H-Metro
THE arts merit awards season has just begun.
It’s a season known for brewing shocks, surprises and, at times, even sadness.
Arts critics, and those who lost, are quite vocal during this time of the year. Some of their complaints will be genuine while others lack substance.
Planning boobs, wrong choice of winners and general flow of the event trigger raging debates.
This trend has been going on for years with the hope organisers will learn from their mistakes.
At the weekend, the 21st National Arts Merit Awards were held at the Harare International Conference Centre. The event had its flaws, which are set to trigger debate.
After the NAMAs, the Zimdancehall Awards, which are never short of drama and controversy, will follow. Afterwards, we are likely to see the Bulawayo Arts Awards.
The introduction of several arts merit awards on the showbiz landscape is commendable for its impact in motivating artists.
Artists deserve to be rewarded for their hard work and dedication to duty.
A number of artists work overnight to come up with products of good quality, which meet international standards.
In other genres, like visual and literary arts, a lot of sacrifice is done by artists to come up with products that have an international appeal.
All this can only be achieved through investment and dedication to work.
However, due diligence should become common practice among adjudication panellists when selecting winners.
Competent adjudicators, with a traceable history in the arts industry, should be roped in to preside over national arts merit awards.
Dubious adjudicators have on many occasions left many people debating over the outcome of national major awards.
Participation of fans is also needed to make sure the arts merit awards gain their credibility.
Most of the awards have lost their appeal after rewarding the wrong people. This should never be allowed to happen.
Some of the local artists have been complaining each year when such gongs are held.
Zim dancehall stalwart, Killer T, is on record having blasted awards organisers for alleged bias.
He said he was no longer interested in local art merit awards adding that he would rather die without a gong.
Such claims by Killer T show that something is wrong with local awards where a panel of adjudicators can easily, and deliberately, reward the wrong people.
This has destroyed the appeal and value of the awards. There are also allegations that there are people who are even bribing some judges to win awards.
Of course, this has not been proved but the emergence of such issues affect the credibility of the awards.
Fine art is hard to ignore since it speaks for itself.
Fans have proved to be the best judges, when it comes to the rewarding of exceptional artists, and they should be involved.
