Last Tuesday, March 8, marked the International Women’s Day. As such, Rwanda joined the rest of the world to celebrate the extraordinary contribution women and girls are making across all fields, including business, education, sports, art, science, agriculture, parenting, and governance.

28-year-old Christa Uwase, a collage artist affiliated to Yego Arts Gallery, a local fine arts studio based in Kigali, shares her insights into the local creative industry, and how more women can make a difference in the male-dominated field:

"We are celebrating the creativity and the power of arts. This is an intellectual field, which I think not everyone can just join. When you see women in arts, just know they are trying to develop ideas. We celebrate our ability because this is not an ordinary field,” she says.

The young artist also says that any misconceptions about the field are slowly changing.

"Initially, women in the industry were stereotyped. Now more than ever women have reason to join the industry.

Yes, there are a few women who have taken on art as a career, but there is still a lot of potential and room for more women to come on board,” she says.

She adds, "While you are able to find many women in music and fashion, it’s a different case when it comes to fine art, for now it remains pretty much a male dominated field. And this is because of the way society is structured. Girls were raised in society where boys were said to be the only ones who can do sculptures and painting.”

The fine arts field, which Uwase admits as a challenge, has largely been looked at as a non-productive area or a field for ‘failures’ where people only join to pass time.

But she believes that once investors start looking at it as a vibrant and budding field, more women will join.

"We can’t celebrate fully yet we are still hindered by a number of things on the ground. A big challenge is working with people who don’t fully understand the meaning of art.

"There are some people who create artworks which carry concepts that challenge human thinking and are of great significance to society,” she says.

She advises young people who are passionate about art to step forward and do what they are meant to do.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw