Help me travel to Mexico for Akumal Arts Festival

Hello everyone,

My name is Kiggundu Rodney, a 28 year old visual Artist, Muralist and Social activist born and living in Uganda, East Africa.

I live in Wakiso District one of the largest districts in Uganda neighboring Kampala the capital city. I practice my art and run an art studio in the same area. I specialize in painting, mural art and mentorship for young people.

About the Streetlights Uganda initiative

I am passionate about creating opportunities for young people to flourish in their respective skills and talents by creating platforms where they can engage and share knowledge with experts in their areas of interest.

 In 2014, my colleagues and I started an initiative called Streetlights Uganda to unearth the potential of street children using art. Over the years we have done a number of programs and projects that have seen over 100 street children and over 50 young mothers in Kampala Uganda benefit from them. These include, Mwalimu Mentorship Program, Unseen Me Exhibition, Ntunga Project, Tambula Project, Bag Yange project among others.

In Mwalimu Mentorship Program for example, we work with artists to mentor street children that are interested in art.

This work has propelled my career as an artist to greater heights because of the passion I have for community growth and development especially for young people. 

My works

In my other time, I am always at my art studio creating art for exhibitions and also do wall mural art to create awareness and promote conservation of wild life through those murals. I also make murals within communities with young artists across Uganda to beautify their environment but also raise awareness about social issues affecting the people in their communities.

Please support my participation to the Akumal Arts Festival 2022, Mexico

For those reasons, I was selected as one of the artists from Africa to attend next year’s Akumal Arts Festival 2022 an annual Art festival in Akumal Mexico that brings together over 130 artists from allover the world to paint together and beautify the growing city of Akumal in Mexico.

Each Artist is to cater for their Travel costs to and from Akumal hence this fundraiser to humbly request you to help me raise funds to cover ticket costs, Visa costs but also any Covid tests that might be required during travel. In total I need about $3,500 to cover all those expenses but this platform can only enable me fundraise maximum $1,500. I would also like to let you know that the accommodation and feeding will be taken care of by the Akumal Festival Team.

While in Akumal, I plan to not only paint murals but engage in art workshops especially with children and young people within Akumal village as it’s part of the programs within the festival. I also wish to extend my collaborations and working relations with other artists I'll be meeting at the festival. I would be happy if you could use the [Help by sharing] button to share about my project!

Thank You ?