Triangle Arts Trust Knowledge and Skills Sharing Residency
February/March 2010
Bisi Silva from Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) Lagos, Nigeria hosted Thom Ogonga from Kuona Trust, Kenya
In February 2010, Thom Ogonga from Kuona Trust in Nairobi (www.kuonatrust.org) was hosted by Bisi Silva, Director and Founder of CCA Lagos in Nigeria (www.ccalagos.org) as part of the ongoing Knowledge and Skills Sharing Programme organised by Triangle Arts Trust.
This exchange was the second in a set of fifteen residencies planned to take place over an 18 month period, whose aim is to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, skills and experiences between participating coordinators, promoting both professional development for the organisations involved as well as benefiting local artists and communities.
As Thom explains:
Working within CCA, I was able to understand their role in the local/international art scene, their ideals, how they work to achieve these and their relationship with artists and other art organisations. The endless conversations I had with Bisi were priceless. Spending time with such a resourceful person teaches you a lot; the personality needed to successfully run an arts organisation, from how to interact with artists to how to constitute your budget.
Thom used his first week to adjust to the new environment, getting to know his way around and visit local galleries. Once settled, Thom and Bisi sat down for a series of meetings and drew out a plan for the month long stay, in particular organising how Thom could contribute to the ongoing photography residency at CCA titled "On Independence and the Ambivalence of Promise".
During his stay Thom attended weekly briefings, shadowed staff to gain an insight into their various roles, attended talks and lectures involving both CCA staff and local artists, and assisted with the day to day running of CCA. Given the responsibility of documenting, collecting and editing materials for the residency blog, Thom gained hands on experience of the work at CCA, physically working alongside their staff.
In return Thom was able to use his knowledge of previous Triangle Arts Trust activities to help Bisi with the planning of an upcoming project. CCA Lagos will host a Triangle Arts Trust International Artists' Workshop later in the year based on the Triangle model. Through this exchange, Thom, who has previous experience of the workshop format, was able to give Bisi and her team valuable advice. He briefed everyone at CCA on the structure, aims and values of the workshop, as well as helping staff to consider the different roles they would need to play and how best to develop a workshop timeline, showing them web links to previous Triangle workshops around the world.
As Thom concludes:
The Knowledge and Skills Sharing Programme for me was a huge success. Though CCA Lagos and Kuona Trust are both trusts founded on similar objectives, it was interesting to see and be part of how CCA Lagos approached their activities and how committed they are in trying to shift the dynamics of the Nigerian art scene. I can't wait to experiment with some of CCA's approaches and try to borrow some of their strengths for Kuona Trust activities.
