AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, in partnership with Njabala Foundation and Independent Curators International (ICI), is proposing a 6-month mentorship program for emerging female-identifying curators based in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, themed “Curating as multiplying mediation and access to culture.”

Program Overview

The mentorship aims to support emerging visual arts workers by creating a platform to develop their practice, gain resources, enhance research and discourse, and engage with established curators from East Africa and beyond. Offering opportunities to develop tools and actions to raise awareness about gender issues in the East African context, the program will support a new generation of arts workers sensitive to the place of women artists and augment the agency of female-identifying artists, curators, and educators in the region and globally.

Over the course of the program, each participant will meet with their mentor monthly between January and June 2025 to workshop a proposal for an exhibition or similar project and to receive individual feedback on their curatorial practice. Mentorship sessions will take place virtually, though participants will be invited to Kampala, Uganda for a midpoint, in-person group meeting to connect with the other participants and mentors.

Eligibility

This opportunity is available to female-identifying arts workers based in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Applicants should have 3+ years of experience curating, working in the arts, or working with artists.

Mentorship sessions will take place virtually. Participants will be invited for one in-person group meeting in Kampala, Uganda during the program (date TBD).

Application Guidelines

All applications should be submitted through ICI’s application portal by August 15, 2024, 11:59pm EAT. Application materials include:

– Description of project you would like to develop during the mentorship period, including the next three steps you’d like to take to move the project forward. Projects should in some way engage with female-identifying artists, creative producers, or publics (400 words max)

– Letter of intent describing why you would like to take part in this program, including specific mentorship needs to support your project (300 words max)

– Bio outlining relevant experience (250 words max)

– Work sample/portfolio (uploaded as an attachment)

– CV (uploaded as an attachment)

Mentors (more to be announced)

Fadzai Veronica Muchemwa
Fadzai Veronica Muchemwa is a researcher, writer, and curator currently operating between Harare, Zimbabwe, and Makhanda, South Africa.

Rose Jepkorir Kiptum
Rose Jepkorir Kiptum is the co-curator of Wanakuboeka Feelharmonic, Naijographia, and 28 Words in Maputo.

Portia Malatjie
Portia Malatjie (b. 1985) is a Johannesburg based curator and art historian.

Violet Nantume
Violet Nantume is a curator and director at UNDER GROUND, a gallery and contemporary art space in Kampala, Uganda.

Ba Taonga Julia Kaunda-Kaseka
Ba Taonga Julia Kaunda-Kaseka is a multidisciplinary curator, mentor and designer of social spaces living in Lusaka, Zambia.

Georgina Maxim
Georgina Maxim is an artist, curator, initiator of the collective Village Unhu in Harare, Zimbabwe and studied African Verbal and Visual Arts at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.