Week 2...Traveling Exhibitions...first at Kasota

Sunday proved to be an amazing day. We opened the traveling exhibition in two locations, Kasota and Buyoga - both areas of Kibinge Sub County. Before I go on the describe the events, I must first tell you how this all came about...since I was in Texas coordinating with Fred in Kampala, he had to have someone on the ground here in Masaka working directly with the schools. His brother Steven (who I posted a photo of in the previous post) has been amazing at coordinating and mobilizing the community both at Kasota and Buyoga. Everything from the tent set up to getting the word out to the community about the project was coordinated before I arrived. Both he an Fred worked extremely hard to organize and generate excitement about the project. And judging by the turnout for the exhibitions it worked.

When we arrived at Kasota Primary School early that morning we were greeted by the entire community. The tent was set up with displays of mat, banana leaf products as well as hundreds of small bark cloth doll dresses (which were part of an initiative to teach product development and craft skills to the community.) In one corner of the tent, we set up our display of contemporary artworks from the students at Parsons, images of works by European artists, and artwork by Ivan, Sarah, and Venny. Mary Barongo and Oliver Heintz of Barktex worked with us to get images of the contemporary works happening throughout Europe.

What I did not expect was to have such a warm welcome. We were seated as a troupe of dancers, young girls from the village, performed in their local language. Several of the community leaders as well as Matilda, the head mistress of Kasota Primary School, gave speeches that expressed their excitement for the project. Fred, Venny, Sarah and I were asked to speak and then the exhibition was officially opened.

I enjoyed seeing the interest in the works that we brought. In particular, Ivan, Venny and Sarah were able to talk one on one to the artisans of the community about their work - especially issues of good craft.

You can see great photos of Venny, Ivan and Sarah below.