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Tawanda Marwizi Arts Correspondent
Thieves broke into First Floor Gallery in Harare on Thursday last week but left all art pieces on the walls intact, apparently because they could not find anything valuable in the arts space besides paintings on display. Marcus Gora, the gallery’s public relations director, told The Herald Entertainment that they suspected thieves were after other valuables like computers and cameras that are usually kept in the gallery over the festive season break.
“Thieves broke in but I think they found nothing they were expecting because some things were moved to a safe place before the festive holidays,” said Gora. He said they alerted the artists with pieces in the gallery to come and collect their art work while they were working on tight security measures.
“We posted on Facebook alerting the guys who had their artworks in the gallery to come and collect their works because we want to work on fresh security measures,” said Gora.
The Facebook post sent on Friday reads: “Attention to artists; our gallery was broken into yesterday, luckily no artworks were stolen or damaged. We kindly ask you come to First Floor Gallery Harare to collect your artworks while we upgrade our security and do repairs.”
First Floor Gallery is Harare’s first artist-run gallery and was founded in 2009.
The room was part of and got support from Afrimune Records, a young independent music label, which has provided it with a rent free exhibition space for the first two years of the gallery’s life.
It was created to respond to an urgent need for emerging visual artists to exhibit their work and develop their skills and experiment and innovate in an environment free from ideological or commercial pressures.
During its short life, it has also grown to become an institution, supporting students and graduate artists and also building bridges between contemporary art and diverse local communities, taking part in urban renewal and working with art as inter-cultural dialogue.
The gallery has a regular exhibition programme and education platform with a genuine focus on experimentation and freedom of speech, engagement and diversity.
“The gallery is very conscious of the role that art engagement plays in social and urban renewal and engagement, and have brought art exhibitions to areas like Mbare (Mbare Kutapira exhibition, December 2011) working with audiences who had never seen visual art work on exhibition,” said Gora.
In August 2011, the gallery exhibited at the Chimanimani Arts Festival. Over the last years, the gallery has forged links between local and international visual artists with participations at various arts festivals internationally.
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