SPEECH at UNESCO 24 JULY 200

I am very grateful to the Director of the International Institute for Educational Planning, Mark Bray and to programme specialist Lyndsay Bird for this honour and wonderful opportunity to show our children's paintings and to speak to you.

I am an artist.  Back in 2006 I went to Kenya to paint members of ethnic groups, and gradually became involved in teaching their kids art.  I have been told by teachers that children are not taught art in schools.  Being inspired by the children's talents and further encouraged by their teachers, I decided to set up Mobile Art School in Kenya, in short, MASK.

You will find leaflets displayed - which you are welcome to take with you - telling you more about MASK.  In this presentation I want to stop only on two points: Art education in Africa and Peace promotion through the arts.

Barack Obama in his speech on education recently said : "the arts should be the central part of effective teaching and learning. I want our kids to learn art and music and science and literature and poetry and civics. A child’s first inspiration through the arts can be a life-changing experience.  Not only is arts education, - he stresses, - indispensable for success in a rapidly changing economy, but studies show that arts education raises test scores in other subjects as well".

Obama believes strongly that arts education is essential for building innovative thinkers who will be leaders for tomorrow.” Do you agree with Obama that arts education is essential?

In many countries in Africa children are not offered any arts education in schools.  To give its young generation a change of competing in the global economy with kids from the West, China and India, Africa needs to invest in arts education and nourish children’s creative skills.  Children of course need the science and math skills, but they also need the ability to think creatively.  This comes from a meaningful arts education. 

The purpose of arts education is not to produce more artists, though that is a by-product. The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives.  The arts are not just nice things to do if you can afford it.  Rather, art defines who we are and provides an account of our history for the next generation.

The 27th Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that 'Everyone has the right to freely participate in cultural life, to enjoy the arts and to share its benefits.'

Africa's future economic development depends on ensuring that everyone has access to the arts and to cultural opportunity.  In United States of America nearly 6 million people make their living in the arts industry.  The Arts industry contributes more than $160 billion US dollars to the State's economy every year.  In United Kingdom, the arts industry is the second largest industry in the national economy after the financial industry.

Mobile Art School in Kenya gives Kenyan children an opportunity to participate in cultural life, enjoy the arts and to share its benefits.  We organise art workshops for children in schools, setting up art clubs, and putting on exhibitions of children's work in communities.  MASK also aims to promote the ideas of peace to schoolchildren though art and drama, and encourages the development of Kenyan contemporary art.  Its 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 the disabled, homeless and abused children, aiming to show a hopeful and enriching side to Africa, to demonstrate an artistic need and talent that emphasises our common humanity in a positive way.

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.  A large number of schools are eager to join the MASK's network.  There is a great interest for arts in Africa amongst its people!

CHILDREN’S ART FROM CONFLICT-AFFECTED COUNTRIES

And now, I wish to briefly speak about very important use of art as a tool for peace.

As our school works in areas of conflict and need, we promote within our workshops  the ideas of peace, ethnic tolerance and national unity through art and drama.  We work closely with local not-for-profit, non-partisan peace-building organisations in Kenya drawing on their experience and expertise.

Currently, there are no peace-building organisations in Kenya that focus their work on schoolchildren.  MASK strongly believes that building a future of peace and prosperity for the people in Kenya begins with teaching children mutual respect and tolerance.  Art is the most effective and comprehensive way of educating and de-briefing children on topics of war and conflict.  It is also a powerful and low-cost tool in uniting communities and healing wounds of conflict.  Yet, children living in conflict or poverty are often the most deprived in terms of artistic input.

 We also organise exchange programmes between schools of different ethnic groups, especially those groups in conflict.  None of the organisations in Kenya do that.  MASK also voices children’s peaceful aspirations to communities at large through our programme of exhibitions.  One such exhibition you see here!

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

In early 2008, MASK worked with child victims of the Kenyan post-election violence in displaced persons' camps in Nakuru and schools in Laikipia.  Children had been traumatised by witnessing people being killed and their houses set alight.  They hid in the bush, scared and hungry for days.  Some lost their parents and now live with their siblings in over-crowded huts with their relatives who cannot feed them or pay for their schooling.  In the refugee camps, a few possessions covered by a plastic sheet have become their homes. 

 In 2009, one year after the conflict, children expressed their experiences and hopes for the future.  Their wounds are still open.  Children want to go back to their lands and rebuild their houses.  As a result of the conflict, famine and hunger became widespread in the country.  This became the biggest concern to the children, and they strongly expressed their daily struggle for food in their paintings.

 At the end, I only want to add this.  Art can unite a country and help it to heal itself.  In difficult times people look to the arts for solace.  Art is a solution to Africa's problems, not the problem.

 If you have any questions please do ask me. Thank you very much.