Get to know us
Who we are
The Art Kultured is a contemporary art agency based in Nairobi, Kenya that is committed to the growth of the East Africa Art ecosystem to ensure that artists can pursue successful long-term careers as art makers as well as improving gender equality within the contemporary art market. We aim to do this through art education, skills development, raising awareness, training, mentoring, enhancing visibility of women artists and networking. We work in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda.
We also play an important role as cultural amplifiers to increase demand and patronage for contemporary art and recreate the culture of art appreciation in East Africa through the amplification of the creative and cultural industries
What inspires us
As active participants in the contemporary African art ecosystem we have observed that we are often left out of global conversations about African art or African artists. We find ourselves being talked about, but we’re not involved in these conversations. We have also observed that there is a lack of infrastructure that is required to support artists and contemporary art ecosystems in East Africa. Many African artists aspire to pursue success internationally because the perception is that we do not have well developed local art markets that can support and sustain artists careers long term.
It has become increasingly clear that there is a great need to educate, empower and create opportunities for African artists in order to provide them with the tools to succeed. There is also a strong need to enhance the visibility of women artists in the East Africa region as well as address the barriers facing women when it comes to pursuing full time careers as art makers. We are aware that women and gender diverse artists and creative professionals continue to be the targets of harassment, bullying and abuse as the development of the digital environment has created new threats to their artistic freedom.
We believe that we have what it takes to develop and maintain a thriving local collector base that will contribute to the culture of art appreciation as well as our own cultural heritage.
Our current projects
5LENSES
5Lenses is a British Council funded research project that is working to engage up to 15 emerging and early career multi-disciplinary artists to develop their conceptual skills and further their artistic practice.
We are currently running a campaign to amplify the voices and talents of 100 African women contemporary artists in East Africa on our Instagram page and on this website. We hope that this project will bring some much needed visibility to women artists in the region as well as create a living portfolio accessible to anyone looking to learn about women artists in the region.
The Art x Amplify Project
The Art Kultured was created to address these needs that artists face particularly through art education, skills building, training and mentoring, awareness-raising campaigns, mechanisms to enhance the visibility of women artists, networking opportunities and facilitating access to funding.
Our mission is to support artists so that they can pursue profitable and sustainable careers as art makers locally and internationally.
We have embarked on a multi-phase project that includes the following sets of activities that will help us accomplish our ambitious mission.
1. Research: Needs Analysis
We are conducting a needs assessment identify the specific barriers relating to having sustainable careers as art makers in the contemporary art sector in East Africa. In addition, the analysis aims to collect gender disaggregated data in order to help understand the state of gender equality and gender specific barriers being faced by women artists.
2. Toolkit Development
Through our Needs Analysis research results we are working with artists, galleries, curators and other industry stakeholders to develop a contemporary art focused toolkit that will;
Address the barriers that women artist face when pursuing careers as art makers
Fulfill the skills and knowledge gap that artists require to pursue sustainable long term careers as artists
3. Art Incubation Program
We are developing an incubation program that will take emerging artists through a 6-week hands on incubation program that will be facilitated by industry professionals through various workshops addressed to prepare artists for the art market by instilling a varied set of skills pertinent to the art industry. The knowledge and expertise gained will enable artists to participate competitively in local and international art markets and to make successful and sustainable long-term careers as art makers. The content will be specifically tailored to the African art market and designed in a way that is replicable and teachable in various countries.
The Founder
Yvonne Nyawira is a cultural amplifier and multi-disciplinary creative professional with intellectual agility, and a talent for implementing programs rooted in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion principles to transform social and creative communities in the society. She boasts a reputation of over 7 years of progressive experience with success in delivering programs within the Arts, Culture, Tech and Social Enterprise industries. Yvonne has worked with various creative & cultural industry organizations such as the British Council, Hivos, HEVA Fund, Nesta Uk, Clore Social Leadership among others.