A good friend of Fred's and someone who I have enjoyed getting to know over the years is Rose Mwanja, chief conservator from the Uganda Museum. She has been so gracious to me as I have been researching plaited mat making and bark cloth. During my trip in 2008, she was one of the scholars who was interviewed for the Material Evolution exhibition. We barely made it through the interview for laughing so much. I am very thankful for her support. She was to make it to the exhibition in Masaka but had an emergency at the museum the morning of - we missed having her there! That is Fred seated to her right.
During my trip, someone asked me who Fred Mutebi was and what he did. I tried to explain about his artwork, his work with children and the community, but it was becoming too lengthy - so I just said that he is an artist activist. I feel that is a good title for an artist who is so concerned about the trials of his country that he works hard using what he knows, art, to brings about conversation and provoke people to think about issues. I say all of this to introduce a project that I was able to see Fred work on with secondary school students at the Lubiri Secondary School. In February, elections will be coming and with that the potential for violence. Fred worked with an organization called Fair Pen (www.fairpen.com) to organize the creation of a Talking Mural with the theme of "Together we can talk to avoid electoral violence."
Fred continued this message as he worked with the Lubiri students to create prints using a reductive method. I had the opportunity to attend and talk with some of the students. I am including some images from that workshop.
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