We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sowedhi Uthman Kiwanuka. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sowedhi Uthman below.

Sowedhi Uthman, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Way back still at collage, came up with an idea how i can turn my God given talent of art into business, I and my brother in the backyard of our home embarked on using natural materials like banana fibres, wood dust to make art works which in turn would be hawked for sale. Later in 2010, i thought of how we can involve other young people who had developed interest in the same by training them to create art works and thats how we were joined by other young people who we trained together and they learnt how to make signages, banners, graphics, sculpture, paintings, mosaics among others.

This began a journey of establishing the first art gallery (Jabulani Arts Hub) in region and a revolution of the training programs in the next couple of years that saw us training over 100,000 of young people in art, music, poetry, Photography, film making among other forms of arts. our training program rolled over 2o primary schools in the region in a span of 5 years, conducted exhibitions and festivals annually in the Towns of Fort portal, Kasese, Kyenjojo in the Rwezojri region while conducting training sessions of music and film between 2018-2020. Curating weekly bonfire events and showcases at our spaces between 2015 to 2020 amazing a great captivating audience of art lovers in the region.

our core vision as jabulani was create a vibrant arts and culture in the region that would not only ignite creativity but empower young people through creation of jobs and opportunities, but also create a platform for showcasing as well as facilitate collaborations amongst creatives in the region to have an impact in the long run. To date Fort portal alone boasts of over 5 art spaces that are owned by independent artists, we have over 3 musical bands playing in different hanging places as a result of our extensive training and establishment of the first band founded in 2015.

up to to-date we have continued to create a link between national and local artists within the region, helped our artists from the region to exhibit their works bother at national and international level. where we saw our last artists exhibition taking places in Mali, Brussels and Ghana facilitate collaboration s and networking between artists.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

when i was starting out, i had to stimulate demand for art products and services. why?, because a lot of people in m locality thought art paintings and works are for the very rich and perhaps tourists. and because i did not have enough capital to rent a space in the local town as selling point, i approached different dealership/spots especially Hotels, internet Cafes, restaurants among others as selling points. i went into partnership with them to decorate their walls with artworks on display, one for anyone who would love to have a painting would call the phone number staged on to the painting, but also stimulate other to think of owning the same art works in their offices and homes or businesses such as hotels.

I also realised that art can be used as a form/communications especially for the non government l organisation that had failed to package messages for the local people on issues of food systems, climate change, environment degradation among others. so i developed a concept on communicative development using art illustrations , photographic expressions, music and drama and partnered with local entities through organising funfair where messages would be disseminated on such events and in that process these organisations pay for my services but also use those events to sell art works.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Opened up Facebook group and official pages , where both our audiences and us would share the experience of the events we would curate. use these facebook pages to promote our upcoming events, also products on sell, then we would also pay for promotion of our events and products. this way we were able to share our services and products with bigger audience just beyond those visiting physically but also those beyond the region.

we have also gone a head opened watsapp groups and tiktok account to share our products and services including also use of instagram.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: sowedhi uthman Kiwanuka
• Facebook: sowedhi uthman kiwanuka
• Linkedin: sowedhi uthman kiwanuka
• Twitter: sowedhi uthman Kiwanuka

Image Credits
Credit: Muhumuza Joseph