Hidden Gems: Bringing Zimbabwean art and culture to Southwest Florida

Art and culture blossom in places unbeknownst to the public, with artists aiming to unite people through shared experiences and stories.

At the Peace River Botanical & Sculpture Gardens in Punta Gorda, a splash of Zimbabwean culture is engaging Southwest Floridians clamoring to learn more about the South African lifestyle.

From Feb. 8 to April 20, ZimSculpt, a small-family business curated by Vivienne Croisette and her husband, will display an eclectic array of handmade sculptures crafted by Zimbabwean artists using minerals and materials foraged by the artists.

“Every single piece is hand-selected by my husband and me. We go out to different places separately because sometimes it can take the entire day to go to one area,” said Croisette. “We work with 300 artists, which seems like a lot, but there are many more in Zimbabwe. We’re very selective about the sculptures chosen because the quality has to be perfect, and the standard has been set high.”

That quality is reflected within every piece on display. The attention to detail captivated local art enthusiasts and interested them in each figure’s inspiration and origin.

This is further heightened by the inclusion of the artist’s participation in the exhibit.

Two Zimbabwean sculptors, Passmore Mupindiko and Shine Muzika, tour with ZimSculpt while showing visitors how they craft their artwork.

Both men can be seen engrossed in their work in the open, demonstrating the intense sculpting process.

When asked about their artistic inspirations, Mupindiko spoke about how he could hear echoes of nearby birds when hunting in the brush. The noises preoccupied the lengthy waiting time while serving as a muse for many of his bird-related pieces.

While demonstrating his sculpting process, Mupindiko showed how applying wax coatings will mirror the effect of water on the material’s surface. This technique accents his work, allowing him to produce pieces with a water-like gloss contrasting the minerals’ earthy roughness.

For 25 years, Zimsculpt has toured North America, selecting one location to house its two-month-long exhibit. The botanical garden was chosen in 2022 and again in 2025.

Only one location in North America is picked by the touring exhibit annually.

When asked why the tour chose the Peace River Botanical & Sculpture Gardens, Croisette said, “We were doing an exhibition in Dallas, Texas, and the late Reverend Bill Klossner, a board of directors here, came and visited us. He was very insistent. He said, ‘You know, you have to come to our garden and do this exhibition.'”

According to Croisette, the then-small garden attracted many people who engaged with the art pieces and showed a passion for the artists and their stories.

“We were very well attended, and the gardens were very happy. They said, ‘Oh, we’d love to have you back at the end. And we said, ‘Oh, well, we’ll see how all our plans go anyway,'” said Croisette. “Two years later, we’ve had great attendance. On Tuesday, we had the best attendance ever during the week for the gardens. I think over 300 people visited us.”

Culture plays a significant role in creating the pieces, with each region of Zimbabwe represented by its respective artist and the materials used to create their work.

“We’re blessed with all the rocks and the selection they have to work. The artists are blessed that they’ve got a relatively free resource of stone in Zimbabwe to work on. They do have to go to the mines and collect all the rocks. That’s quite a process,” said Croisette. “So they go to the mines and collect all the stones from different areas of Zimbabwe, so the black stone comes from the north, the green stone from the east, and so on.”

Miners will venture to various areas to collect stones and minerals for their pieces, using chisels and axes instead of machinery or dynamite to dislodge the materials. This process prevents the materials from fracturing, allowing the artist to carve their pieces from a single block of stone.

When asked about compensation for their efforts, Croisette said that artists are paid whatever amount they request.

“We might buy, say, 20 of their sculptures,” said Croisette, “they can invest in whatever they want into, whether it be their school fees for their children. It might be a new car. It might be the crops that they want to plant. A lot of the sculptors that we work with they are subsistence farmers, meaning that they have a small plot of land. They work their land, and they just sculpt on the side to get some extra income so they can invest that into their into their farmland.”

The exhibit will be at the Peace River Botanical & Sculpture Gardens, 5827 Riverside Drive, Punta Gorda, until April 20.

It’s open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Sunday.

Admission is $20 per adult, $10 for students, $17 for people 65 and older and free for children ages 5 and under.