other art disciplines particularly on the performance side.
“I therefore would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the teams that acted behind the scenes, the event managers JCMC, Arts organisations and the partners for tonight’s ceremony.
“To the Living Legends being honoured today, I say congratulations, you are just but a part of the whole. There are still many others out there that are also doing extremely well as Living Legends. These 40 are just a representation of the great work happening in the creative sector,” she said.
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