Described as an act of “intellectual gangsterism” by Zambian artist and curator Mr. William B. Miko, the Everyday Lusaka Gallery’s location is a contention to the conventional spaces that we would expect to encounter art in Lusaka.

Situated in the heart of Lusaka’s city centre, the gallery sits in the historic E. W Tarry building which was named after Edward Wallace Tarry, a colonial merchant whose company was “one of the largest ironmonger and machinery importers on the Diamond Fields” in the late 1800s. As the extractive colonial project expanded under and after the death of Cecil Rhodes, the building you stand in today was built in 1920 and set up as one of the first trading posts in Northern Rhodesia, and later became known to sell agricultural machinery.

After Zambia’s independence, the building was acquired by Zambia National Holdings Limited, owned by the United National Independence Party (UNIP) — the political party that fought for Zambia’s freedom.

According to the National Heritage Act, anything built before January 1st, 1924, is considered a heritage site and is protected by law. Thus, ninety years later in 2014, the building underwent major reconstruction works to preserve its original aesthetic of white walls and green corrugated roof, complete with the “Tarry’s Corner” signage hanging over the intersection of Cairo Road and Kalundwe Road.

Within walking distance from the gallery are several historic sites and roads. Everyday Lusaka sits at a crossroads of intergenerational and inherited history — a space produced by individuals and institutions that contested othering under colonial oppression. The architecture of a shopfront does not forget the conflicts of the past but rather recontextualises its relationship to one of shared equity and belonging.

The gallery becomes a conceptual project with a specific vision to invest in the arts in Zambia in a manner that is self-sustained and conscious of pride. It is not a funded non-for-profit or an institution. It continues a long tradition of trade and neutrality that businesses allow while strengthening itself on the merits of talent and ideas that our artists hold.

In opening our gallery in a seemingly inconvenient or unideal space, Everyday Lusaka contests the idea of where art would conventionally be encountered in the city. Daily, the energy, sounds and people of Lusaka permeate into the gallery space.

After all, if art is a universal language, should it not be accessed by everybody?