AfricanColours First Nairobi Gallery Walk And Tour

Kenya Mon 30-10-2006

AfricanColours First Nairobi Gallery Walk And Tour
By Tereneh Mosley

Nairobi’s City Centre is a dynamic, vibrant and yet an often feared and avoided location. Many residents of Nairobi are missing the gifts contained within our very own downtown streets. However a group of visionary arts and cultural institutions led by AfricanColours.com are attempting to change this fact.

On Saturday September 23, art enthusiasts, artists, visitors, long-time residents, newly arrived and even a Kenyan Scout troop gathered at the newest Nairobi Java House on Koinange Lane to initiate a new era of the art scene in Kenya.

Though the organizers goal for the first event of its kind seen in Kenya was 20-30 guests, they ended up with over 50 guests including many outstanding artists such as the legendary Jak Katarikawe, as well as emerging artists such as Jimnah Kimani, Justice Kyalo, Cartoon Joseph, Joseph Bertiers, James Kihungu and Thom Ogonga. Maggie Otieno and John Kamicha, two well-respected, award winning Kenyan artists acted as co-hosts and guides for the event.

"The idea is really a simple one," states AfricanColours.com Director Andrew Njoroge. "It is to increase the visibility and presence of the arts in Kenya and throughout Africa. One way to do this is to educate the community on what creative resources exist, literally right in their own backyard."

The program continued on from Java House to the Goethe-Institut where guests were treated with a sneak preview of the Art Calendar 2007 Competition for Kenyan Artists on “Health and Human Rights” organized by Ministry of Health and GTZ-Health Programme and a new media show entitled: “Somewhere in Africa” one of the first video art pieces of it kind created in Kenya featuring Kenyan artists, some were present and able to talk to the guest about their work.

This was a special dimension of the event which led to the overwhelmingly positive response by all who participated. The next stop on the tour was 'Image-In' the MDGS (The Millennium Development Goals, a Promise to the Youth of Mathare), a Mathare Youth Sports Association and UN-Habitat Collaboration Photo Exhibition. Ms. Christine Auclair, Partners and Youth Section of UN-HABITAT walked the guest through the exhibition and a video presentation of the project.

Some GalleryWalk participants were so moved they spent extra time viewing the exhibition which led them to being lost trying to find their way to the next stop the Hazina exhibition of the National Museums of Kenya’s National Gallery.

Hazina curator, Kiprop Lagat led the tour through the National Gallery himself and Jak Katarikawe whose work is in the Hazina exhibition, talked to the quests about his painting. “It was history and present right there in front of you, wonderful stuff,” a Gallery Walk guest commented.

One of the East Africa’s most established art galleries dedicated to the development and promotion of original contemporary African art Gallery Watatu was a much anticipated stop for those in the know. For new quests it was almost overwhelming to see the extensive collection of contemporary East African art, books and resources on art throughout the African Diaspora.

The final stop was AfricanColours.com’s own Chester House Gallery. The newest entry onto the Nairobi art scene, the gallery had transformed the 1st Floor of the historic Chester House building into a centre of Contemporary Art in Africa.

According to AfricanColours organizers, feedback was swift and universally positive, not only from the guests of the GalleryWalk but also the other participating galleries and art institutions.

“We had hoped this event would create an interest in further collaboration and support for the arts in Kenya,” states programs assistant Maryanne Kagwe. “We also wished that this event would prove to be the beginning of other city-wide art events and the start of future Gallery Walks. It looks like we achieved those goals.”

Posted By: African Colours

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