By Seth Luchemo – Director at Recreation Factory Arts.
After months of discussions and planning, the Created 2 Create Art Camp at Mathare Children’s Education organized by Inverted Arts Kenya Mentors with the help and support of Mark and the Inverted Arts team, finally happened May 1-5, 2023. The participants were between the ages of 8-19 and class choices included music, dance, video/photography, visual arts and fashion.
Music Class – Artist Mentor Seth Luchemos
The eight students were highly motivated and eager to learn, and on the first day an introduction to music was done and by the end of the day the students were given the task of writing songs after given tips on song writing. After sharing ideas and suggestions, we were able to come up with one class song on the second day. The song was themed “God gave me something special.” Students learned how to play the ukulele and keyboard and by the end of the week they were able to play two songs (“He’s Got the Whole World” and “This little light of Mine”) during the showcase on Friday.
Dance Class – Artist Mentor Elijah Otwal
This class was interesting and fun filled as they danced outside in open space. The eleven students in this class were able to learn different dance moves and by the end of the week they had developed a dance routine that was performed at the showcase event.
Video and Photography Class – Artist Mentor Kevin Otieno
These twelve students were introduced to the world of photography on the first and second day. It was amazing seeing the students already taking photos on day one of the art camp. During the showcase on Friday, the class took video shots of the music class performing their class song and we hope to have a music video once the song is recorded.
Visual Arts Class – Artist Mentor Ronald Opiyo
The class had nine students and focused on developing a final product by the end of the Art Camp. The students were taught on how to make a wall hanging out of papers. There was a lot of cutting, rolling and painting involved throughout the week for the final product to be ready. At the end of each day, it was amazing seeing the other classes join the visual art class to help them in the rolling and painting.
Fashion Class – Artist Mentors Yvonne Asunnah/Stephanie Dindi
This class of eight students had two main activities: mat making and window decoration. The mat making was very engaging and exciting for all the students. We also had the others students join in making the mat after they were done with their respective classes.
Impact
The students enjoyed the Art Camp heartily and totally. There was a lot of eagerness to learn as they students could ask questions and showed curiosity to know and learn more. A good number of students confessed to not being sure of what their talents and gifting are and wanting to pursue and develop them with intent. The level of participation and immersion by the students made us, the facilitators, very proud and we hope to commit to have sessions with the children at MCE more frequently and not just during the Art Camps.
We hope that MCE and Inverted Arts will work together and form a solid partnership for the benefit of the creative children at the facility going forward!
