‘Going once...twice...sold!’

When Violet Nantume set out last year to raise money to start her journey as a professional curator, she did not know more than 50 artists would donate their work to her to sell and raise money for tuition. They each believed, trusted and supported her.
Nantume’s story is an inspiring one. For a young woman with a vision to change how Uganda views art, to encourage a business community to engage with art, to allow a merger of all social classes to appreciate this very creative and richly telling storage of our culture, heritage and experiences; she has the weight of the world on her shoulders. “Art is a serious profession”, an expressive Nantume, who dropped out of a nursing course for Fine art, passionately intimates, arguing that “I go to art school for three years like anyone in another profession. Why then should artists be underlooked because people think they are weak and did a course just to draw? It is not just about drawing! It is about someone’s strength that can be maximised in society.”

This collection of 80 art works is to be showcased and auctioned at the Kampala Serena Hotel, Katonga Hall on August 4 and August 5. For a country without an art museum, KAMU KAMU Kampala Art Auction and Nantume’s curatorial pursuit helps more to manage, represent and conceptualise art ideas, document art, and speak on behalf of the artist and their work - to link them to a consuming audience. KAMU KAMU is her way of “taking a stand, having a stake in the art industry, moving from a begging position of funding aid into staging a very professional show.” Nantume’s scholarship from Bard College, New York, US, supports 40 per cent of her tuition fees in international funding.

Their Centre for Curatorial Studies donated $21,000 (about Shs68m) but she has to raise the balance of $32,486 (about Shs105m) in order to start the course. Nantume has tried several means to accumulate the total tuition, fundraising on Indiegogo, an online platform, where she raised about $1,400 (about Shs4.5m) and following that campaign, through other philanthropic souls, majority of whom chose to remain anonymous, she raised $2,400 (about Shs8m). Kampala Art Auction is now the final drive to raise the full amount.
Having been in the industry a while, and worked at 32˚ East in Kansanga for about three years, Nantume is aware of the challenges artists face, such as lack of individual creative space. She also attributes the missing bridge to link artists to their market, especially with local clientele.

“As a philosopher thinks and writes, someone else markets their work, or as a writer sits back to create, another person publishes their work. Art in Uganda does not have that privilege. Rather, the artist is the creative producer, they have to leave studio to market their work, so it is that jack-of-all-trades lifestyle that usually affects the artist’s creativity,” she observes.
While she speaks, there is eloquent objectivity in her view of the artist. “Artists are very sensitive, but once you access the artists’ trust, there is room to be critical, tear apart and together rebuild.” One distress though in representative marketing is the psychological downturn and rejection from people.

Mathias Tusiime, who started off as grounds man (cleaner) at Margaret Trowell School of Industrial Art, is now a dynamic innovative artist; but confirms that getting people to buy your work, support or even come for exhibition is not as easy as it seems. That is where Nantume’s role as a curator serves to benefit the artist.

Simply put, she envisions her task as being the critical friend and marketeer of ideas in artworks. One who understands what kind of art they do, bearing the same vision for their art pieces. The event has overtime shifted from simply being a fundraiser, to embracing an inauguration of a massive art auction that will run every two years, and metamorphose into different courses biennially. It is purposed to raise the profile of art in Uganda, along with the exotic finesse that such creativity inspires. Kampala Serena Hotel is sponsoring the art auction, in partnership with Nze Ffe Foundation, Umoja Art Gallery and Peter Genza of Kla Art Auction.

No curators
With only Margarette Naggawa (currently in USA), Rose Mwangye, who concentrates on the National Museum and Katrin Peters-klaphake, a German, Uganda has no other curator present. In fact, Nantume is bound to be the only art curator fully operating here once her Masters is done.

About the art pieces

These art pieces are a journey through vibrant but beautiful multiple colour schemes, different stories and artistic experiences in photography or acrylics on canvas. Maria Naita’s Counsellor depicts two women confiding in each other, one humbly cuckolding away pain with a veil on her head in replica of a search for peace of mind. You are lost in the African beauty of their faces.
Self Portrait by Maganwa Kamya has you think about the shift in this technological era, where “selfies” have become the norm of faces. It reminds you we once considered mirrors the best reflection of our selves.

Phillip Balimunsi’s Collector shades the happiness of a child watching a set of stones he has probably playfully invested hours to build together in a pile.
Ocom Odonias and Paul Ndema pay respect to Mama Fina and Saint Lumumba respectively. Hood Jjuko’s Quench is a painting of three zebras thirstily draining at the river, while Farid Mafugh delights with a vibrant bird’s shade of yellow in Nyonza, and together remind you of Uganda’s diverse wild life.

Others include Storm by Joseph Ntensibe, Esther Mbabazi’s Somersault, Ibra Muwanga’s Love & Bond, Paulo Akiiki’s Reflection. George William Kyeyune’s Diviner and Nnazikuno take you back to traditional women who diligently performed domestic tasks and knelt for respect before husbands.
Nantume, whose Irony of Redemption shall also be auctioned, looks more to being a curator of all these fine lots. She is also a jeweler and sculptor.

About the auction
Sneak peak. A catalogue showing all the richly artistic painting and pieces is available on www.kampalaartauction.com, giving interested parties and prospective buyers a chance to see, place bids and register as bidders for the auction.
Admission fee. Shs70,000 for guests at the auction.