Kunda Arts Business incubator trains Artists to make productive projects

By Elias Hakizimana.

Various Artists in different disciplines across Kigali have gained knowledge at Kunda Arts Collective to better formulate and implement successful income-generating projects.

Incepted in two years ago, Kunda Arts Collective aims to promote sustainable development in Rwanda through partnering with and connecting local artists and investing in their communities.

The Art Center works with talented Rwandan artists to provide a platform for them to share their artworks and creations, expand their borders and retain a sustainable income.

Speaking during a three-day workshop dubbed ‘Kunda Arts Collective Cultural Entrepreneurs Lab’ organized by Kunda Arts in partnership with Germany Embassy, Fiacre MUTABAZI, Eco-Social Activity Entrepreneur and Founder of Kunda Arts Collective said that the idea of this initiative is to help Artists to use what is around to create opportunities.

“We go to different places and we collect plastic bottles and empty wine glass bottles, Kitenge patterns and we use them to create value for them like decoration instead of being burden to the environment. We opened the space to give chance to the artists, for this moment we invested into visual artists to give them a platform to explain their artworks,” Mutabazi said.

He added that the artists beyond the training get a free eco-working space to do researches on their different ideas and creations.

The workshop coincided with the launch of a new project called ‘Cultural Entrepreneurs Lab’ funded by Germany Embassy in Kigali, GÖHDE FOUNDATION and StArfrica which supports entrepreneurs from Rwanda with a startup capital.

“The main purpose of our workshop is to empower Artists with different Business skills like digital marketing, negotiation and pricing, how to use social media effectively, how to create an effective arts website, we also introduce them about grant writing skills”. He said.

“We believe that at the end of this workshop, Artists will be equipped with enough business skills to go beyond and value their artworks because we do not need artists who survive, we want artists who can turn their creativity into a source of income and provide more jobs”. Mutabazi added.

Creative artists were targeted in the phase one of this training and the phase two, three and four will bring together other artists of other kinds of arts.

Katharina Hartwing, Co-Founder of Kunda Arts, Project lead of the StArfrica Project by University of Rwanda and University of Koblenz-Landau said that they wanted to prove digital marketing feasibility among the artists and support them during these difficult times of Covid-19.

“I feel like there are a lot of artists in Rwanda and here at Kunda we want to bring them together, not like a Union but as an empowered team and the more they are connected, the more they become stronger. So, we want to give them a kind of a voice and so they become more professionals.” She said.

Trained artists include Script writers and Directors, movie makers, graphic designers and painters among others.

Agape Ishimwe, Self-employed in painting and scripture Art is among the trainees and currently works with Kunda Arts Collective where he gets support of different kinds.

He said that the workshop was of a great value as he learnt to use social media in a more effective way. “I gained knowledge on how to use Instagram, which is a key marketing tool. In Arts.” Ishimwe said.

Arsene NGABO, Managing Director of Movie People (MP) also expressed his appreciation of the workshop as good initiative to boost knowledge of artists.

“We learnt how to market our products and deal with price negotiation. The new thing I learnt is customer service and this matters a lot in the Art Industry.” Ngabo said.

 

 

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