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British Council project spurs East African and UK arts scene

Thursday, November 24, 2016 — updated on December 25, 2020 - 3 min read

British Council ‘new Art new Audiences’ project awardees with regional director Tony Reilly. PHOTO | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

The British Council Kenya has given a big boost to the East African arts scene with its recent selection of awardees who responded to its July open call to take part in its ‘new Art new Audiences’ project.

The call was extended specifically to artists and art organisation in East Africa, including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia as well as the UK.

Only four of the eight projects were represented last Friday. They included The Textile Print Project, represented by fashion designer Diana Opoti who will be working with Ugandan, Rwandan and UK designers to create new textiles inspired by traditional African fabric designs; the Jalada Mobile Literary Festival and Literary Bus Tour designed by Jalada’s Moses Kilolo and Richard Oduor in collaboration with artists and translators from Rwanda and the UK; Meet me Outside, represented by Eugene Lowell who will develop a ‘film trilogy’ devised with film, music and photography by Eugene and other artists from Tanzania and UK; and M-Brace, an outdoor dance project created by the Pamoja Dance troupe together with disabled and non-disabled dancers from Uganda and UK, and represented by Joseph Muriithi.

The other four projects in which Kenya is collaborating include the Future Friends Portal which will engage curators from the UK together with artists, designers, musicians and ‘thinkers’ from Kenya and Ethiopia; the Trans Luo Express which will be involved in the collection and production of ‘transnational’ Luo music from Uganda, Kenya and UK; Man the Unfree, based on the essay (of the same name) by the late Ugandan writer and literary giant, Okot p’Bitek, featuring dance, poetry, performance and a digital art installation involving artists and art institutions from Kenya, Rwanda and UK; and finally, Components, which will feature a set of collaborative DJ-led performances involving Rwandan, Kenyan and British musicians and music producers together with Kenyan DJ Gregg Tendwa and East African promoters who will stage shows all across Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and the UK.

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British Council project spurs East African and UK arts scene

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