Housed in one of the country’s finest monuments, the National Gallery of Bulawayo is a unique facility, which holds invigorating and challenging exhibitions. Douslin House where the Gallery is housed is more than 100 years today. Its architectural splendour makes evident the gallery’s own goal of aesthetic appreciation and artistic aim.

As custodians of a growing Zimbabwean heritage, we are tasked with the creative and intellectual discipline to select, to nurture and commend outstanding works of visual art and of African Modern Art, to select and display pivotal works, to generate and improve upon existing talent, to train and develop artistic skills, to educate, to empower, to mediate, and mostly to celebrate.

Freed from some of the influences and concerns, which dominate other provinces in Zimbabwe, the unique thrust of the National Gallery of Bulawayo of African Modern Art is its desire to dissolve barriers between art and its audience, to establish a consistent dialogue and intimacy. The personality of this gallery is embodied in its transparent windows in the Lower Gallery, which allow passers-by to view current exhibitions while going on about their daily business.

Its warm wooden frames, doors and floors, the fireplaces remaining in the smaller galleries upstairs, the laced balconies overlooking the cityscape, the enclosed courtyard and sculpture garden, each develop an atmosphere of sharing and closeness. Added to this are the studios where the artists can be witnessed at work, and an intimate family style café. The gallery also houses a non-circulating library with an emphasis on texts covering of African Modern Art.

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