Tanzanian artist Ally Nyomwa has won a UK Travel Scholarship for Artists 2004. He was selected from more than 200 international entries submitted to ROSL ARTS (the arts division of the Royal Over-Seas League) of the United Kingdom. OGOVA ONDEGO reports.
Artists aged under 35 years from Australia, the Caribbean, India (Kerala Province), Tanzania and the UK were invited to submit slides of recent work to ROSL ARTS from which five artists were chosen. Primarily a cartoonist and illustrator, Nyomwa has worked for Heko magazine and the Baraza and Business Times newspapers, BBC Focus on Africa magazine, Tanzania Children’s Book Project (Jacaranda Designs), Majira newspaper and has been cartoon Editor and Chief Cartoonist for the SANIFU CARTOON NEWSPAPER. He has also worked as producer and presenter for Clouds FM Radio Station.
Born in Dar es Salaam in 1972, Nyomwa studied Fine Art at the University of Dar es Salaam. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions throughout Tanzania, including the Goethe Institut, Nyumba ya Sanaa, Art in Tanzania (Alliance Francaise), and Russian Cultural Centre. Nyomwa’s work has also been included in various publications: Art in Politics (Friedrich Ebert Foundation), Tanzania without poverty (Hakikazi Catalyst), Selected studies of civil society in Tanzania (DFID), and Situation Analysis for Children in Tanzania (UNICEF).
RELATED: From School Drop-Out to Master Sculptor
Other scholarship winners are Jemima Burrill (UK), Ariel Hayes (Australia), Shanti Persaud (Jamaica), and Thankamma Ratheesh (India, Kerala Province). Each of the overseas artists will be offered two all expenses paid trips to the UK. During September 2004 they will spend a month at the Patrick Alan Fraser Foundation at Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Scotland where studio space, accommodation and full board is provided. In addition the ROSL will provide up to seven days accommodation and hospitality at its centrally located clubhouses in London and Edinburgh. Return economy flight to the UK will be paid by ROSL ARTS plus a cash award of 3500 Pounds Sterling to cover personal expenses in the UK. The UK artist may make a one-month study visit to a Commonwealth country of their choice. All five winners will be invited to return to the UK in July 2005 for a group exhibition at a central London Gallery. ROSL ARTS will bear the cost of return travel to the UK for the group exhibition, freight of artworks, and provide accommodation and hospitality. Artists Mali Morris and Amal Ghosh and John Phillips (Director, London Print Studio) selected the winners.
Previous Winners of the ROSL Travel Scholarship include Matthew Couper (New Zealand), Jason Hicks (New Zealand), Kwok Chuen Lee (Hong Kong), Henry Mujunga (Uganda), and Ruth Uglow (UK) in 2003; Sudath Abeysekera (Sri Lanka), Kwadwo Ani (Ghana), Deborah Bowness (UK), Christine Morrow (UK), and Ebony Patterson (Jamaica) in 2002; Joseph Cartoon (Kenya), Bella Easton (UK), Belinda Harrow (Canada), John Lai (Malaysia), and Heather Straka (New Zealand) in 2001; Matthew Burrows (UK), Fiona Couldridge (South Africa), Mzukisi Dyaloyi (South Africa), Sarkar Nahid Niazi (Bangladesh), and Savanhdary Vongpoothorn (Australia) in 2000; and Pindaro Cabrera (Canada), Todd Narbey (New Zealand), Ming Wong (Singapore) in 1999.
Elaine Mitchener, Promotions Officer of ROSL ARTS, says the Royal Over-Seas League has over the past fifty years developed a diverse portfolio of arts projects devoted to the career development of talented young professional artists and musicians from the UK and the Commonwealth. “The principal aim of ROSL ARTS is to provide performance and exhibition opportunities for our prize-winning artists and musicians early in their careers, and bring their work to the attention of the professional arts community, and the media and the general public.”
Since 1984 the ROSL Annual Open Exhibition has provided an international showcase for young artists from Commonwealth and former Commonwealth countries to exhibit in the UK for the first time. Consequently, ROSL has exhibited work by artists from Australia, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Cyprus, Ghana, Grenada, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Malta, Malaysia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Nigeria, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
