Kenny Nkundwa is the Project Coordinator for Rwanda Arts Initiative (RAI), a platform that brings together Rwandan artists and art enthusiasts with the aim of professionalising the art industry.

How did the Rwanda Arts Initiative come into existence?

Rwanda Arts Initiative started in 2001 as a platform for performers under the name, the Urwintore Workshop. 

We started with workshops on acting –and they were directed at actors, not technicians for example. It was focusing on the actor as an individual –things like body language, voice and stage presence. 

When the workshops ended in 2005, and as an outcome from those workshops, we adapted and stage produced a Greek play called The Investigation by Peter Rice and the play made a world tour. The director of the play was our artistic director Dorcy Rugamba, the founder of the Urwintore Platform which recently turned into Rwanda Arts Initiative. So we’ve been together with him since 2005.

Urwintore toured with The Investigation in many countries like France, Belgium, Japan, the US, UK, and Burkina Faso. It was a play that attracted a really big audience from all over the world.

How did the Urwintore Platform become the Rwanda Arts Initiative?

When we completed the tour that’s when we realised that the issue of lack of professionalism in the local arts industry wasn’t necessarily because of lack of talent. 

We found that the main issue is with the backup –the people backing up the actors in various support roles. So you find that the writer is at the same time the manager, he is a promoter, a marketer, basically he does everything and doesn’t get time to concentrate on his or her creative stuff. 

So for that reason we came up with a new strategy that said look, let’s shift. Instead of focusing on production of pieces for theater, let’s start by first of all creating a huge pool of human resources in different departments and sectors that support art:

Stage managers, people dealing with lights, stage, costume, sound, make-up, all those are still under resourced in Rwanda. Our human capacity is still lacking. There is not yet a vibrant and dynamic pool of people that really can engage in the production of a professional product. So we focus on technical trainings for now, and that is our mission for the moment.

What are your projections for the foreseeable future?

We hope in the coming two to five years to have created a big pool of people that can be used to support the creative industry in Rwanda in subsequent years. That way, we are able to be more professional, predictable, more viable and dynamic as an industry. 

We look to such a time when artists will be focusing on their own jobs, technicians on their own, and managers on their own. So we will have people that manage structures basically–people who can search for funds, those who can communicate what is going on within the art industry, so that artists can then concentrate their time on thinking and creating and writing and producing.

We have different components of the trainings directed to those sections of different people supporting the arts industry.

Who do you work with?

To accomplish whatever we do, we work with different partners, private people, individuals, or organizations like donor agencies. We look for funds in different places, and we always welcome whoever embraces our philosophy or wants to work with us. 

Our doors are open to everyone, as long as you’re passionate about art and feel like that is your vocation. 

We have a space called The Hub at our premises in Kimihurura, which is basically a place where artists can come and get some advice and tips and information –whatever we may possess that is to their benefit, we avail it. 

We are in synergy with so many artists and organizations out there, so they know what we do. We work with organizations like the Ishyo Arts Center, Iriba Center and Innovation Village at the Kigali Library Services.

Rwanda Arts Initiative in a nutshell…

At Rwanda Arts Initiative we believe that the art industry can substantially contribute to socioeconomic development of Rwanda as a sector generating wealth through sustainable job creation, economic diversification and cultural value addition. 

For RAI, development of skills and professionalization of the art industry are to be achieved through establishment of the necessary institutional framework and education scheme, strategic capacity building of human resources, hands on skills exposure to market demand best practices, and enabling of a conducive environment.