The government has announced plans to build a national cultural centre in Gahanga sector, Kicukiro district with construction works scheduled to start next year.
The national cultural centre will be equipped with a library, stage performing theatre, movie theatre and exhibition stalls to display cultural products among others.
“This will not only be a national theatre but a one stop cultural centre since it will be equipped with different cultural materials,” Jean Pierre Karabaranga, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Sports revealed.
“At a moment, we cannot tell how long this process will take because the study is not yet done,” the Permanent Secretary explained, adding that once the construction process starts, it would not take long to be accomplished since it has been one of the major projects earmarked on the ministry’s seven year plan.
The ministry observed that it was imperative to have such cultural centrers hence the plan to have at least one well equipped centre. He added that this was the first time the proposal featured in the ministry’s action plan.
“We were not taking it as a big issue because we thought people would use other centres but we have now found it is necessary,” Karabaranga said.
For many stage performers, it has been challenging since they had no special place to execute their activities which forced them to hire halls in private institution’s halls, which at times would either be too small, booked for other functions or too expensive to rent.
“Most of the time, our performances are commissioned by other institutions and this is not because, we cannot have self-sponsored performances and deliver good and interesting messages to the people, but it’s because we have no facility specifically for such performances and this hinders our popularity and development,” Hope Azeda, Mashirika’s founder and Artistic Director told IGIHE.com in an interview.
With the acting and the theatre scene still embryonic, few professional groups have managed to survive and this has led to slow progress of performing arts in the country.
The Managing Director, Urunana Development Community, George Gahenda reiterated that lack of a cultural centre was a big hindrance towards their development, though they had tried to rectify the problem by moving to the local communities to deliver their message besides conducting radio shows.
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