Curators
Philip Balimunsi
Click to Download Philip Balimunsi Portfolio
Born of Kabuye Benedict family, Balimunsi Philip is the curator of Uganda National Cultural Centre and the Uganda National gallery, Nommo gallery who for over seven years worked as an independent curator and artist pursuing an interest in Ugandan art history in relation to contemporary practice. His curatorial focus steers towards documentation and shaping the arena of experience to grant viewers a glimpse into an exhibition of memories and a creative mist of conversations. He hopes to use art and culture to cultivate networks and collaborations that trigger an interrogation of remnants of disparate memories that inform artistic consciousness of Ugandan youths towards dignified employment.
He is International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) 2023 alumnus, he received curatorial training and scholarship from the New York Independent Curators International in Addis Ababa- Ethiopia and also completed a curatorial training program at the School for Curatorial Studies Venice by A Plus Gallery-Venice Italy during the 2019 58th Venice biennial.
He is a national award winning artist and art judge of Youth Alive Uganda, and jury at many cultural award panels including; Kuonyesha Art fund, CCFU National Heritage Awards and Youth Cultural Heritage Award, a member of; UVADA, IRC-American embassy, IVLP – USA, ICI-New York, School for Curatorial Studies Venice – Italy, 32° East | Ugandan Arts Trust and Bayimba foundation.
He is a co-curator of the “Know Go Zone”, “Dance in the City”, “KLAART014” and a curator of the “DADs” and “Climate Change” exhibitions with embassy of Sweden, JAMAFEST visual arts pavilion with UVADA, “Know Way Out” with Belgian embassy, “Art Creates Water”, “Hope Art exhibition”, a retrospective of “25 years of Bruno Sserunkuuma’s Ceramic Philosophy”.
An exhibition designer of “Apes of Uganda organised by the Uganda Museum and the University of Michigan, a co-curator among an international group of curators for the “Notes for Tomorrow” 2020-2025 traveling exhibition organized by ICI in New York, USA, “Facing our Past; Rethinking Future Museums” a project supported by the Goethe Institute under the Uganda Museum study group. “Anecdotes of Origin” at the A Plus gallery in Venice, Italy that featured 5 renowned European artists in a group of 20 curators from; Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, south and North America.
Balimunsi has shared prestigious panel discussions with leading curators and art historians including; Zoe Whitely a, 2019 British pavilion Curator at Venice Biennial, Dr. Fiona Siegenthaler from University of Basel, Barbra Babweteera Mutambi of CCFU, Faisal Kiwewa of Bayimba Foundation, Kizito Maria Kasule from CEDAT and many more. He’s previously published articles with Start Journal, JAMAFEST magazine, Independent Curators International (ICI), and Contemporary And. Balimunsi has curated numerous exhibitions at UNCC-Nommo gallery as its curator and his most recent curatorial projects at Nommo Gallery include; the “Long wait”, Portfolio review sponsored by the embassy of France in Uganda, “Collective Memories” and “Tracing the Que-rator” sponsored by Newcastle University.
Martin Senkubuge
Martin Senkubuge is a First Class Honors Degree graduate of the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Arts, MTSIFA 2021, Makerere University. Martin is a Hyper-realist who draws portraits inspired by a skin condition-Vitiligo. He is a Visual Artist, Researcher, Curator, and Design Thinker. He is the founder of Part of Us initiative, a visual campaign of creating awareness about Vitiligo Skin condition in Uganda, Africa and beyond. His work has been featured in the Guardian, Vanity Fair Magazine Italia, i newspaper UK, on different BBC World Service programs, and many News Papers both local and International. He is a certified participant as a pioneer Visual Artist, during the Human Rights Day; the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He organized and participated in the History Unmasked Student’s exhibition at Makerere Art Gallery in 2019.
He also participated in the second edition of Kampala Cultural Exchange, 2019, sharing messages behind his artworks contributing to the documentation of the Great African Art Banner. He was the biggest seller in the Walls Speak Art exhibition 2019 at Kingdom Kampala, organized by Rotary Club and Wonder art Gallery.
His Painting about Global Warming was Auctioned by Ntinda Metropolitan Rotarians, and the funds were used to facilitate health services in one of the wanting hospitals in Eastern Uganda then. He also featured in the Fashion Summit 2019; Abraynz Styles and Fashion Awards, ASFAS19 as a guest Visual Artist. He represented Makerere University in the Keeping it Modern Initiative 2019 of the Uganda National Museum, sponsored by Getty Foundation. He won a Small Project Grant 2020 from Goethe Zentrum Kampala, GZK. He also made it to the Short List of Top 5 in the Mukumbya Musoke Art Prize 2020, a biannual art prize in Uganda.
Together with a team of volunteers, he organized and put up a solo show Part of Us exhibition throughout the month of April, 2021 at GZK/UGCS space. He was selected as one of the eight (8) participants in the Collective Memories Curatorial Training Workshop hosted by Nommo Gallery, the Uganda National Gallery and sponsored by Newcastle University. He was the Chairperson (General Coordinator) of the team of 8 selected curators. He was the Programmes Assistant/ Assistant Curator of the ’Njabala; This is Not How exhibition March/2022.’ And many other voluntary and creative engagements