By Iminza Keboge
Published October 2, 2018
A three-week exhibition of art by children from a Nairobi informal settlement is set to begin at Nairobi National Museum (NNM) in Kenya’s capital on October 3, 2018.
Titled From Hope to Reality, the show that runs through October 31, 2018 is said to be both ‘a culmination of more than eleven years of hard and heartfelt work to create an environment both in the schools and the community of Kibera to provide access to art education’ and ‘an expression of creativity and empowerment’.
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But how has this project come into being?
“Bringing art to those in the greatest need in the Kianda section of Kibera started in 2008 with the creation of the Art in Kibera programme at St Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School. The programme was created by Charles DeSantis and Margaret Halpin as an annual immersion programme to create art,” a statement from NNM says. The programme also targeted younger children in a school known as Red Rose Primary School.
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The programme grew into Kibera Art Institute in 2013 for what is described as the desire to have a larger outreach in the informal community of Kibera. The project is said to be delivering art creation and education programming to children aged 4 to 22 years on a weekly basis.
“In 2015,” NNM statement says, “the Sanaa Foundation was founded and registered as a Community Based Organisation with the Kenyan government to ensure the sustainability of these offerings and that Kibera children and young adults have the opportunity to share their creative voices and visions.”
