Visual artist off to Iran

Nyaude was selected amongst other 10 contestants, selected through the Zimbabwe National Gallery Visual Arts Studios and came out tops which earned him the trip to Iran.
Other visual arts categories comprise posters’ design, sculpture (plastic, clay, pottery), cartoon, photography and painting where Gresham’s work has been selected as the best.
Speaking at the send off ceremony held at the Islamic Arts Centre, Nyaude was very excited for coming tops and thanked the Iranian Government for affording him an opportunity to compete at the annual international festival.
“I am very much grateful for the Iranian Government through its Embassy in Harare. I will definitely raise high the Zimbabwean flag and promise to bring the award just like others did in previous years,” he said.
The objective of the festival is to encourage young artists to be creative and enhance their professional knowledge.
Head of the Islamic Visual Arts and Culture Centre for Iran in Zimbabwe, Mohammed Assadi M, said the festival was a platform to share cultural ideas and strengthen ties between Iran and Zimbabwe through arts.
“The major emphasis of this festival is to encourage young citizens to have interest in their culture as western culture was threatening to infiltrate other cultures in the world.
“The idea is to showcase different cultures and it is through such competitions that the young generation will value their culture and would want to win based on the social values in their countries,” he said.
Islamic Visual Arts and Culture Centre for Iran has for the past three years sent almost 30 Zimbabwean artists in various visual arts categories to Iran.
The Zimbabwe National Gallery Visual Arts studios Instructor Doris Kamupira was confident that Nyaude will bring home the prize.
In 2010, Zimbabwean artist Lancy Marimo won the first prize in the painting category.
The winners get 10 golden coins — an equivalent of US$1 000 a coin.