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Tendai Mufunda

Nhlalwenhle Ngwenya
IN a bid to empower women in a male-dominated fine arts industry, an exhibition titled “Tendai Arts and Culture Festival” will be held today at Heath Streak Cricket Academy Restaurant.

The exhibition comes after a successful event that was held in Harare at Alliance Francaise in October where 12 female exhibitors participated. Fifteen exhibitors are expected to participate at the Bulawayo showcase.

Founder and organiser of the event, Tendai Mufunda, said the essence of the exhibition was not to empathise with women, but was rather a platform to prove that they can produce quality work.

“We’re giving women in the fine arts a platform to showcase their work, not necessarily because they are women, but because they’re capable of producing high end quality competitive works,” said Mufunda.

She said they were going to identify women who need financial assistance at the showcase.

“During the event, we’ll identify exhibitors that are in financial need. Once we identify them, we’ll give them 10 percent of the proceeds from the exhibition to support their work in the arts sector. Tendai’s Arts and Culture Festival is set to be a hub of information dissemination in regards to Zimbabwean culture as the artists will be showcasing crafts relevant to Zimbabwean culture as well as local traditional music,” she said.

Next year, the exhibition is set to go regional as selected women from today’s exhibition will showcase their works in Johannesburg in March.