Motivating young creativity and innovation

First established nine years ago as part of our creative education programme, MASK Awards is back and open to submissions from Kenya’s creatives. We are looking to celebrate and reward new talent of young people in the region.

At MASK, we believe that creativity education is the key to a better future. Without creativity we, as a society, are unable to birth new and transformative solutions to the challenges of today and tomorrow. MASK Awards is a nation-wide programme with one key objective in mind: to motivate the creativity and innovation of young people and schools in Africa.

Starting in Kenya, MASK Awards now reaches more than a dozen countries in Africa and has audiences of over 650,000 people worldwide. It has been supported by visionary individuals and organisations, including the Star, Citizen TV, Hot 96, Rivers Foundation, The Nobelity Project, Mabati Rolling Mills, Unilever and Trademark Hotel.

Any state/private school or young person under the age of 25 can enter. Applicants can enter either works of art on any theme/medium, or innovative ideas on any of the following themes: School of the Future; Young Entrepreneurs; Environmental Activist. Successful candidates will receive cash prizes, or secure internships from Unilever’s Heroes for Change or Mabati Rolling Mills. It is free to enter and those applying should do so before April 1 via this website: https://mobileartschoolinkenya.org/mask-awards 

We like to follow the MASK Awards' talents and are thrilled to see how they thrive. One of our former participants, Peteros Ndunde, 25, exhibits his art in Nairobi this Saturday, February 20, and we invite you all to come and see the works of this extraordinary young artist.

As is the case for many children in Kenya, Peteros was not given the opportunity to study art at his school. Luckily, his parents supported Peteros and his brother’s interests in drawing, allowing them to explore their abilities. Upon leaving school, Peteros met local artists and discovered a new world of contemporary art. Excited by its ideas, materials, techniques, forms and styles, he joined the Brush Tu Art Collective and ‘dived’ into this world.

Later, while studying art at Kenyatta University, Peteros learned of the art’s academic side. “Traditional and contemporary art are two worlds apart,” he says. “Traditional art sticks to the rules, while contemporary art is amorphous regarding rules.”

It has become Peteros’ mission to find a balance between the two worlds. “I want to forge my own way forward with art to find a distinct style for each body of work, to connect ideas from dissimilar fields,” Peteros states. “This is the core of my force. Combining different aspects of various art movements, such as minimalism, futurism and cubism, to tell the story of my people — this is what inspires me.”

With his previous and highly acclaimed exhibitions spanning across Kenya, Japan, Dubai and Paris, now you, too, can see and purchase his new work for yourself. The Brush Tu exhibition will take place from February 20 to March 1, with the Private View scheduled for February 20 and 21 from 11am-6pm, at the address: 379 Ol Leleshwa Road, Buruburu, Phase 1. Peteros can be reached at [email protected] or Peteros Ndunde Instagram.

Alla Tkachuk, is founder of MASK https://mobileartschoolinkenya.org. If you wish to partner with MASK Awards to celebrate and reward young Kenyans’ creativity and innovation with cash or internship prizes, please contact Alla on [email protected].