[ Arvind Vohora has recently published a book of his photographs documenting this Kenyan folk art phenomenon; see bibliography.] section3: Conceptual
The Gallery of Contemporary East African Art at the Nairobi National Museum had been established in the late 1980s with the aim of encouraging the work of young local artists by giving them a place to exhibit, and, equally importantly, to give other Kenyans to chance to see that work.
Every year busloads of Kenyan students troop through the doors of the museum. For thousands of schoolchildren over the years, their whirlwind tour of the galleries brought them through the art gallery and, often, their first encounter with paintings and sculpture by fellow East Africans.
The GCEAA ran on a shoestring budget: paintings were sold( primarily) to the throngs of tourists that visited the museum. The gallery charged a small commission for such transactions unlike the hefty percentage taken in the commercial galleries. For many of the artists on display, this was the first time they had received money for their work.
Every day young artists would arrive at the gallery with paintings rolled up in newspaper, carefully carried in the press of a matatu. v