Name project: Art center ‘Coin d’Art’

Location: District: Ruhungo – Cell: Kamusenyi – Sector: Byimana- Zuid Province - Rwanda

Project lead-time:

Requestor: Gustave Nshizirungu                                                               

Description of the project:

Many youngsters are following a study which often doesn’t lead to a decent future salary. Others have talents but don’t make progress because of lack of education. The propose is provide youngsters, who are willing to work, with a chance on education on their own level.

Objectives:

- Art and crafts development
- Protect the environment and Rwandese culture by art
- Fight poverty and crime

Beneficiaries:

- The youngsters and artists in Byimana
- The population of Byimana

Budget:

€ 3.500

Equipment class room

Equipment workshop

Paint for drawings

Supports for drawings

Equipment for coordinator

Equipment dormitory

Equipment studio

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Follow-up of the project

Date: April 5th 2014
 
Name project: Coin d’art

General status:

Practical courses:

• drawing
• painting
• collages
• sculpture
• photography
• cinematography
• art culture formation

Strategies to achieve our objectives:

• Spreading the art courses towards both youngsters and adults
• Create interest with young people to learn a new profession for which there are plenty work opportunities and only small start finances are needed

Progress since last status report:

The courses have started with:
- 5 students (4 boys and 1 girl)
- 2 trainers: 1 paid and 1 volunteer

The first trimester is over according the calendar of the Ministry of Education. The 2nd one is starting on April 20th 2014.

Financial status:

In attachment one can find the detailed report on used funds and related invoices.
You’ll notice there is still some budget left. This will be used for buying materials when next courses are starting: paint (painting course), tissues (batik course) and wood (statuary course).

Problems/concerns:

The biggest problem is the lack of students! This has a huge impact on the project as the course money of the students are not sufficient at the moment to pay for costs e.g. salaries, water and electricity,…which are not taken by Vleugels van Hoop vzw.

There is a risk we have to stop the project in case we will not enough students next year.
 
Another problem is the lack of material. Art education is not popular in Rwanda and therefore we need to find needed material in the artistic environment. The existing artists though buy the work-material at too high prices as they want to make profit too.

Last but not least, the difficult ways of communication are a fact. The project is situated in a rural area where the access to the internet is very hard; every time I have to negotiate with the neighbours!

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Follow-up june 2014

General status:

As mentioned before we only have a low number of students. This is probably due to the fact that the art option is new. People look different to it as to other professions. Therefore we would also like to offer other options as electricity, welding, barber, construction,…but we did not take a decision as all depends on the possibility to purchase the needed equipment for these options. Luckily the school is allowed to offer 5 different kind of studies and we only have 1 at the moment.

The most important topic at the moment are the salaries. I teach myself, on voluntary basis, 5 courses being batik, photography, informatics, art via the PC and Swahili. For some courses like decoration and entrepreneurship I count on interns who work for free.
We’re considering selling art objects but at the moment we have too few available pieces to start a shop and we also don’t know whether there is a market for this. We also try to get the attention of other artists for this project so they can sell their objects for a small fee in our shop. Tis would help us till we have sufficient objects to sell ourselves.

There are also art objects which will not be easy to sell, such as monumental objects. We think about putting these in a permanent exposition in a small wood close to the school. This could be used as art garden where people could be photographed with mythological characters from the Rwandese history.

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Follow-up august 2014

General status:

There is not much news about the project itself. The 3 semester has just started. After this period we hope to welcome more students.

Related to the art garden: we haven’t started yet because it is dry season so the flowers are not nice now. And we’re looking for a way to place as much as possible statues/art objects and hope the total will become attractive !

The selling of the art objects doesn’t go smooth at all. And sometimes we decide not to sell. As the particular kind of our objects we opt to keep several objects to make visitors curious and to explain what the whole project is about.

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Images

Album august 2014 clic here

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Follow-up december 2014

Date: December 5th 2014
 
Name project: Project 48: Coin d’Art

General status:

On December 4th the board of Vleugels van Hoop vzw visited the art centre Coin d’Art in Byimana, Rwanda. This visit was combined with handing over the certificates to the 5 students who finalized the first academic year.

Progress since last status report:

The first academic year was successfully finalized by 5 out the 6 students.

Financial status:

The funds were fully consumed as planned.

Problems/concerns:

The big issue is a lock of students. The secondary schools (state schools) are for free. The education at Coin d’Art costs 105.000 RwFr per student (+/- 120 euro). This keeps the students against starting the arts education.
Besides the arts education it is the idea to start 2 other education, being construction and welding, as the centre is allowed to offer 5 different educations.
There is a big uncertainty around the number of students for the 2nd academic year, which starts in January 2015, as the students will first try to get into a state school, in case they are allowed there.

Several ideas were exchanged to generate an income e.g. by selling the art pieces made, to be able to reduce the school fee for the students. This would lead to a bigger amount of students and a better future for Coin d’Art.

Attached documents (pictures, reçu’s,…):

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