Kuvenguhwa leaves for European forum

Arts Reporter

Founder and director of Dzimbahwe Arts and Cultural Heritage Hub Sarah Kuvenguhwa has left for the European Forum Alpbach to be held in Austria which begins today until September 2.

The European Forum Alpbach is an inter-disciplinary platform for science, politics, business art, and culture.

Established in 1945, the annual European Forum Alpbach addresses the relevant socio-political questions and challenges of society while also receiving inputs from international partner organisations all over the world.

Kuvenguhwa, who is representing Zimbabwe, said art can challenge and inspire cultural change.

“By presenting new ideas and perspectives, art can encourage people to think differently about their own culture and the world around them. This can lead to cultural evolution and progress,” she said.

“This is an impact towards development as communities can relate and solve their challenges through artistic approaches, thereby fostering social and cultural connections globally.”

She said as an artist and international researcher, they have seen the need for a new cultural and artistic approach position which requires a new attitude that takes courage and vision, and a participatory approach. “It also calls for the creation of new alliances between artists, citizens, decision-makers, the health and education sectors, and community entrepreneurs. I feel as youths we must reinvent, expand, open up, reposition, refine, and refinance the artistic and cultural systems, programmes, and tools that we possess to meet the challenges of today and be able to stimulate the enormous human development potential that the future generations rightly aspire to,” explained Kuvenguhwa.

Asked how she is going to market Zimbabwe during the forum, the researcher said she will use the opportunity to talk about some of the local finest products.

“I will market Zimbabwe through sharing its art and culture artworks that I have collected, locally hand-crafted souvenirs from local artists, such as national fabric, stone-works, tote bags, flags, posters, handicrafts, postcards, bracelets, and our very own cultural food like roasted groundnuts, sorghum, sadza made of rapoko, millet, and madora among others,” she said.

“The idea of this event is to present your country to other people. I was allowed to exhibit my country’s uniqueness and market it during the International Bazaar Night, a programme designed to allow everyone to travel around the world by visiting different exhibition tables and learning about their art, clothing, and cuisines. Zimbabwe is well represented.”

She said she will also share how the local art and culture have the potential to address some of today’s challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation, food security and boost tourism.

“I see art and culture driving positive impact globally, though the impact of culture on individual and community development are still being questioned, studied, measured and, hopefully, rediscovered,” she said.