The Stars are Bright: Zimbabwe through the eyes of its young painters from Cyrene (1940-1947)
The Theatre Courtyard Green Rooms, London

On 15 April 1947, during a tour of the country that was then Rhodesia, and is now Zimbabwe, Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) called in at a mission school run by a Scottish Anglican priest, which was already gathering a reputation for its avant-garde artwork. The school – which is still flourishing – is called Cyrene, and it’s just outside Bulawayo. The Queen, impressed with what she saw there, later acquired one of the school’s artworks for the Royal Collection. The surrounding publicity helped put the school and its students on the international map, and was indirectly responsible for an exhibition of its work currently on show in London (to 31 October).

Cyrene Mission School had been in existence for only eight years by the time of the royal visit, having been founded from scratch by the Revd Ned Paterson. Born in Aberdeen, he emigrated to South Africa as a child, served in the First World War and later studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. He returned to Africa, and taught art in South Africa before moving to Zimbabwe to establish the school that would forge his reputation as an artistic pioneer; some of its students, including Samuel Songo and Kingsley Sambo, would go on to become among the first professional African artists of the continent.