Chronicle Editor
Whether you are a raising artist, a mathematician, an engineer or an athlete, a holiday art camp may be just what your child needs to balance out, or further enrich his or her developing brain.The National Gallery of Zimbabwe is set to host the 2016 holiday art camp from December 12 to 16, which will help the students understand how they can use art to celebrate the holiday season, informed by the currently running exhibitions, appreciate elements that make up works of art and understand some of them. This is an opportunity for fun, interactive and creative experiences for kids, pre-school, junior and senior school.
“Whether it’s music, drama, dance, photography, sculpting or painting, the holiday art camp activities can stimulate young minds with new concepts and skills, as well as lessons about art and art history. Art is very important as it stimulates young children’s imaginations on a wide range of things,” said the Education Officer at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe Akim Nyakudya.
The Art Camp set to run for five days at the Gallery will afford students with a large opportunity to explore arts in the Gallery over a week period. Themed “Our Gallery at Christmas”, this camp will offer the children with an opportunity to draw, sculpt and paint their own artworks based on the currently running exhibitions that is the annual exhibition and the Green Shoots Exhibition which showcases the most current artworks created by leading and emerging artists of Zimbabwe.
The Annual exhibition is Zimbabwe’s oldest and most significant arts event on the arts calendar, as it promotes the visibility of Zimbabwean art, encourages and showcases new talent.
Running under the theme that seeks to interrogate “Nhaka/ Ilifa/ Inheritance”, the children will tour the Annual Exhibition and get educated on the traditional custom of “Nhaka/ Ilifa /Inheritance” in today’s modern Zimbabwe society.
The students will then be expected to paint and draw their own artworks as inspired by the running exhibitions.
The Green Shoots Exhibition is an annual exhibition by the students at the National Gallery School of Visual Art and Design which will showcase to the children some of the best artworks done by art students and hopefully inspire them to make even more creative works. Children who produce the best artworks will be awarded prizes at the end of the art camp.
The holiday art camp gives children an uninterrupted amount of time to strengthen their skills and nurture their talents, time they may not get during the school year. It provides children with a space in which to gain knowledge of the arts and develop their visual creative abilities under the guidance of experienced visual arts mentors in a gallery environment.
National Gallery holiday art camp offers a comprehensive curriculum that is engaging, interactive and fun.
In addition, the holiday art camp allows children to interact with various children from different families. By interacting and working with a different peer group, children also learn an appreciation of different perspectives. They observe how other kids create different kinds of artwork based on the same instructions. This helps them to be open to different interpretations, and ideas and that being different doesn’t make you wrong. Making great memories that can last lifelong is an added bonus for attending the art camp.
Participants in the holiday art camp often work collaboratively to create projects, which teaches them negotiation skills. They learn to work through creative differences, compromise, and learn that they can collectively create something great.
Also, by encouraging communication with new friends and expression of emotions through dramatic dialogue or art creation, participants in the holiday art camp can gain a big confidence boost, which can in turn be beneficial in how they communicate at home, school and with other adults.
Emmanuel Simba, a seven-year-old who attended the August 2916 art camp said: “I had so much fun during the August art camp because I got to play with other kids and make drawings and paintings. I also enjoyed the story telling session with Ignatius Mabasa and my favorite story was that of the fox and his tail. I look forward to the upcoming December holiday art camp.”
The 2016 August holiday art camp, which ran from August 15 to 19 saw many kids of various ages creating beautiful art that complemented the ongoing Planetary Community Chicken Exhibition by Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen.
The camp also had a multiracial and multi- age mix also which ironically related to the theme of the camp. During the camp, students explored different mediums of art including painting, drawing and various crafts. At the end of the art camp, students were awarded certificates and prizes in recognition of their talent.
The holiday art camp is held every year during the April, August and December holidays and is open to students between the ages of 5 to 18 years of age.
It is part of various education programmes organised by the National Gallery of Zimbabwe with the aim to educate children on visual arts, art history and to improve their art skills while exploring various art material, themes and creative expressions.
Registration forms for the December holiday art camp can be downloaded from the gallery website www.nationalgallery.cozw alternatively; they can be collected from the Gallery reception at number 20 Julius Nyerere Way, Harare. Primary school students attend the art camp from 9am to 1pm daily, while high school students attend from 9am to 3pm daily.
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dyton mupawaenda