OREISON BANA has started training children about visual art, including painting and drawing by using different pencils and brushes, and seeks to promote art through his start-up, BlueArt and Hub. The 22-year-old is aware that visual art, especially drawing and painting, helps children expose their talents, be open-minded and come up with innovations. According to him, his initiative aims to help youngsters develop their ideas and portray different messages while expressing their feelings and thoughts. He founded the company in 2018 and in 2022, he joined hands with his friend, Abel, whom they shared vision of promoting their artistic talents as well as their fellows’ through their website, blueart.shikima.rw, which encompasses a gallery, different comic books and a showroom for different artworks. According to him, the reason why they choose to venture into art was to promote the sector because they are aware that it is still developing and that giving a platform to rising artists as well as children can have a huge impact that can lead to a big change. Currently, they do paintings on canvas and in digital and are training around 40 students. “We have started working with two organisations, schools and different individuals. We offer them courses about art and they use both ink and pencil to produce the artworks. Children who attend are issued certificates and we specifically follow up on those who demonstrate exceptional talents to help them advance,” he said. “When the client is an individual, we go to their home, but when it’s a school, we request the leader to add an art course on the program so that the children can have it.” Oreison Bana at work with his paints. So far, over 10 artworks have been uploaded on the platform and more are to be added. Bana revealed that they are still equipping it with more content and products for art lovers to enjoy and are planning to stream different educational animations on it to help students learn easily and pleasingly. The challenge they still face include funding and material issues. According to Bana, they are funding themselves and some of the materials that are required to make artworks are still hard to find in Rwanda given that some children need them. Nevertheless, BlueArt and Hub is planning to add the artworks crafted by children on the platform as a way to promote them so that they can earn from them once purchased. They are also planning to open a publishing house to allow children develop and publish comic books. They can be found on Twitter: blueartandhub, Instagram: blueartandhub, email: blueartandhub21@gmail.com or phone: +250781928210.
