NACZ launches revised Zim Arts Directory

Staff Reporter

THE National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) last week launched the Zimbabwe Arts Directory for this year which will be a reference point for artistes and consumers of cultural products.
This year’s directory, which is the second ever to be produced in the country — the first edition having been published in 2006 — was released to the public at a function held at the Spanish Embassy which also included the inauguration of the embassy’s Cultural Centre and library.
The updated version of the directory contains contact details across all genres of the arts and culture sector including music, dance, poetry, festivals, crafts, entertainment promoters and venues, sculpture, filming, among others.
The Spanish Ambassador, Pilar Fuertes Ferragut, described the directory as “the first window to the wide, complex, rich and sometimes challenging cultural landscape in Zimbabwe”.
The directory was published by the NACZ in partnership with the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust and the Spanish Embassy.
Meanwhile, the Spanish Embassy says the Cultural Centre “will be a meeting point, a training centre and a place of interchange for the diverse cultural agents of Zimbabwe and Spain. Our objective is to create a dynamic space to promote an interface between the Spanish and Zimbabwean cultures; dialogue and debate; a conduit for the transfer of knowledge, exchange of experiences and initiatives related to cultural co-operation”.
The centre will also promote cultural initiatives such as workshops, meetings and conferences; the launch of books or any other initiative that could promote the arts and cultural sector in Zimbabwe.
The new library, in the Cultural Centre, contains a collection of books — over 3 600 of them — which are mostly in Spanish, for Spanish speakers and those who wish to speak Spanish. Visitors to the library can also choose to become “amigos” (friends) of the library, and make use of it.