THE ISRAEL EMBASSY and the Belgian Embassy in Rwanda recently organised an exhibition for upcoming Rwandan painters to showcase their artworks to different delegates.

Aimed at promoting young and talented Rwandan painters, the three-day exhibition took place from May 28-30, at the Residence of the Embassy of Belgium, located in Kiyovu.

According to Dr. Ron Adam, Ambassador of Israel to Rwanda, the idea came after both embassies shared interest in art.

"We met during lunch and we both had the same passion for art. We wanted to promote artists” Adam said.

Uwiduhaye with one of his paintings

He added that the Belgian embassy has a very beautiful venue and he has connections with the artists, through visiting their art galleries he was able to buy some of the paintings.

"Through that, we decided to do something together, in order to promote these young artists.”

"We also wanted to show that more efforts need to be made by local private sectors. We shared ways to attract potential people to buy these nice art works through different events, inviting them to the library, amongst other ways” he added.

Criteria while selecting the artists was based on quality and mainly young talents with certain good standards built on the story behind the painting, according to Marie Geukens, wife of the Belgian ambassador.

 "This was a coherence story and we had found very talented artists in Musanze, with high skills and were proven to be professionally busy with their arts, they are artists in their hearts and they want to stay artists for the rest of their time, which was a great idea for us to mix the two groups from Kigali and Musanze together, for them to showcase their work, explain it and sell it, in terms of capacity building” she said

Geukens added that artists do not have to be at their home painting, they also need to go out to the world and show it. However, the fact that Belgian embassy is a beautiful venue with very limited in space and capacity building, they kept it manageable, to first do musanze and Kigali, and later in the coming times, to also promote other artists from other cities in Rwanda

According to Godfrey Kalungi Cyubahiro, one of the artists that participated in the exhibition from Inshuti art gallery based in Musanze, this is great professional growth for the artists.

 "Sometimes you do the work and it’s just there without hearing any comment and also the message communicated stays into our galleries but when you are exposed like this, people give you brave feedback with new ideas and you definitely get to know that they understand the message” Cyubahiro said

He continued that the platform is good for the artists because they are able to expose some of their issues to a bigger audience, well respected people who later play a big role in capacity building and behavioral change.

Rigobert Uwiduhaye, a visual artist from Musanze said, this has been a great experience of which was unexpected.

"Being here in a new environment showcasing my work is a dream come true because I have learnt a lot, but also made a lot of money” Uwiduhaye said.

The artists, each came with four of their works and Uwiduhaye was able to sell three during the exhibition, some of them costing around Rfw3, 000, 000

"I am happy to be part of this exhibition, thanks to Marie for inviting us to her beautiful home; this runs a contribution to the visual arts in Rwanda” said Jemima Kakizi, a visual and multidisciplinary artist currently working on a project of University of Global health Equity.

Photo: Olivier Kageruka

She added that Adam and Geukens have been so supportive through attending many exhibitions and it is really good to see that they are finally hosting one.

"We appreciated their continuous support to the art community and it is also good for me to work with other artists, you learn from each other” Kakizi said

She concluded that especially female artists who do not have enough visibility, this is a good platform because people get to know you and then when they see opportunities, they can call you because they already know you.

The project engaged three artists from Musanze, three from Kigali, two being visual female artists, plus the illustrators from Nabu Library digital books.

The embassies brought in managers of hotels, restaurants, banks and other individuals, who bought and was a great opportunity for the artists to make great connections.