Student Art Exhibition Themed 80 Years of Conservation in Akagera

Students from Green Hills Academy, Ecole de Belge and International School of Kigali came together to put on an art exhibition with the theme of “80 Years of Conservation in Akagera” as part of the 80th Anniversary celebration of Akagera National Park.

The exhibition, which opened at Green Hills Academy on Friday 28th November, displayed work across a diverse range of creative fields and media and included architecture, photography, sculpture, paint, screen printing and collage.

The exhibition is the culmination of months of work, which began with the students being invited to visit Akagera for some understanding and inspiration on the theme in September. Akagera Management Company offered a prize of a free family annual pass to the winner, judged by a team of three; Akagera Tourism and Marketing Manager, Sarah Hall, Artist and co-founder of Inema Art Centre in Kigali, Innocent Nkuruziza and MICE Division Manager at RDB, Frank Murangwa.

The winning piece, entitled ‘Reflections’ was jointly produced by three students from the International School of Kigali, Cecilia Tuzinde, Elizabeth Wong and Molly Ryan-O’Flaherty. The two-piece screen print shows a giraffe drinking in the vibrant top picture and reflected below in the second print is the same giraffe in dull washed-out colouring with rubbish floating in the water. The piece was meant to highlight the importance of conservation. Three family annual passes were awarded to the artists.

Several other pieces received commendation, including an instillation piece with lion vocalizations emanating from a life-sized wooden crate, large giraffe statues made of grass and sisal rope and a pencil-sketched ‘selfie’ with a topi and an elephant. The artists received Akagera t-shirts and caps.

Congratulations to all the students involved for their hard work and the high quality of art exhibited.