ArtRwanda- Ubuhanzi’s Road Trips will kick off in Midland Motel, Kayonza, 8th and 9th September, according to organizers.
IGIHE had a one-on-one with Geraldine Umutesi, the Deputy Director General of Imbuto Foundation, who gave an insight into the development of ArtRwanda-Ubuhanzi and what the public should expect from the project.
Extracts;
IGIHE: What is ArtRwanda-Ubuhanzi and what do we need to know about the project?
Umutesi: ArtRwanda – Ubuhanzi was conceptualized by Imbuto Foundation and the Rwandan Ministry of Youth in an effort to support Rwandan Youth’s artistic development and future career aspirations.
Since this programme involved the creative arts industry, we also partnered with the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Rwanda Academy of Language and Culture.
This programme also supports the government’s priorities in creating jobs through the promotion of social entrepreneurship among the young people in that industry.
This is a chance for the Youth to showcase their talents and aspirations in the Industry.
How will participants register?
Participants will register on audition days, on spot, depending on where they are located. We will commence our auditions in Kayonza, on 08-09 September, and then continue to Rubavu and Musanze, on 15-16 September, then to Rusizi and Huye on 22-23 September. Kigali will be our last destination, on 29-30 September.
What are the criteria for participating in the road trip selection?
Every Rwandan, aged between 18 to 35 can join. The participant will also need to show something that identifies you (such as an Identification card). He/she will also be required to bring their works or demonstrate, on spot, their talents.
Their work needs to be quite original, and ready for auditions. That’s all. But since our judges seek to choose the best contestants with the most outstanding talents, participants need to come ready to defend their projects and its social Entrepreneurial side.
Also, we are only looking for budding talents, those who never had the opportunity for their talents to be spotted and nurtured.
How will Art-Rwanda-Ubuhanzi be implemented?
There are 6 categories under the creative Arts industry. Contestants will be selected to participate in a pre-selection phase, where a team of judges will verify the authenticity of their work. In that phase, they will look out to only those who have outstanding talents; you might be a renowned artist in Kayonza, but yet, in Musanze, there’s one who might be better than you.
We will select 120 contestants—meaning 20 from each category, who will then proceed to the Boot Camp phase.
Will Established artists allowed to participate?
They will not participate but they will contribute as judges, coaches and influencers of this programme. Most of them are among stakeholders involved in this programme, since they also played a great part in raising the Industry.
For Rwandans living abroad, are they eligible to participate?
This is only the beginning; we decided to start from the Rwandan Youth based in the country, since you need to showcase and defend your work in front of judges. At first, there was a technology we had come up with, but we decided to first address issues such as unemployment within the Youth in Rwanda.
For now, we can only hope that Rwandans over the world support and help us spread this programme.
What would be your message to the youth that will participate in the programme?
In an effort to go hand in hand with targets of the National Strategy of Transformation, we need to find and develop new job opportunities, from within ourselves. This is the best time to foster new opportunities besides from what we are taught in class, or from agriculture, farming and other sectors. We will focus on the Creative Arts Industry and see how it can contribute to Rwanda’s Economic outlook.
What are prizes that will be entitled to winners of this project?
I think that no prize is equivalent to being given a platform to showcase your talent, but, winners will receive different prizes packages, among which seed capital will be provided to the top winners, allowing them to start new ventures and permitting them to access certain grants. In addition to the cash prizes, they will be linked to renowned art galleries, ‘ateliers de couture’, relevant institutions to their specific fields, for internships and a 1 year incubation period.
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