Degrees and Diplomas are TPAAE’s Lasting Legacy
Undergraduate creatives will begin working toward degrees on the Kenyan Coast with the September opening of an arts programme at Pwani University (PU). Offered by the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, courses of instruction across a spectrum of media, practices and technologies are the culmination of work by TPAAE teams of European and Kenyan educators.
Registration is ongoing for students who can pursue Art and Design at Batchelors and diploma levels, which officials at Kilifi-based PU see as a vehicle for meeting a nationwide demand for qualified creatives. TPAAE pedagogs from Poland and Italy worked with their counterparts from Kenyatta University (KU) in Nairobi to design the curriculum and advise their partners from PU.
Accredited by Kenya’s Commission for University Education, PU courses provide instruction as much in foundational principles and artistic practices. Surveys of perception and psychology compliment readings in anthropology and art history in the programme’s theoretical grounding. While workshops and labs in wide a range of artistic endeavours, from traditional-craft to computer-aided, provide a multidisciplinary platform for specialization, innovation and further study.
The combined course syllabus reflects the interests of researchers and practitioners from the Art Academy in Szczecin and the University of Macerata in Italy, as well as those from KU and PU. Along with treatments of aesthetics, pedagogy and the religious aspects of Contemporary Art, there are courses in textile design, drawing and painting, and theatre and film studies. There also is a focus on so-called Artrepreneurship, which aims to arm graduates with the tools they need to succeed in the country’s creative economy.
Further description is included in the flyer below. PU also has posted a video announcing the programme for social media: BA & Diploma Art and Design Pwani University. – YouTube