ABOUT US

'Everyone has the right to freely participate in cultural life, to enjoy the arts and to share its benefits.'

The 27th Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Art subjects are not examinable in schools in Kenya, and not being taken as compulsory practically absent from the curriculum.

We believe that art education is not a luxury. It is an essential component in child's development.

MASK is the only school in Kenya that gives active help to young people in exploring their creativity and self-expression.

MASK

• organises art workshops in schools,

• sets up and runs art clubs in schools, and

• puts on exhibitions of children's work in local communities in Kenya and internationally.

Our mobile format allows us to reach and benefit many children across different ethnic groups.

The School works with youngsters aged between 3 and 18 years including children with disabilities, or who may be homeless or abused.

MASK promotes a range of activities with young people in Kenya. These include

• promoting the idea of peace and social justice amongst schoolchildren through the arts in our Art for Peace programme;

• bringing an international base of volunteer artists to Kenya to nourish and develop children's creative skills and encourage Kenyan contemporary art through our Artists for Aid programme; and

• lobbying the Kenyan Government and local educational administrations to bring art subjects back into schools through our ongoing exhibitions and advocacy work. 

MASK aims to show another, hopeful and enriching side to Africa, a demonstration of a cultural and artistic need and talent that emphasises our common humanity in a different and positive way. 

ART FOR PEACE

Currently, there are no peace-building organisations in Kenya that focus in their work on schoolchildren.

MASK strongly believes that to teach children mutual respect and tolerance must be the first step towards a future of peace and prosperity. 

Working in areas of conflict and need, MASK uses art and drama to promote peace, ethnic tolerance and national unity.

Art is the most effective and comprehensive way of educating children. It is also a powerful and low-cost tool in uniting communities and healing wounds of conflict. Yet, children living in conflict or extreme poverty are often the most deprived in terms of artistic input.

MASK organises exchange programmes between schools of different ethnic groups, especially those in conflict, and voices children’s peaceful aspirations to communities at large through its exhibitions.

MASK has become an important link between children across different ethnic groups in the Nakuru, Narok, Laikipia, Samburu, Pokot, Naivasha and Baringo regions.

It continuously collaborates in Kenya with local not-for-profit and non-partisan peace-building organisations drawing on their experience and expertise. With sufficient support and resources, MASK can be a very important regional organisation that can provide an inexpensive but very effective contribution to prevention and management of conflict in Kenya

ART CLUBS

To encourage continuity and growth among pupils, MASK sets up art clubs in the schools and provides these clubs with art materials.

The clubs organise weekly art workshops for pupils of the schools, put on exhibitions of children's art, stage dramas for local people and even make films about local issues.

These clubs are run by MASK's volunteers, pupils and teachers of the schools.

MASK believes that the continuous learning of practical art skills can help children with further education and employment.

EXHIBITIONS

Exhibitions of children's art in schools and in communities are an important part of MASK's work. They promote art and demonstrate and encourage children's talent and aspirations.

In 2008 MASK organised an exhibition, at the Russian Embassy in Nairobi and at a leading law firm in the City of London, of children's paintings of the Kenyan post-election violence. The major Kenyan television station KTN featured the exhibition in their daily youth programme, 'Str8up'. Kenyan radio stations broadcast children's peace messages nationally.

In 2009, MASK organised a 'walking' exhibition in the Kongoli village in Naivasha, published a book of children's artwork 'One Year After The Conflict', and showed the paintings at the UNESCO see News.

ARTISTS FOR AID

Artists4Aid is designed to bring an international base of volunteer artists to Kenya. 

The main purpose of Artists4Aid is not to train professional artists, although that would be a welcome by-product, but to nourish and develop in children a wide range of creative skills. 

We wish to give children an opportunity to be exposed to new ways of seeing, and to fresh ideas about the nature of materials and functions of art. 

Children demonstrating a special talent for art will be eligible for a MASK Award to study art at leading international art schools.

As there are currently no fine art schools in Kenya, MASK plans to build permanent studios in Kenya, which will be a cradle for art studies and cultural exchange.

where we work

(click on the map to enlarge)

We work in the Nakuru, Narok, West Laikipia, Samburu, Pokot, Gilgil and Naivasha areas.

See list of Our Schools

low costs

MASK has proven to be very effective in achieving its objectives at a low cost. With minimal resources the School has made great progress with thousands of youngsters, beginning to transform local arts and raising children's self-confidence and motivation. Schools all over Kenya are eager to join MASK network.

There is a great need for and much interest in the arts in Africa!

 Trustees

Lyndsay Bird

Charles Dance

Tatiana Prokosch

Alla Tkachuk, Founding Director

Our volunteers in Kenya:

John Githiri, Geography teacher at Naivasha High School, Naivasha.  He is MASK's main teacher-coordinator in Kenya

Thomas K. Kanyoko, English teacher at Lariak Secondary School, West Laikipia.  He is MASK's West Laikipia's art clubs and Artists4Aid coordinator

Hellen M. Gichuki, 19.  She is our art workshops coordinator at Sipili School for the Deaf

Margaret Wachira, 18 and Joel Gatua, 18  pur leaders at Lariak Art Club

MASK Memorandum and Articles of Association

MASK Code of Conduct

Child Protection Policy

Child Protection Code of Conduct

Data  Protection and Privacy