After a five-day bootcamp of intensive training that saw the best 60 picked out of 147 contestants, Art-Rwanda Ubuhanzi, nationwide competition saw six winners emerge as the best of the best in their categories, bagging Rwf 1 million.

The winners are; Ishimwe Diane in the category of Plastic Art, Ihirwe Jovite for the category of Music and Dance, Tuyishime Anaclete for the fashion category, Mukingambeho Henriette for the category of Acting and drama, Ishimwe Samuel for cinematography and photography, while Niyomugabo Josue won the literature category.

The three winning categories were, music and dance, photography and cinematography and plastic arts bagging Rwf 10 million, as seed capital for their projects.

Speaking at the grand finale held on Friday, November 25, Minister of Culture and Youth, Rosemary Mbabazi, congratulated winners of the second edition of ArtRwanda-Ubuhunzi urging them to use the skills they got from the contest to take Rwanda’s art sector to greater heights .

"Winners of the first edition did a great job in transforming Rwanda’s art industry and we are very sure that it will also apply to our finalists who are going in a one-year incubation,” Minister Mbabazi said, adding that Rwandan artists should as well produce socially engaged art that can change people’s lives.

The winners from each category and all the 60 finalists will go for a one-year incubation.

The incubation process is aimed at talent development and mentorship, employment generation and artworks commercialization, creation and development of sustainable, globally competitive artists that contribute to the accelerated growth of the Rwandan economy.

ArtRwanda-Ubuhanzi is a project that seeks to identify young artistic talent across a wide spectrum of art disciplines, and offer them the requisite skills and tools to not only hone their respective talents but also become creative entrepreneurs.

Launched in August 2018, the talent search is a joint project by the Ministry of Youth and Culture and Imbuto Foundation with a mission to improve and support Rwanda’s art sector.