Dzimbahwe Arts and Cultural Heritage Hub
About Us
Dzimbahwe Arts and Cultural Heritage Hub is a creative cockpit established in 2020 and operating within the arts and cultural heritage realm of Zimbabwe. The hub seeks to incarnate, protect and preserve Zimbabwe’s long ignored history, through deepening and strengthening arts and cultural heritage uptake that have always been an inherent part of the people. Its establishment was driven by the ancient rhythm of life to harness and intermittently infuse the power of art and culture education, for strategic socio-economic, geographical and political day to day chores. The long term mantra is to give communities a depth of character and understanding by addressing, pushing and creating cultural solutions to global challenges such as climate change, environmental and human-wildlife conflicts, less privileged children, youths and women, people with disabilities related issues. Ultimately it should build a vibrant social space which will safeguard, showcase, promote and develop Zimbabwean art, cultural heritage and economics through engaging the country’s diverse and broad creative and cultural practitioners. Therefore, the Dzimbahwe Arts and Cultural Heritage Hub, was created to engage on a multifarious array of platforms in a highly moralistic and didactic nature.
Vision
“…provide a buffet of tapestries for creative cultural practitioners with snippets of originality, excellence and creativity.''
Mission
"to promote and preserve central role in developing art and culture education while nurturing young children driven by the pomp, zeal and zest of creative minds expressed through the creative genre”.
Core Values
Originality, Creativity, Diversity, Inclusivity, Entrepreneurship, Empowerment, Transparency, Accountability, Community Based Approach, Integrity, Ubuntu/Unhu Accessibility, Sustainability and Innovation
Hub's Objectives
- To create a greater awareness of challenges and a desire for positive action through promotion of Art and Culture Education, with children as main actors and future leaders. Children are at our heart always.
- To engage citizens’ ability to evolve and amplify a creative language, communicating on a human scale the urgency of the global challenges at the same time provoking cultural narratives.
- To inform and support both old and young generation of artists and cultural practitioners, working in Zimbabwe, to actively fuse art and culture education solutions’
- To promote International creative and cultural exchanges, partnerships and collaborations between practices of art and culture with digitalisation starting from Zimbabwe, Africa and beyond.
- To provide a rendezvous place where collective artists of all media, cultural practitioners, children, students, people with disabilities, less privileged women, among others who are committed to creative framing and storytelling of issues surrounding Hub’s thematic areas, connect a wider audience to the deep and pressing need to address current crises.
Thematic Areas
Digitalisation and Creative Innovations
Living in an era where intensifying presence of technology pervades every aspect of our lives, creative digital innovations can not be overlooked and its impact on art and culture education sustainability. However, digitalization of art and culture education is essential as it support enhanced accessibility of art and culture education that will be easily accessed breaking any geographical barrier, promoting intercultural exchange, digital archives and documentation help preserve cultural heritage sustainability for future generations whilst promoting interactive learning, Hub promotes creative digital peace-building projects that help map and resolve human wildlife conflicts, locate areas with most less privileged and vulnerable children , youth, women in need of art and culture education initiatives, facilitate digital dialogues, conversations, fostering understanding, reconciliation, social cohesion and digital storytelling to share experiences that help build empathy and sustainable creative innovative solutions. We know art and culture education leads the way in digital creative innovation, creativity and imagination, intercultural social connections and critical thinking resulting in creative sustainable solutions to different world’s crisis.
Peace Building and Sustainability
The role of art and culture education in promoting sustainable peacebuilding initiatives during climate-environmental and human-wildlife conflicts, leading to critical thinking, building leadership through public engagement and mentoring have been overlooked. However, as a hub we seek to promote art and culture education that offers resources for waging conflicts nonviolently, transforming violent relationships into peaceful ones and innovative methods of cultivating community creatives and cultural activities. Indeed, art and cultural activities provide space to creatively engage the trauma that comes through conflicts. They offer opportunities for dialogue, education and awareness helping to address different environmental and climate conflicts affecting mainly vulnerable children and less privileged women and youths not forgetting those with disabilities in rural areas.
Children, Youth and Women Thematic
This thematic area focuses more on the role of art and culture education in promoting and raising awareness towards children, youth and women related issues, as they all connect with their local talent and cultural know-hows, albeit giving them access to dignified work and allowing them to promote their creative talents into sources of livelihood. Despite their unique roles in promoting art and culture education the view and importance of preserving and transmitting cultural heritage is frequently overlooked. Their crucial role in conserving cultural heritage, being central to community networks and household activities around Zimbabwe is instrumental in preserving, promoting and shaping the art and cultural creative sector. The hub has children at heart, value youth and women as repositories of local creative culture and knowledge, their inclusion in developing strategies for promoting art and culture education is essential for safeguarding cultural diversity.
Environment and Climate Change
Arts and cultural education, empower stakeholders of all ages with the knowledge and skills to address various challenges from human- wildlife to environmental-climate conflicts. During environmental and climate emergency reaction, arts and cultural initiatives help generate individual and collective emotions (empathy, telepathy, anger, fear, joy, disgust) that strengthen the connection with our natural environment and help reconsider and renew the way we act towards it. However, as a Hub we seek to promote environment and climate art education that is partly effective and serving as a creative cultural outlet.
How we’re impacting children’s lives
Our free rural outreach projects provides orphaned and poor vulnerable children with immersive creative and cultural life time experiences….
Education, Healthy and Nutrition Outreach.
Through funds raised from hub’s activities and projects were are currently paying fees and providing scholastic materials, shoes and clothes for different vulnerable children around Zimbabwe rural areas. With hope to grow and start building schools. Healthcare facilities and insurance is needed more in Zimbabwean rural areas where most disabled, orphaned and vulnerable children are located. Long distant clinics and hospitals in rural areas lead to poor healthy and deaths for children. The hub offer health insurance to these children in need….
Supporting Orphanages
The Hub is not an orphanage center, but instead we support existing orphanages and children living in poor/needful vulnerable environment around Zimbabwe rural areas to have access to better and improved nutrition, education and health facilities as these are the most meaningful gifts a child can receive…..
Tour for Charity
Book a creative cultural tour with us around Zimbabwe and indirectly support and improve the health- education needs of different vulnerable children living in rural areas…..
Dzimbahwe Gift and Souvenir Shop:
Come, enjoy and purchase from a collection of original handcrafted special souvenir, artworks, crafts, jewellery, clothing and cultural instruments, made by our local artists to visitors at the Hub. The Hub passes a majority of the sales revenue back to the artists and cultural practitioners to support their livelihoods projects and a portion of every sale towards vulnerable orphaned children education and health support in different rural areas of Dzimbahwe….(read more)
Art-Culture Education and the SDGs
Art and culture education speaks to most of the SDGs and have been advancing sustainability through raising awareness, community impact, peaceful engagement and development, inspiring action, shaping cultural values, resolving conflicts and reducing isolation. The Hub emphasizes on role culture and creativity play in the economic, social, and environmental areas that must be impacted to achieve the global goals. In return, these areas help protect cultural heritage, promote creativity skills required to tackle today’s complex challenges and foster creativity, critical thinking, social cohesion, enhance participation, problem solving skills resulting in improved outcomes. By recognizing and supporting the role of art and culture education in fostering a more sustainable future, the Hub seek to collectively address the pressing challenges of our time.
Below are SDGs directly that speak to the Hub thematic themes;
