Claude Bunny Massassa is a contemporary artist from Gabon. She created Bunny Studio in 2016, a start-up dedicated to photography production, which became DWABI Studio in 2021. As an artist, she has represented Gabon in many international exhibitions in Senegal, Uganda, France, the United States, and Italy. In her art, she denounces social stigmas around issues of identity and mental health, and explores themes of traditions and myths.
Executive Director Kimberly Aceves- Iñiguez has been passionately committed for over 20 years to social justice organizing and advocacy efforts that bring voice and power to youth, LGBTQ people, people of color, and working-class communities in the Bay Area. Before coming on as the Executive Director for RYSE, Kimberly served as the Executive Director for Youth Together, the founding organization of the RYSE Center.
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal is one of the co-founders of RYSE and currently acts as the Associate Director. She supports and guides the implementation and integration of healing-centered practices, grounded in racial justice and liberation, and also develops, promotes, and advocates for policies, investments, practices, and research that enliven healing, justice, and liberation. Kanwarpal believes that the purpose of her work and life is to contribute to movements, communities, and legacies of liberation that honor the ancestors who fought for her existence and survival, and to forge a world that is just and gentle for future generations.
Sagal Ali is the founder and executive director of SAF. After a few years in her career in heritage protection in the cultural sector, she decided to develop the initiative to directly support young creatives in Somalia by launching her own foundation. She hopes to bridge the social gaps and inequalities women face in Somalia, both in society and in the arts scene.
Co-founders Catherine Dunga and Marleen Palmaers created Kitambo to bridge the gap between the African diaspora in Colombia and the narratives from the continent. From Kinshasa and Antwerp respectively, they work to connect African artists from the continent and their peers from the Colombian diaspora.
Martha Kazungu is a curator, art Historian and Founder of Njabala Foundation, an organization that curates periodic exhibitions and organizes a public program of activities to create a safe space for female artists to thrive and blossom.
Alicia Hansen is a photographer and teacher from New York. She founded NYC SALT in 2008 and, beyond teaching valuable creative skills to her students, has developed a long-term support system to uplift them through school and into their early artistic careers.
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Master Conversations
Simon Njami in conversation with William Kentridge around Art, Culture, Education, and much more.
Master Conversations
Simon Njami in conversation with Rossy De Palma around Art, Culture, Education, and much more.
What is AtWork?
The AtWork format consists of four main elements:
The Workshop
The AtWork process starts with the participants writing their interpretation of the chosen workshop theme. This is a way to get their thinking process started, which will be the starting point of the workshop group discussion and will later spill out into the conversation with the larger AtWork community.
The workshop lasts 5 days, during which the students, led by the artist/curator will have critical discussions around the theme chosen and will produce their notebooks.
The workshop will follow an Input-Elaboration-Output structure. The main phases will consist in:
- Critical debate and discussion around the workshop theme
- Idea elaboration and definition
- Notebook production and restitution
The Exhibition
The exhibition is the first occasion for sharing and bringing the discussion outside the work group.
This activity is key for the effectiveness of the workshop as thanks to the exhibition the workshop participants will interact and confront their ideas with an external audience, creating a wider discussion and strengthening their critical thinking experience. The notebooks produced by participants can be showcased physically at the local art gallery alongside with the on-line exhibition of the rest of the collection.
The exhibition can take place right after the workshop or after it, to allow some time to prepare it and curate it properly. In fact, the co-creation the exhibition along with the hosting organization is part of the workshop’s activities, where the students can continue their debate as well as their personal process while acquiring some basic curatorial skills.
Community and Collection
The community building aspect of AtWork is at the core of the format. Through AtWork Facebook Group on-line we want the participants to be connected to a larger international and cross-cultural network of like-minded people as well as be part of a space, where they can exchange their experiences, share opinions and practices.
The students can decide to donate their notebook produced during the workshop to Moleskine Foundation, adopting Creative Commons licences. In this case their notebook will become part of our collection (physically and on-line), thus sustaining Moleskine Foundation’s mission and future AtWork’s initiatives.
The on-line part of the collection continues to inspire new young minds all over the world with the breadth of its creative proposal during various AtWork experiences. Being part of the collection is also a unique opportunity for the students to exhibit their work alongside prominent contemporary artists, without any hierarchy of the works’ importance.
This horizontal approach is at the core of the entire AtWork experience and allows the workshop participants to cross their local dimension boundaries and enter an international arena of discussion with wide and diversified audiences.
“We have nothing to teach anyone… This inner light that belongs to everyone just asks to come out; and provided that we have the necessary intellectual and human tools, our role is to help this light reveal itself and flourish”
Simon Njami — Advisor
Downloads
Summary
Conceived by
Moleskine Foundation and Simon Njami
Online platform
at-work.org
Advisor
Simon Njami
Colophon
Partners
Kër Thiossane, Dakar, Senegal
Fondation Donwahi, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Al Riwaq Art Space, Manama, Bahrain
Kunstenfestival, Watou, Belgium
mARTadero, Cochabamba, Bolivia
Makarere University, Kampala, Uganda
Maisha Foundation, Kampala, Uganda
Polimoda, Florence, Italy
Nation25, Venice, Italy
Darb 1718, Cairo, Egypt
Something Else, Off Biennale Cairo
Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Modena, Italy
State of Concept, Athens, Greece
Tandem Europe
Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece
FARE, Milan, Italy
Leo Burnett, Milan, Italy
Desta for Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
Hangar, Lisbon, Portugal
