section3: Conceptual
THE KUONA TRUST STUDIO SYSTEMS
The Kuona Trust studios have come a long way and has evolved just like Kuona Trust. The last seventeen years have seen the evolution process of studios from a prefab communal to what can be termed as private studios.
The first Kuona Trust Studio was a communal space which also served as an office and a gallery. This was an empty building in the Museum grounds which, by then was called- Ainsworth House.( Ainsworth was the colonial Provincial Commissioner for Nairobi. This was the beginning of good things to come as an exhibition of women artists launched the new space. Later the same studio space was used for the first 3 artist workshops by Theresa Musoke and Philip of Franex Studios who did a workshop on framing and stretching canvases.
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The Kuona exodus into The Godown offered the best place for the studio evolution process to continue. For the first time, artists had access to private studios within a larger, vibrant arts space. From being in a communal space with someone in charge, it was now everyone for themselves, running their own space and in charge of their own activities. This created an atmosphere of healthy competition and raised the bar of the local art scene several notches higher. The six subsequent years at the Godown saw, for the first time, international artists in residence working alongside local artists in the new studio system. It is from the networks that were built during the peer to peer knowledge and skill sharing that resulted into conceptual art practice.