Meet Zigama, a visual artist whose heart beats for needy children

Last week, President Paul Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame hosted close to 200 kids for the End of Year Children’s party at the Village Urugwiro. The annual children’s party, which is usually organized by Imbuto Foundation and the Unity Club, brings together children aged between 7 and 12 years. Julius Zigama, a visual artist, poet and art trainer was behind the painted faces of the children and live painting. Apart from that, he also had a chance to train some of the children who are passionate in arts on how to go about their dreams. At the age of 25, Zigama is the brains behind Gama ArtS Rwanda (Great Arts Makes All), an organisation based in Rwanda that focuses on contributing to education through taking art lessons to less privileged children, which unlocks children’s potential to think, create and unlock individual power of mind. They do this through workshops, school art competitions, and art exhibitions, among others. Zigama started the organisation early this year with a vision of seeing the impact of arts in children and youth lives. Currently, he is pursuing a degree in sales and marketing. He is also pursuing a diploma in Education in Fine Arts at the University of Central Africa. Inspiration In the past, Zigama used to do art strictly for money, but as he interacted with a number of artists in Rwanda, he realised the arts industry lacked cohesion and regarded the trade cheaply. “When we were young, we used to have special classes for art and crafts and these used to expose us to other activities that helped us to do hands-on work. This is no longer happening,” he says. Zigama says some pre-schools offer such art and crafts lessons to kids, but notes that the case is different to the less privileged schools, especially in rural areas. “With the great art talents we have in Rwanda, we have only one art school, which is Nyundo School of Arts. And, moreover, at advanced secondary level, which leads to incompetent artists being produced. “Even those that are out can’t find market for themselves so they let go of their talents and pursue other careers,” he adds. However, this is the very reason that drew Zigama to give up working for money to creating a platform to develop art through various means. And in pursuit of his dream, in 2014, he birthed Gama Arts Rwanda, with the goal of changing the mindset towards art in Rwanda since he had realised that there were other talented youth that needed support. “I wanted to share art with everyone, to connect all artists to come up with a society that appreciated art for good reasons,” he says. Zigama paints a kid’s face during a childrens’ party at Village Urugwiro last week. / File photo Apart from that, Gama Arts Rwanda has also a continuous campaign called ‘One Art Class at School’ in one of the poorest two classroom school in Ndera sector in Gasabo District. “Since art lessons are not in all schools, especially in the poor ones, we want to continue reaching out to kids in such schools so that they get the same services as those in good schools,” he says. Impact on the society Since January this year, more than 20 artists have joined Gama Arts Rwanda to work for the community and develop the art industry. Gama Arts Rwanda has also been working with other organisations that support children like Imbuto Foundation, Sports and Education Development Initiative Rwanda (SEDI), Karame Kids Fun Fair, as well as Hope for Children Africa. Through Gama Arts Rwanda, different artists have gotten jobs, which has encouraged many not to abandon their talents. “Children, for example, continue to show more interest in these activities and this impacts their education positively. The youth, on the other hand, they have been introduced to art trainings and workshops, with some getting paid for their art works for the first time,” he says. Challenges Zigama says more training and mentoring is needed for them to change people’s mindsets so that they can take art seriously. “Lack of right people to talk so that art can be in the curriculum is also a challenge for the art industry. Lack of art supplies for more schools and young artists is another big setback,” he says. Plans “We are planning to enlarge the Gama Arts Rwanda family so that we can reach out to more schools in villages, as well as partner with more other organisations that work with children. We also plan to scale up art trainings for youth across the country,” Zigama says.