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Starting in 2015, Professor Lisa Milroy’s Hands On Art Workshops (HOAW) has been delivered to primary and secondary school students in Kakuma Refugee Camp.
HOAW has assisted UNHCR in attaining key strategic goals. As the former UNHCR Senior Protection Coordinator attests: ‘The Hands On project aligns with UNHCR strategy to provide refugees with opportunity for artistic and talent development, as well as create connection, sense of community and overcome trauma and distress. Students and teachers have expressed their joy to be provided with a platform to break learning monotony and engage in the beauty of artistic expression’.
In 2018, Milroy addressed the lack of provision of art materials to support programme delivery in KRC schools, securing corporate sponsorship from Colart, a large international supplier of art materials. The Colart donation in KRC is administered by Windle International Kenya. A selection of paintings and drawings created by HOAW students in KRC was presented in an exhibition curated by Milroy, “Hands On” from 6-15th February 2020 at Elephant West, Colart’s public cultural centre in West London. The event also acknowledged the partnership between HOAW and Vodafone Foundation, UNHCR, Colart, Windle International Kenya and the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL.
To mark the United Nations’ International Day of Education on 24th January 2020, Vodafone Foundation collaborated with HOAW and the National Gallery to create the world’s first ‘live-streamed school trip for refugees’, in which students in KRC visited the National Gallery using VR headsets and tablets. Milroy devised and hosted the tour, exploring a selection of 9 paintings on the theme of ‘time’. In 2021, Yinka Shonibare CBE (RA), Co-ordinator of the RA Summer Exhibition 2021 invited Golda Aruten Okech, Hands On Coach in KRC to contribute an artwork to the Summer Exhibition. HOAW produced an edition of digital prints based on a painting by Okech for inclusion in the exhibition. HOAW contributes to Stone Soup’s online ‘Refugee Project’ with artwork from students in KRC. Stone Soup is a non-profit USA-based literary magazine for children.
During the COVID-19 pandemic Milroy has liaised with UNHCR colleagues and a headmistress in Kakuma Refugee Camp to provide workshops for students on a regular basis via mobile phone messaging and Skype sessions.
In 2020, artist Stephanie Nebbia, Global Manager for The Fine Art Collective, Colart joined HOAW as Deputy Director.