The start of the collaborative project...

The art program at umoja has been somewhat dormant for the last six months. Being one of two new teachers in the department, I thought it would be appropriate to announce our presence and enthusiasm for working with students and making art. Last week I discovered a bundle of rolled up sketches from a few terms ago that have been damaged and thrown to the side. Since materials are hard to come by here, I set out to re-use the sketch paper, paint it, and initiate an informal collaboration amongst visitors and current students at the school.

This is my friend Marieke. She's been helping out at Umoja while awaiting the news of her acceptance to a UN internship position for the next month. Above, she adds a coat of white to the craft paper I scavenged for our latest project.

I laid the painted paper across  the floor in the common area where students accumulate before lessons, and invited them to join me in drawing and cutting patterns and designs.

A few days later we ended up with this decorative netting that now hangs above the front desk for all to see.

Stage two of this project will involve the crafting of hundreds of paper birds that will explode from the corner behind the paper netting, travel across the ceiling and out the front door into the trees.
Arusha is a very international community, so the discussion of traditional paper folding techniques from Japanese, Korean and Moorish culture should be an interesting addition to the mixing pot of information that naturally exists here.