TPAAE’s cultural exchange took on an administrative tint in September when Prof. Miroslawa Jarmolowicz, Rector at the Academy of Art in Szczecin, and Dr. Grzegorz Skorny, the Academy’s Chancellor, journeyed to Nairobi for meetings and workshops at Kenyatta University. While in the Kenyan capital, the pair explored extending the cooperation between the Polish and Kenyan institutions beyond the TPAAE frame.
Prof. John Mugubi, Ms. Anne Mwiti and Mr. Ken Otunga helped the pair plan activities and events over the 12-day stay. which included meetings with KU counterparts and Polish dignitaries, tours of local galleries and museums, and an exhibition of student photography. Mr. Adonijah Ombura,, Dr. Beneah Shapaya, and Mr. Clinton Kihima helped guide them through KU colleges and departments devoted to Creative and Performing Arts, Film and Media Studies, Music and Dance, Fine Art & Desin, Fashion Design and Marketing. They also toured KU’s television studios.
The Rector and the Chancellor became better acquainted with traditional and contemporary art in Kenya through visits to the African Heritage House and Circle Gallery in the city. Poland’s ambassador to Kenya, Mr. Jacek Bazanski, received the pair, taking up honorary patronage of “History Enmeshed with Sand, in Backwaters”, a short documentary film about slavery on the Kenyan Coast produced at the Academy of Art in Szczecin.
The Rector and the Chancellor paid a courtesy call on Prof. Waceke Wanjohi, the KU Vice-Chancellor, where the administrators identified the Erasmus+ International Exchange and research on creative industries as avenues for continued cooperation. Prof. Jarmolowicz devised and led a Creative Photography workshop that began with a lecture entitled: “Differences Between Documentary and Creative photography, Or, How to Consciously Arrange Light and Shadow in Photography”. Following the sessions. student exhibited works on the KU campus.
