Jackie Mwanza
Founder/ Workshop Leader
I am a visual artist and educator with nearly 20 years of experience as an art workshop facilitator and adult education tutor.
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My personal artwork, which I have exhibited in solo and group shows in the UK and Africa, has been the catalyst for founding Ubuntu Museum. I love creating art, enjoy teaching, and strongly believe that art should be accessible to all—not only on an aesthetic level but also as a tool for change, advocating for fairness and the right we all have to inhabit the world without fear.
My Story
Ubuntu Museum was established in 2018, and by then, I had already been running art workshops for 14 years. One of my earliest and most significant workshops was inspired by my first solo art exhibition, Imperial Child. This work was an exploration of my African roots and their distortion under the force of colonialism and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. ​​
The exhibition was in 2007, the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. After the show I was approached by a museum to facilitate a workshop based on my work and I have been running workshops at institutions and within communities ever since.
Over the years, I have created and co-created workshops with clients and other artists, drawing inspiration not only from my own work, but also from the work of artists—such as Romuald Hazoumè for the Eco Mask Workshop. The Nude Gallery & Workshop highlights how. Other workshops highlight themes
​In my native tongue, Bemba, Ubuntu translates roughly to "humanity towards each other." Museum is simply museum. Whether I can truly call it a museum, since Ubuntu Museum doesn’t own any artifacts, I’m not sure. However, the name is already registered, and I believe that we have enough richness in our history and current lived experiences—both challenging and uplifting—to help elevate the well-being of Africans, both at home and in the diaspora, through our small contribution as an organization.
