Online Reporter
Mutare Bureau
HOPES for the return of the Mutare Art Gallery have been revived following the donation of 10 hectares of land for the establishment of production, exhibition and schooling space for diverse works of visual art.
The pledge was made official during the handover of the piece of land to Government by the Masamvu and Rodgers families, who own the 200-hectare Mount Worsley Estate, located less than 10km from Mutare Central Business District.
The farm also accommodates the well-known Drifters Lodges.
The Mutare Art Gallery, previously operated by the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, officially ceased operations on December 31, 2024, citing operational challenges. Its closure left a gap that arts and tourism stakeholders in Manicaland.
The institution had served the community for nearly a quarter-of-a-century as a window into the region’s visual culture.
In his speech at the handover ceremony, Minister of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture, Anselem Sanyatwe, said the donation carries weight beyond its size.
“We are gathered here because two families, the Masamvus and the Rodgers, looked at a portion of land they held dear, land that carries their history, their labour, and their name, and chose to give a part of it not to a single institution, but to a nation’s memory.
“Today, on a subdivision of Drifters Lodge, the seed of something extraordinary has been planted: a new branch of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, here in Manicaland,” he said.
The Minister noted that for too long the national conversation about art and heritage has centred on Harare and Bulawayo, forcing artists and audiences in the Eastern Highlands to travel great distances to see their own culture reflected in a formal gallery space.
“That changes because two families decided it should. This is no small gift. Land, in our context, is never merely soil.
“It is inheritance. It is the resting place of ancestors, the site of memory, the collateral of a family’s future,” he said.
Speaking at the same function, Mr Raphael Chikukwa, executive director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, urged artists in Manicaland to take full advantage of the new site to produce and promote more work.
“The National Gallery of Zimbabwe will have a place of their own so that we will change the landscape in visual arts.
“Sometimes you have to go through those situations. The elders say after rain comes fair weather. So this is how we have arrived where we are today.
“I would like to say to the artists in Manicaland we are back on a space of our own and not on a rented space.
“This gesture goes to addressing the ideas of devolution. I was challenged by Vice President, Dr Kembo Mohadi when we were in Venice in 2024 to look at ideas that answer to the President’s call for devolution.”
Mr Chikukwa said decentralisation will spare artists the burden of travelling three hours to Harare or six to seven hours to Bulawayo.
“They now have a space of their own. So it is now our duty as the National Gallery of Zimbabwe to see how we are going to turn these 10 hectares into something else.
“The most important thing is to turn this periphery into a centre. We want Manicaland to be one of the centers of contemporary Zimbabwean art,” he said. Representing the donating families, Mr Misheck Masamvu, co-director of Mount Worsley Estate, said the gallery’s presence goes beyond convenience.
“The most important part of having a National Gallery in a community is not just a question of the distance that an artist or whoever aspires to learn about art has to endure to access that space.
“I strongly think that creative art is the first thing a child does, the first thing you do is making a mark, and having an art gallery is like having an altar, a sanctuary.”
