MASK's
ANNUAL REPORT
April 2009- September 2010
Mobile Art School in Kenya, MASK
The charity registration number, and the company registration number:
MASK is a UK company limited by guarantee No. 06484985.
Since 23 March 2009, MASK is UK registered charity No. 1128734.
Mobile Art School in Kenya (MASK)
One, St Paul's Churchyard
London EC4M 8SH, UK
Dr Lyndsay Bird, Chair of Trustees
Charles Dance OBE
Tatiana Prokosch
Professor David N. Dilks (pending)
Patron:
Ibrahim El-Salahi
Staff:
Alla Tkachuk
Secretary and Executive Director, UK and Kenya
John Githiri
Main Art Instructor & Projects Coordinator in Kenya
Thomas Kanyoko
West Laikipia Art Clubs and Artists4Aid Coordinator, Kenya
Duncan Gatua
Art workshops instructor in MASK’s West Laikipia center, Kenya
Hellen M. Gichuki
Art workshops coordinator at Sipili School for the Deaf, Kenya
Margaret Wachira
Art workshops assistant, West Laikipia, Kenya
Joel Gatua
Art workshops assistant, Kenya
Alla Tkachuk
Email: contact@mobileartschoolinkenya
+ 44 (0) 7957 73 43 13
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
MASK organisational structure:
Trustees
¯
Executive director
¯
Staff
Decision-making processes work:
Trustees
¯Objectives
Executive director
¯Day-to-day running
Staff
Governing documents:
Memorandum and Articles of Association.
The MASK Charity is constituted as a limited company.
Every Trustee must sign a declaration of willingness to act as a charity trustee before he or
she is eligible to vote at any meeting of the Trustees.
FINANCIAL REVIEW
MASK’s Funds
¯
Restricted funds
¯
Running costs
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¯ ¯ ¯ ¯
art materials, exhibitions, fuel, transport, teachers’ & admin expenses
Donations:
MASK has been awarded £15,000 in grants in 2009-2010 by the:
MASK’s balance sheet on 28 September 2010
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£ |
£ |
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|
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Fixed assets, c) |
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2,224.69 |
| |
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Current assets, a) |
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|
| |
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Materials |
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0 |
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Debtors |
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0 |
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Cash in the bank |
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8,491.70 |
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Total curent assets |
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8,491.70 |
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Curent liabilities, b) |
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| ||
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Creditors |
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0 |
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Tax liability |
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0 |
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Overdraft |
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0 |
|
|
Total liabilities |
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0 |
| |
|
Net current assets, d) |
|
| ||
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(Working capital) |
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8,491.70 |
| |
|
d)=a-b |
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|
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|
|
|
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|
|
|
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Net assets, c)+d) |
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10,716.39 |
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Financed by |
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MASK's |
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2,620 |
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Donation |
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15,000 |
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Loans |
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Retained profit |
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| |
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Total |
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17,620 |
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OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES
'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
MASK’s aims:
1. To bring art education to children in Africa
2. To promote humanitarian development through the arts
MASK is the only organisation in Kenya that gives active support to the young people, especially those in rural areas and victims of conflict, in developing their creativity and skills of self-expression. MASK is the only organisation in Africa which promotes peace-building and humanitarian change through the arts.
MASK was set up in response to the fact that there is almost no art education in Kenyan schools. Although the primary school curriculum contains art, it is not examinable and therefore is not taught in schools. There is no art in the secondary school curriculum. There are no art colleges or fine art university degrees. This is the case in most African countries.
We believe that creativity is not a luxury but an essential component in every child’s development. Culture is a fundamental pillar of every succsessful society.
MASK’s main activities undertaken to further its charitable purposes for the public benefit:
ART WORKSHOPS
MASK provides art workshops to children in their schools. The workshops for a group of 20 children last 1,5-2 hours. Our topics include peace-building, conflict resolutions, and other social issues related to our children’s lives. The workshops are run by the MASK’s teachers with the involvement of the schools’ teachers.
EXHIBITIONS
MASK organises exhibitions of the children’s artwork in local communities and internationally. Exhibitions are important to MASK: they promote art, demonstrate talent, and encourage aspiration among children.
TEACHER TRAINING
MASK trains schoolteachers to run art workshops. We train our schoolteachers who run our art clubs.
ART CLUBS
MASK sets up weekly art clubs in the local schools to encourage continuity and growth among students.
ARTIST FOR AID
MASK works to encourage contemporary Kenyan art and to bring it to a wider international audience. The Artists4Aid initiative is intended to help children to build their contemporary art skills by bringing an international base of professional volunteer artists to Kenya.
CREATIVE CENTER
MASK builds a permanent fixed facility in Kenya
MASK’S HISTORY
In 2006 Alla Tkachuk, Russian-born UK-based artist, went to Kenya to paint ethnic groups and got involved in teaching art to children in local schools. During this she discovered that there is no art education in Kenyan schools and decided to do something about this. She founded the Mobile Art School in Kenya, MASK. MASK is not a traditional academic art school, but an organisation with a Art for Human Development vision.
