adminDr Tony Monda
Visual arts proffer new insights into ourselves as Zimbabweans. Art, the looking glass of life elucidates the multiple facets of our collective life.Government, national and multi-national corporates have not shown any commitment to the production of the art, the artists’ careers and their visions. Without facilities where art can be experienced and made available to the populous, Zimbabwe is akin to a nation without a soul and a nation with no sense of pride or identity.
The enjoyment and appreciation of art is a reflection of a nation’s IQ, civilisation, economic potential and creative aptitude. Art serves as a civic, economic, and spiritual barometer of a nation, and as such, is central to discussions around sustainable development.
The International Symposium on Culture and Development, which led to the Brussels Declaration of 2009, is viewed as a success story of African and European institutional, economic and cultural co-operation.
Beginning in the new millennium with the inclusion of the creative industries into the British economy, the Arts played a vital role in the competitiveness of British business and was seen “. . . as the best route out of recession . . .”
Between 1997 and 2006, the creative economy in the UK grew faster than any other sector, which accounted for two million jobs and £16.6 billion of exports in 2007.
Arts and culture were also central to tourism in the UK; they were worth £86 billion in 2007 — 3.7 percent of GDP — employing 1.4 million people directly. Inbound tourism, a vital export, earned £16.3 billion for the British economy in 2008.
That same year, Liverpool was the “most successful European “Capital of Culture”, with 15 million cultural visitors generating £800 million for local economic benefit.
“Artistic enjoyment and creativity has never been more universal, more innovative, more easily distributed, shared and exchanged.
“The UK has the largest creative sector in the EU and relative to GDP probably the largest in the world.”
In the United Kingdom, 2010 was recorded as “a golden one for the arts” consolidating socio-economic conditions for excellence in the arts for the country.
Regrettably, however, in Zimbabwe arts and the creative economy have been omitted in the Zim-Asset policy document. The launch of the highly-commended Government’s five-year economic blueprint, we need a comprehensive study and analysis on the potential socio-economic impact of arts, cultural heritage.
The creative economy and entertainment industry need to be researched, analysed, documented and absorbed into the attitude and developmental philosophy of contemporary economists in Zimbabwe.
Given a sluggish economy, exhaustible mineral resources, the incompatible pricing of Zimbabwean exports on the open market, it is folly to even contemplate a socio-economic development matrix without taking into account the development of the arts, which by their very creative nature are self-renewing, sustainable and promote feasible employment and economic agency.
The structural realities of the economic plan on the ground are, in fact, not complete without a sound art and cultural base as its diplomatic front.
Consequently the rapid results envisaged in the first phase of Zim-Asset from 2013-2015, in which four economic sectors have been identified as economic drivers, should seriously consider including the arts.
The development of an arts and economic growth initiative is not an assumed perception of economic improvement — it is tangible and visible and reduces unemployment and poverty levels.
It should be inclusive of and franchise and re-empower the disadvantaged Zimbabwean rural folk by virtue of the fact that they are able to fall back on their cultural resource base and visual culture to earn a living.
It leverages economic empowerment and poverty reduction in previously, traditionally marginalised peoples and their traditions — such as the craft clansmen and women of the Tonga valley, Mudzi, Bulilimamangwe, Hwange Nambyia and other remote areas of Zimbabwe.
Art augments the concept of indigenisation and that of ownership of resources. Given, art is people-centred, especially for the indigenous crafts people, a structured base and outlet for their crafts would greatly improve their earnings, viability and sustainability.
Art and the creative industry are important generators of wealth, boosting the economy through innovation, the pursuit of excellence, enterprise and job creation, particularly in the crucial creative industries sector.
Art addresses economic growth on a sustainable basis and should be part of employment creation and empowerment programmes.
For the Zimbabwean economy to grow to the projected average of 7.3 percent and continue on an upward growth trajectory to 9.9 percent by 2018, one has to take into account that the growth cannot be achieved without the key factors of creativity and sustainability; both of which the arts bring to the development matrix.
Economic postulations which anchor the projected growth of the economy over five years (2013–2018) should not only invest in infrastructure such as energy roads and railways, aviation, telecommunication, water and sanitation, through public/private partnerships, which although essential, cannot on their own bring about the holistic desired growth.
Investing in people who are the key drivers of this growth and development should be part of the value addition process.
Collaborative partnerships between Government agencies (ministries, and arts councils) and the private sector should be mandatory to bolster human capital development in the arts.
Such partnerships contribute to the creative economy by supporting enterprise and innovation, widening and diversifying participation through patronage of the arts.
Zimbabwean economic advisers and arts administrators must do so, not with a short term view, but with the long term outlook. Artistic aspiration must be supported across a period of time that bridges current austerity into better economic times.
For instance, stone sculpture, which is primarily made from a bi-product of the mining industry — raw stones — should be seen as value addition yields.
Government, which envisions the development of a robust economy in the region and the rest of Africa, can only achieve this by building a culturally and economically empowered society that invests in their creative class.
In order to provide an enabling environment for sustainable economic empowerment and social transformation, arts and culture should be at the forefront of development.
Given it is a sustainable and robust solution to address the challenges of unemployment vis-à-vis the 6 000+ or so arts graduates from schools and universities, it must be embraced in Zim-Asset.
Growing the economy and creating employment are in essence creative activities which call for lateral thinking on behalf of policy makers.
Flexibility, re-invention and revival of art and cultural-based activities will prove to be a formidable contributor to the economy.
Worldwide the arts and creative economy are no longer considered informal sectors, but are taken seriously and absorbed into the macro-economy.
We need to be cognisant “that economic development in its broadest definition is the process of creating wealth by mobilising human, fiscal, physical, natural and capital resources to generate marketable goods and services”.
Defined in standard economic texts, economic growth presupposes a noteworthy increase in the production and consumption of goods and services which consequently results in an increase in a GDP.
However, it must be noted that economic growth does not necessary translate into economic development and vice versa.
The question in sight: Can Treasury transform Zim-Asset into a tangible socio-economic reality?
Art and culture can be and should be seen as feasible trajectories for foreign direct investments in Zimbabwe. Along with cultural tourism, building conducive infrastructure for the development and display of cultural products can facilitate the sustainability of the creative industry and national economic growth.
An economy built around the themes of creative economy and widening participation can greatly enhance the national bourse.
The private sector, civil society and Government should consent on the prerequisite responsibility to development and create plans and strategies that merge into a common pool of development, which should include the arts and culture, to create a new future.
The arts are central to a government that places a healthy society at the heart of its agenda. Art is the vital bridge and fulcrum between the informal sector and the formal, between micro and macro-economic development and between nationhood and internationalism.
The arts and creative economy should undoubtedly be included in the nation’s economic development proposal. Quoting Robert Frost, President John F Kennedy said: “The nation that disdains the arts . . . (has) nothing to look back on with pride or forward to with hope.”
Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD in Art Theory and Philosophy and a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) in Post- Colonial Art and Heritage Studies. He studied law and photography at the Corcoran School of Art, Washington and holds a Law and Art Diploma from Georgetown University, Washington DC. He worked with WALA — (Washington Area Lawyers Association). He undertook an intern in Psychology of Art and Remedial Art Therapy at the Lafayette School of Art Therapy for the Mentally Handicapped Children, in New Orleans, USA. He is an author, art critic, art consultant and a practicing visual artist.
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