BY SHARON SIBINDI BULAWAYO arts sector through the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe in the city is refusing to bow down to the second COVID-19-induced lockdown as it is harnessing the power of social media platforms to remain relevant. The gallery’s director Butholezwe Nyathi  said although they had lost the “momentum” they had gained after reopening last November, the institution was pinning hopes on virtual tours which played a huge role in the first lockdown to keep arts afloat. “The lockdown is very unfortunate, but we all understand why it has to be done. I think human life matters more than any occupation. We remain hopeful that there’s light beyond this lockdown, so from where we are, we are managing and surviving within the obtaining context,” he said. “We have responded by producing a virtual tour of one of our running exhibitions, Dreams and Reality, which people can see throughout our social media platforms.” He said the Dreams and Reality exhibition was about local young artists reflecting on Zimbabwe’s 40 years of independence, adding that another Power Play exhibition supported by the British Council has also gone virtual. “We have responded to the on-going lockdown by going virtual as what we did during the first lockdown. The beauty is we had already gone virtual without necessarily focusing on this lockdown. So it comes as a good alignment to have those virtual tours readily available,” he said. Nyathi said this week they were producing interactive art sessions which they also wanted to distribute via social media platforms. “We appreciate that many children are stuck at home, not going to school, so we have worked with local artists to identify things in typical households that can be used to produce works of art,” he said. “We have engaged two artists and we will be recording those next week so that we start sharing those via social media platforms as well so that parents could do those art activities at home with their children.”  Follow Sharon on Twitter @SibindiSharon