By Iminza Keboge
Published June 15, 2018
A leading landscapes designer is using her signature blend of bold colour and eye-catching pattern to infuse a community empowerment centre on an East African island with an atmosphere of optimism and energy that reflects its mission and impact on the community.
London-based Camille Walala, a textile designer who works in art direction, interior design and large-scale civic art and installation projects, is sharing her irrepressible enthusiasm for playful, graphic patterns that invoke a smile with the people of Ukerewe Island on Lake Victoria in Tanzania as she paints Umoja Training Centre (UTC) that focuses on the protection and empowerment of people living with albinism.
RELATED:Where Art and Science Meet
“Camille Walala has designed beautiful risograph prints conveying her pattern inspiration for the project.The limited edition is available online here, with all proceeds going to support Standing Voice’s work,” says Jessica Knowles of Zetteler of London that is collaborating with Standing Voice, the organisation behind UTS, in preparing a special exhibition featuring some of the artworks that will be created from its six-day skills-development workshops in June 2018.”These will be made available to buy at auction, raising funds for Standing Voice to enable the charity to continue changing lives – medically, socially, economically and creatively – for many years to come.”
Specifically Camille Walala–who says her art is influenced by the Ndebele of southern Africa–is painting four key parts of UTC: the main entrance sign;
the concrete water tanks that serve the UTC and surrounding villages; the new radio room where the Ukerewe Young Reporters Group records and broadcasts; and sections of the new library, which is being fitted with desks and shelving by designer and fabricator Simon Sawyer.
RELATED:Interactive TV Show Puts the Arts on the Agenda
“Camille and Julia will be filling the spaces with the Walala signature blend of bold colour and eye-catching pattern, helping infuse the UTC with an atmosphere of optimism and energy that reflects its mission and impact on the Ukerewe community,” says Knowles who heads the PR Department at Zetteler.
The construction work of the space being painted was completed in 2016 and acts as an inclusive space for members of the community – with and without albinism – to come together, share and develop skills, overcome prejudices, form positive relationships, understand and embrace differences, establish
businesses and claim a stake in wider African society.
Walala’s renovation coincides with Standing Voice’s second annual Skills-development Workshop programme that runs June 16 – 29, 2018 with a series of workshops from visiting expert artists intended to help the community develop skills and pursue income-generating opportunities and pathways to professional development.
RELATED:Africans at Work Photo Contest Announces Winners
Among the areas to be tackled in the programme that was inaugurated in 2017 shal be gardening, tailoring, radio, photography, art, printmaking and storytelling.
“What makes the Skills Workshop so unique is its psychosocial impact. By including people with albinism as valued contributors to society, empowering them to train in concrete skills, and to partake in creative expression, these workshops forge a path not only to economic empowerment but also to social inclusion: they strike at the core of ignorance, and place people with albinism at the centre of their own narrative. That is why they are so powerful,” says Harry Freeland, a filmmaker who founded Standing Voice.
RELATED:Africa World Cup Glory Campaign Theme Song Goes Viral
