Tanaka Mahanya
BINDURA Arts Festival Foundation (BAFF) executive director, Umtali Saidi, has vowed to empower less privileged artists from Mashonaland Central after getting funding from the Culture Fund Trust.
BAFF is among the applicants who successfully convinced the Culture Fund Trust about projects they are carrying out countrywide to promote the arts.
In an interview with H-Metro, Saidi said:
“The Bindura Arts Festival Foundation was awarded a grant among 42 exceptional projects by Zimbabwean artists, as part of the first round of the Creative Actions 2 initiatives by the Culture Fund Trust and the funding partners European Union (EU).
“The BAFF’s project dubbed ‘Arts and Culture in Action’ aims to discover and expose hidden talent found in two marginalised areas of Mash Central province districts such as Mbire and Muzarabani.
“It seeks to give a chance for sustainable professional development of young artists, through talents search, show contests and capacity building workshops.
“A festival will then be held with the expectation of discovering and exposing new talent, improving competences in digital skills and marketing them,” he said.
Outlining their roadmap, he said:
“Our vision is to empower communities through arts and cultural diversity.
“We are targeting women so that they take part in the arts sector, which is predominantly a male industry, the youth, people with disabilities and those in marginalised areas
“This is a unique concept because it seeks to unearth, capacitate and magnify talents in marginalised communities.
“We previously have done talent shows in Bindura, and surrounding areas, but never have we gone as far as Mbire.
“We had a project inception meeting with eight provincial heads from several line Ministries, which include the Zimbabwe Youth Council, Ministry of Youth, Arts Sports and Recreation, the Social Welfare Department and Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Community Development.
“The meeting was meant to introduce them to the project and get their input and support.”