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Human identity is a focus of Alla’s own artistic work. She painted widely acclaimed portraits of Prince Charles which featured on the front page of The Times, and run her own modern portraiture seminars at the National Portrait Gallery in London, with The Times as media partner. Her series of 20th century dictators were shown widely and became the ‘Critic’s Choice’ on the Saatchi Online Gallery.
WHERE MASK WORKS
MASK works in rural areas across all ethnic groups and religions. At the moment MASK has two centers (cluster of schools) in Laikipia, and Naivasha.
ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE
“We began with nothing but a desire to bring arts education and human development through the arts to children of Kenya. Today we work in dozens of schools in Kenya and show the children’s artwork across the world!” – Alla Tkachuk, 2010
ART WORKSHOPS
We estimate that over 16,000 children have benefited, as well as teachers, schools, and local communities.
We have been working with 20 schools in West Laikipia and Naivasha (this has increased from 8 schools in 2008) and establish weekly art clubs in these schools:
EXHIBITIONS
Throughout the year we held exhibitions in schools, and at local public events.
In July 2009, we exhibited children’s paintings during the IIEP UNESCO Summer School on “Rebuilding resilience: educational planning in ‘fragile’ contexts”. The IIEP’s former Director, Mark Bray, hosted the event.
On 13 October 2009, we showed our children’s artwork during the UNESCO’s General Conference.
On 19 January 2010, the Kenyan Ambassador, His Excellency E. Odembo, opened a MASK exhibition at the Kenyan Embassy in Paris. This exhibition was organised in collaboration with the International Institute of Educational Policy (IIEP), UNESCO:
In March 2010, MASK held a walking exhibition in the Kongoli Village in Naivasha:
In May 2010, exhibition at Siragusa Gallery in Chicago, USA:
MASK held a numerous public talks in Kenya and the UK:
25 August-25 September 2010, MASK held its first major exhibition at Rahimtulla Museum of Modern Art in Nairobi, Kenya. The exhibition was well attended by the general public, and opened by the RAMOMA’s founder, Mary Collis. A group of 15 children came to the opening and gave a fantastic presentation to the guests. All of our seven Kenyan volunteers have also attended:
ARTISTS FOR AID
In January 2010 we had our first Artist4Aid from Chicago, Georgiana Phua.
She worked with MASK’s children for four weeks in our schools at Laikipia and Naivasha, organised a live art competition in Laikipia for local schools, put on an exhibition of children’s artwork in a Chicago gallery in May 2010, and came back to Kenya to construct green houses at our Lariak Secondary School in Sipili in July 2010. Well done, Georgiana!
MASK’s SUPPORTERS
In 2009-2010 we had three exhibitions at UNESCO. The IIEP UNESCO designed and printed a leaflet for us. UNESCO offered MASK an exhibition at its HQ in Paris in July 2011.
Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Mr Thuita Mwangi, the Permanent Secretary of the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, met MASK’s Director, Alla Tkachuk on 17 March 2010. He expressed the Office’s supports to MASK’s work and acknowled MASK’s ambassadorian role for the culture of Kenya abroad.
MASK collaborates with the Kenyan Embassies in Paris, Washington DC, London and Geneva, and the Europe and Commonwealth Division at the Kenyan Foreigh Ministry.
Kenyan Institute for Education
MASK collaborates with the Institution’s Creative Arts Department. We are in discussion with its Head, Jennifer Wambugu, regarding the MASK’s suggestion of an introduction of ‘art for peacebuilding’ topic into the primary school curriculum.
Kenyan media
The KTN
The KTN (Kenya Television Network), the leading Kenyan TV channel, attended MASK’s exhibition “Post-election violence of 2007/8” at the Russian Embassy in Nairobi in 2008 and broadcast a programme about MASK and the children's work for their daily youth programme, ‘Str8up’ in March 2008.
National radio stations
The national and local radio stations came to that exhibition and recorded and read children's peace messages on-air during their subsequent programmes.
The Nation Newspaper
MASK has been featured in the Kenyan leading national newspaper, The Nation on Sunday, on 26 May 2010:
We had two articles, one - in The Legal Week, 30 October 2008 following a fundraising exhibition of children’s artwork at Stephenson Harwood, the City of London law firm in 2008, and another - in the Kenya Society Newsletter following MASK’s presentation and an exhibition at the Kenya Society at the Kenya High Commission in London in 2009:
MASK’S CREATIVE ARTS CENTRE
There is a need for a East Africa Cultural Center.
The East Africa Cultural Center will incorporate:
This center will be of huge artistic, creative and public relations benefit to Kenya, both nationally and internationally.
The total costs of the project are approximately 500.000 USA Dollars.
Who will benefit:
We have already: