>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. ^M00:00:05 [ Silence ] ^M00:00:21 >> Good afternoon and welcome to the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress. I'm Mary Jane Deeb, Chief of the Division and I'm delighted to see you all here today. And now let me bring forth Eve Ferguson, the Senior Reference Librarian for East Africa, who has organized this program and who will introduce our speaker. Eve? ^M00:00:49 >> Thank you very much and good afternoon and welcome to the Africans Sections program, the MASK Prize 2014. Our speaker today is Ms. Alla Tkachuk and last year, Alla was here speaking about the program she founded in Kenya in 2006, The Mobile Arts School of Kenya better known as MASK. And of course, it seems like this is a very familiar crowd so you probably know all this information already. When she introduced the upcoming MASK prize competition which was first held in 2013. Now in its second year, the MASK prize is a renowned national art competition open to youth throughout the country. Originally trained as an engineer, Alla Tkachuk held a Bachelor's and a Master's degrees in engineering from Kiev National University of Technology in the Ukraine. She moved to the United Kingdom in 1989 and since has practiced as an artist, art curator, and art educator. In addition to MASK, she also founded a creativity top up program, creativity gym in London. We, of course, want to hear something about that as an aside. And also spoke about creativity at UNESCO, University of London, the Woodrow Wilson Center, George Washington University, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And she's gotten press in the United Kingdom and in Africa. Alla champions an inspirational model for how individuals, organizations, and societies can build continued success and fulfillment by putting creativity at the center of education. She's exhibited in the UK, South Korea, Germany, and Ukraine. And her artwork has been featured in the leading international press and media including the pages of the front pages of The Times. And she was named Critic's Choice by the Saatchi in London. Alla was international awards including the Gold Lead Award [phonetic] for a portrait of a Black Prince Charles and a Lever Holm Trust Artist and Residence Award for her artist in residency at the University of London. She's also a lifetime holder of the UK Millenium Awards fellowship [phonetic]. She also teaches creativity at the Saatchi Gallery in London. And here to tell us more about the MASK prize and this year's competition, please welcome Alla Tkachuk. ^M00:02:55 [ Clapping ] ^M00:02:57 >> Thank you very much. I'm thrilled to be here again and to tell you more about my project, MASK, and one of its program, the MASK prize. What I will do today is this. I'm going to tell you why we set MASK prize and then I will show you at the end of my presentation 12 minutes video of the recent awards ceremony which we just held in May in Nairobi. So what I will do now I'll mention why we set MASK and the MASK prize. And the reason is this, I strongly believe that the creativity and innovation is essential for transformation of lives and societies. And to be successful we all need to be creative. It is creativity that allows us to grasp opportunities and flourish. Creativity is very strong force for improving one's employer ability. Employers now want people who can generate new innovative ideas and academic qualifications is not longer enough. Creative people are great entrepreneurs and leaders as we know. Creativity advances science, culture, and economic growth. And companies who innovate get ahead of their competition. And nations that go full on on innovation today will own the global economy tomorrow. Our world is full of problems and this creative and innovative thinking that can solve them. And so 8 years ago, I went to Kenya to paint. I'm an artist. And I wanted to paint for many, many years since I was a little girl, I wanted to paint tribes in Africa. And so I went there in 2006 and as I painted my wonderful people whom I stayed in Catanzania [phonetic] border, Masi [phonetic]. I decided to volunteer some workshops in their school to say thank you for their hospitality. And during those workshops, I've discovered that in Kenyan schools and that observation is the same across Africa but not only in Africa, that the creativity which promotes education, which promotes creativity is very limited in schools. And so I setup MASK. And with a small group of local teachers we began creativity workshops in schools, in 20 schools along Grift Valley [phonetic] in Kenya. And we used art as a pedagogy. And when I looked at my children painting I knew that it's -- to make them artists is not my priority. But art teachers want to see creativity. And that's why we wanted -- we used our practices as a pedagogy. Later we started to integrate art with other subjects. And setup such programs creativity for peace building. Creativity for entrepreneurship and the new program creativity for leadership in one of our secondary schools near Lake Nivosha [phonetic]. And then further on, as our understanding of creativity developed, we started to use direct methods of teaching creativity. And those ones Eve mentioned, creativity [inaudible]. Those methods we use in that program in London. It's a direct method of teaching creativity. Creativity can taught directly. Art is not the [inaudible]. Since 2007 thousands of young people have been exposed to MASK programs. We began unlocking their potential. Some went to become entrepreneurs. We have an incredible example of a wonderful, successful entrepreneur. Artists, we have example of those who make money out of their art. Social leaders and even a [inaudible] registered in scientist. We have that have as well. They learn to generate ideas and that's what creativity, the essence of creativity is. Is the ability to generate ideas. I will mention it later a little bit in more details. They learn to identify and solve problems. They confident self-esteem and motivation grew. Their resourcefulness improved and as did their school grades. From a small mobile unit often carrying our learning materials on donkeys, we progressively to be able to present our program set in the UNESCA [phonetic] and the Library of Congress. And even at the White House last year. Currently MASK operates in 5 schools in Lake Nivosha with full-time facility, trained facilitator. And what is creativity? And I ask myself that question very -- when we started MASK and you know, I didn't know the answer to that. And since it's became clear to me that creativity is an ability to generate ideas. Not only ideas. Those ideas which bring change and that's why creativity is so important because creativity brings change. In every day life, creativity is called resourcefulness and in business, innovation. And as you know how important resourcefulness is. Later on when I show this 12 video minute you will -- we have a wonderful man who opened the exhibition awards ceremony and he spoke so well about creativity and how it's vital to a survival. Creative people think in ways that are different. They think what can be rather than what is. And that's the core difference. However, that's very important. If creativity is not fostered as research shows, it can drop from 98% in children aged 5 to 2% by the time children reach the age of 25. It's basically disappears if it's not fostered. So we're talking on one hand crucial skill for survival, for change, for transformation of lives, and then on the other hand, if it's not fostered it will disappear. That's the kind of contrast we're talking about. There's -- some views and I did experience and heard of them. People would say well creativity you can't teach it. One born creative or not creative. That's also rubbish. Creativity is -- can be taught and learned. Now one would think well how does art comes into it. What role of the arts in developing creativity. Well it's quite directal. Research shows that it is our ability to process information visually that makes our creativity possible. And that -- when I discovered that fact, it was a revelation for me. I suddenly found that link between art and creativity. And in Africa contest art is seen as a leisure and that understanding that art leads to creativity is absence. And I think we need to build that link. It's a very vital link. ^M00:11:08 If people are adapted to their visual skills, ideas come easy to them. Eighty-five of our thinking is mediated through our vision. And in children, it's even higher. This is quite staggering. Eighty-five percent of our thinking is mediated through vision. When the creative person makes connection, he makes connection between visual images not an [inaudible] or rational thoughts. There was an experiment done on Nobel Prize nominees. And they discovered -- 89% of their discoveries started as images. As images not any mathematical formulas, images. Albert Einstein said that numbers and words do not play a significant role in his thinking. And this is why art education in schools is critically important. And so the MASK prize. MASK exists since 2006. We are on, as I mentioned, several programs which are exhibitions, workshops. We call them weekly art clubs and then creativity for peace building and entrepreneurship and leadership. We worked in 20 schools as I mentioned before along Grift Valley. And we felt that over the years we haven't been making enough impact. And I ask my teachers whom we work with, what do we do? How do we make big impact? And they said we have an answer. A national art contest, a competition with excellent prizes -- that was very important to them -- can stimulate schools to introduce arts in their activity, in their schooling. ^M00:13:02 [ Background sounds ] ^M00:13:07 Eve mentioned that we know in the second year. Indeed we are and it's going from strength to strength. We are very happy with that. It is open to 13 million young Kenyans. As you know well, 75% of Kenyans population is 42 million are under age of 75. So that comes to 13 million. And 28 schools, 28,000 schools. It's opened to 28,000 schools. Why it's so important? It provides an excited platform for young people to practice and develop their creativity. It also promotes creativity as something important and positive and needed. MASK exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery. So I probably won't get mention you how we set it all up. So we knew that we needed to organize this competition nationally. And we had to put this package together. And as we -- as MASK exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery, in the past I went to them and I asked would they agree to give us an exhibition space. And they said yeah. So that was great. And then I went to Nairobi National Museum and I asked them the same. And they said yeah, sure. Yeah, Saatchi shows you. We will show you as well. And they give us exhibition space as the Nairobi National Museum. And then I knew that for the competition to be a success we need to have a major, major partner. And I started writing to all the major Kenyan newspapers. And one newspaper, they start -- responded. And they said yeah, we'll be your media partner. And they promised us to advertise the competition for 4 months and gave us [inaudible] advertisement which would come up twice a week. So that was fantastic. And then I approached the judges. Amongst our judges now, major artists like Michael Gregg Martin. Kenyan Kivuthi Mbuno who's fantastic artist, as well as directors of institutions, your Washington, D.C. institutions such as Smithsonian Portrait Gallery and its director with us, Nik, Nik is here. And also director of Hirshhorn Museum, Milena. I saw Milena yesterday by the way as well as directors of Saatchi Gallery, Kenya Institute of Education. Jennifer Wambugu who's the head of the creative arts at the Institute of Education. Lydia Galavu who is Chief Curator at the Nairobi National Museum and recently we had a new judge to judge music side of the competition, Sir Wilard White, world renowned opera singer. So we had this. We had wonderful judges and then I went -- the last step I went to Kenya Ministry of Education and I asked for them to authorize this project. And they did. So here we were. We had everything except for one -- we had no money. ^M00:16:34 [ Chuckling ] ^M00:16:37 We had no money and then I started to think well how we would raise money. And I went to my friends and I said help me. And so -- ^M00:16:48 [ Background sounds ] ^M00:16:52 And they did. And here it is. In September 2012, 7 of my friends decided to take part in our fundraising event called the Great Walk of Art. And the Great Walk of Art, the idea is that we will walk between major art museums in London and plenty of those in London, and ask our friends to sponsor us. And so several of us walked from -- starting from Saatchi Gallery going through Royal Academy of Arts and to the final destination was the Tate Modern. The task -- the major challenge we had to find art which is influenced -- in those museums -- which was influenced by Africa. And would you believe it that 7 people raised 12,000 UK pounds. And that allowed us to launch the competition. That was enough. And so the Great Walk of Art is still going on. It's annual event. And in October 2013, I think 15 friends walked. And we raised 17,000 pounds. And here we are, we started at National Portrait Gallery. That's the first picture. Again, we were looking at art which reflects essence of African art which has very demeaning social purpose. So Africa art has -- is very powerful aspect of social purpose. So we find those in National Portrait Gallery and then we moved to Royal Opera House. And that's on the roof of Royal Opera House. We looked at some costumes which were exhibited in the foyer. And then we went to Somerset House. Here we are. And in Somerset House there was a wonderful exhibition of illustration which had very much social purpose of informing people. And then the, of course drinks at the [inaudible] at the end of the walk. Everyone deserved it very much. So here we are. We finally had money and we only needed formally to launch it. And I approached Kenyan leader radio DJ Caroline Ritoko [phonetic] and she launched the competition at one of her [inaudible] 100 FM shows in January 2013. ^M00:19:27 [ Background sounds ] ^M00:19:31 And the result was this. ^M00:19:34 [ Background sounds ] ^M00:19:40 The result was that thousand artworks submitted to the MASK prize of 2013. The theme for the competition was what makes me proud about Kenya. We decided to theme it like that to coincide with the Kenya general elections and there was also 50th anniversary of the Kenyan independence. Ninety-five schools participated and 15 Kenyan universities took part. The winners, I'll go through their names. Two schools Rubiri Primary School which is in Naivasha and the Children of God Relief Institute. Some people who volunteered in that program sitting there in the audience. And three artists, James Kungu, 18, Jaini Hitesh Shan, and Margarita Onyango. And I'm going to show you videos, a few couple of videos, very short one, minute long. I'm not going to show you online full catalog here is you want to see all 1,000 artworks. But I'm just going to show some few seconds winning artworks of 2015. It's quite interesting to see. That's the Rubiri School. Wonderful work. This is by Jaini Shan, 18 disabled girl from Nairobi. This is school of -- God Relief Institute. It's the school for orphanage. It's for orphans. And the last one was a three -- this is the winning work of -- by James Kungu but before James Kungu's work, there was a piece of the tree with 53 leaves on it. And it was called Peace in Kenya. As you know, maybe you know a little history of Kenya elections in 2008, there was quite big violence. And so 2013, we -- some of us was fearing that it might end up in violence. And Margarita painted this wonderful tree with 53 leaves each representing the Kenyan tribe. ^M00:21:50 And then exhibition followed too. Exhibited -- was exhibited at the Nairobi Museum in June. And Nairobi Museum exhibition was opened by the British High Commissioner, Dr. Turner. Three hundred guests came, all over -- from all over Kenya including some of my teachers from Northern Kenya who traveled 7 hours just to come for the opening. And some teachers I didn't know at all came from [inaudible] leaving their villages at 5 o'clock in the morning to come with artists so they can come to this opening. There's a great need and interest in this kind of programs in Kenya because schools don't offer it doesn't mean that it's not needed or not desired by people. It is and so the response was incredible. The big exhibition gallery which Nairobi Museum gave us was full with people. We hardly could move in it. In -- at the museum during the one month's artwork exhibited it was seen by 400, 4,000 young -- Kenyan young people. And then of course, exhibition went to Saatchi Gallery in September. And it was opened by Michael Craig-Martin. He is in this first picture. Maybe I'll -- what I'll do again it's a one minute 58 seconds video. I'll just show it to you so you have some idea of the artwork and how it was exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery. Saatchi Gallery gave us 2 rooms. One was education room downstairs and one on the major, main floor of the gallery. And in this great validation of young people's talent. Now some work was exhibited at the education room. For example, this one. And the director of Saatchi Gallery, Francesca Wilson, who was at the opening as well. This is Michael. This Francesca. And Francesca said this, the UK young people who came to the gallery said that the Kenyan young people's artwork was amazing. And were influenced by it. And Michael said that the prize is important for the future of West African art. And the exhibition was exhibited for 3 weeks and was seen by 87,000 people. Now we go swiftly back to the website and after Saatchi Gallery we moved 4 weeks, the exhibit, at the Royal Overseas League in London. And it was opened by Margarita Suitor [phonetic] who is the education art -- Kenyan educational [inaudible], the Kenyan High Commission in London. And also interesting this young woman, Touria El Glaoui, she set up a first ever African art fair which is very popular in London called 1:54. And she came and spoke about dream, African's dream of and artists part of that African dream. And must be kept part of that dream. It was very interesting what she said. And of course, it was the exhibition of 2013 had 12 newspaper and magazine articles, radio and TV programs covered in the exhibition. Covered in the event which is huge coverage, huge. And of course, we go back now to last year -- no this year 2014. Now interesting. So we changed the theme. The theme for this year is young Africans the creative nation. Now we wanted to move from the [inaudible] to [inaudible]. I actually call creativity and with certain young people, look submit any artwork now. Not only visual art, music, dance, poetry, writing, submit any artwork on any topic as long as it's -- represents a new idea. And new idea which can help you or your community or planet. So we gave this quite a task. We explained them on the website and in the papers what it is creativity. And what famous people say what creativity is and why ideas are so important for change in transformation. So we wanted them to understand it is. Alternatively, if they didn't want to talk about their idea, they could submit innovative art. Again, we wanted to stress this idea of something new, different, innovative, and we said, make your art out of recycled materials, for example. Do something different. And if it's a dance, create new dance moves. Why not? And the response was great. A lot of questions. Actually young people wanted to clarify. And the -- eventually the level of work was incredibly high. Don't you think, Nik? It was incredible. I'm going to actually again 1 minute. It's the online catalog. It's the selected artworks. I'm going to show you because I'm proud of it. ^M00:27:29 [ Background sounds ] ^M00:27:33 As you see, this is from recycled material. Just pieces of newspaper. If it's a blue picture, that's what they did. They cut out of blue and made a collage. This is all the photography. So we open this year competition to photography as well. There's beautiful photography came. Some wonderful paintings. And this selection wouldn't show, we had music and the music is -- you will love that part of my presentation. So we just had -- again the competition will go to Saatchi Gallery in September and then Royal Overseas League in London in December. I will very quickly, before we go into that video of the awards ceremony, I'll tell you a little bit about the winners of this year competition. The third prize in visual category went to Onesmus Okamar. He's a very interesting young man. He's 19. He's from West Kenyan. From very remote village on Uganda border and when I called him and I said how did you decided to paint? He said, you know what Alla, I saw once somewhere a picture by Michaelangelo and that inspired me to paint and I want to be part of Kenyan art history. And I thought that was fantastic. The way he said it. And with the prize money and it's about 500 pounds, he would get or 500 dollars, he said that he will buy his grandmother a cow which is big asset. And from his background it's a great addition. And the second prize, you saw maybe a boy who created a fish out of bottle tops. And he is 9 years old from [inaudible]. He's an orphan living in -- and looked after by a local charity. And the first prize went to this lovely young man who came up with the photograph which everyone talks about. The young man who lifted up with the wings. And Louis [phonetic] is not professional photographer but loves photography and he says that I want to inspire people through my photography. That's incredible. And then 2 schools, Darubini. Darubini ran by from [inaudible]. Darubini is run by Esther and Esther is incredible. I didn't know Esther at all. She came to my -- to the exhibition at the Nairobi Museum last year and that's the lady who traveled -- left her village at 5 o'clock in the morning just to arrive for the opening ceremony. She is apparently incredible enthusiast of art education. And she setup weekend workshops. So [inaudible] you'll see how she speaks at the opening, at the awards ceremony. Nyumbani, Nyumbani Will -- Will, what's your name? What's your surname? Forgive me. Will Dasmine. Will Dasmine is sitting there and he -- and this the second time I saw him. The first time I saw him at the awards ceremony. And this young man went to Kenya and ran workshops with orphans and produced beautiful sculpture out of the boxes. Brown boxes. And the sculpture called the Village of My Mind because your orphans dreaming about beautiful housing and living in the sophisticated cities. So you will see that and the Corgi Club. This is, again, this club which is run by Catholic Sisters in Nairobi and they produce the most magnificent sensitive beautiful collages and you will see them there. And the opening ceremony happened at the -- not at the Nairobi Museum this year but at the Nairobi University, at the School of Art and Design which was fantastic. And it was opened by Manu Chandaria. Manu Chandaria is the leading Kenyan businessman and philanthropist. [Inaudible], a prominent art collector of African art, spoke at the opening and [inaudible], professor at the School of Art and Design at Nairobi University. Again, newspapers gave us wonderful coverage. Do I show you -- ^M00:32:03 [ Background sounds ] ^M00:32:13 Maybe just the one. For example, this is in the Business Daily. MASK awards to promote creativity in rural schools. We see a few pictures. This is their online version but the printed version has beautiful pictures of the winners. It was lovely. Absolutely wonderful. And then before I proceed to that video which I just mentioned several times by now of the awards ceremony, I just would like to read what young people said to us about this competition. And I do receive a lot of e-mails especially after the ceremony from teachers and young people. Send me something along this line. For example, Helen she's 20. When I saw the exhibition of the 2013 MASK prize at the Nairobi National Museum, I could not believe that we have so many talented young people. Benson, 16, he said it was great to be able to show my creativity and to encounter creativity of all other who participated. James, James actually was the winner of last year. He said MASK has made me face to face -- to face the reality of my talent. I cannot wait to see my work in the next year competition. Now I just received this is in an e-mail. It is simply from giftJohn from Kakuma Boys High School in Turkana County. He said I really appreciate the competition. I'm proud that my work was shown. And then 2 teachers. Rose Chibet [phonetic], I don't know her, e-mailed me. Thank you for the MASK prize, an excellent initiative to build talent in Africa and the entire world. And Esther, 30, she's a teacher from the Darubini school, one of the winners. She said this, I thank you for the surprising the world of art in Kenya and in Africa. Thank you for the award we received. The children are very happy. Even the parents are now appreciating my project. And we also -- MASK also noticed that not only we need to work with children, we need to work with -- and teachers but also parents. And one example, I had this incredible young man who had been on our program for 7 years, Jarrell Gature [phonetic]. And then even after he finished school, he was volunteering on our program as a facilitator but when he joined the club, weekly arts club, his mother said -- and he comes from very poverished background. They hardly can pay for their rent. She said to him, I sacrifice my life, myself for you to join an art club. [Inaudible] but now she -- he says now she's proud when she saw how -- what progress Jarrell has done. And he has opened 2 or 3 businesses including the Dream [phonetic]. And he grows vegetables in the village. He is respected by the community. And in villages I work also. Young people sometimes not engaged in the community life or decision making. Usually that's prerogative of the elders but Jarrell is always invited by the elders to their meetings. And they always say to him this, and he quotes, he says they say Jarrell come up with ideas. How can we improve our community? And I think it's really important because suddenly a young person engaged in the decision making in the village but also they started to understand. The elders started to understand that the young people can bring something new to their lives and see the situation and the solution to problems from different angle. And they bring new perspective. New energy and that's important. So that engages them. Engages young people. As we said there's 13 million of young people. There's 6 million people who finish schools and who unemployed and live basically on the street. So they're struggling statistics. Now I'm going now to show you that awards ceremony. And this is a short version. And there's a longer version -- and I'm going to show you a longer version. And we have some time. So please enjoy -- well I know you will enjoy and especially at the end, I want to say that there's third -- that the music category was won by a rap group. And when we often do music category very -- in the very few moments since the opening up -- since the submissions opened, we received this incredible video. You will see it. And young people who, 16 and 18. Four of them, one is [inaudible] and four Kenyans. And their names are -- they created this incredible piece called Children's Anthem. And when I received it, I was a, struck by their talent and professionalism, and b, I thought are they known? Are they established group? No they're not established group. No one knows them. And the mother of one of the singers saw the advertisement in the newspaper and told her son to submit this video. And he did. And I'm glad he did. Here it is. ^M00:37:37 [ Background sounds ] ^M00:37:41 [ Music ] ^M00:38:25 >> They say that if all [inaudible] gives us a vision of the future, Alla has done tremendous work and she really [inaudible] change for creativity leading to innovation [inaudible]. Some will be artists. Some will be designers but generally speaking, [inaudible] innovation with innovation leads to unbelievable productivity. >> And [inaudible] the school [inaudible] event and an honor [inaudible]. My son was actually [inaudible] creativity and [inaudible] Kenya and [inaudible] Africa. >> What is [inaudible] schools? And we found out first that the [inaudible]. It did not stop with that. Somebody [inaudible] and creativity. And what is it? Creativity is the mother of innovation. Of a problem today in Kenya is there are 6 million youth. [Inaudible] and university that [inaudible]. Why? Because our education system does not take time for people to start [inaudible] and creating something. So creativity is one part [inaudible] that the young minds, young children when they are in school they must get some time to think [inaudible] than what we all think. [Inaudible] possibility [inaudible]. Survival in this world is becoming very, very, very difficult. And without creativity, without innovation, it is not possible. ^M00:40:27 [ Clapping ] ^M00:40:31 >> Thank you very much, Manu Chandaria. Such wise words. Thank you very much. [Inaudible] awards ceremony. The second year MASK prize [inaudible] third prize [inaudible] are Michele [inaudible] from Nairobi -- ^M00:40:49 [ Music ] ^M00:42:18 The winner is -- ^M00:42:20 [ Background sounds ] ^M00:42:28 Tell me why you paint. >> I paint because [inaudible] information and some [inaudible] like people like [inaudible]. So [inaudible] in the history of [inaudible] [clapping]. >> Wow isn't that just wonderful. ^M00:42:58 [ Clapping ] ^M00:43:01 >> [Inaudible]. ^M00:43:03 [ Music ] ^M00:43:27 >> [Inaudible] Day. 1st place winner visual entry -- >> [Inaudible] is really about my dreams and I chase them. [Inaudible] telling me that [inaudible] to watch [inaudible]. So [inaudible] status you can fly. ^M00:44:05 [ Music ] ^M00:44:16 >> I came up with the idea of [inaudible] school children. Since the [inaudible] does have the new zoo. [Inaudible] and I wanted [inaudible]. Thank you. I'd like to thank Alla for making this big success. [Inaudible]. ^M00:44:42 [ Music ] ^M00:45:18 [ Clapping ] ^M00:45:22 [ Music ] ^M00:45:30 [ Background sounds ] ^M00:45:34 [ Clapping ] ^M00:45:36 >> Hi guys. How are you? [Inaudible] crew in 2011 [inaudible] and basically we make music with a positive influence as you see. This is just one of the [inaudible] tracks. It's called Children's Anthem. [Inaudible] children campaign. Basically off the track, we wanted to inspire people who see music video and listen to the music so that they can go out there -- ^M00:46:08 [ Music ] ^M00:46:33 >> This is for the guy in the streets [inaudible] music crying [inaudible]. This is for those [inaudible] to the future and they [inaudible] not to go. >> [Singing] Hear our voices. Someone listen. We're your future. We're only children. So just help the children. These children [inaudible] children. >> [Rapping] There's a [inaudible] little girl's parents died. Now she left all alone and she can't decide what to do with herself. All the tears she cried. Left her broken apart [inaudible] clear in her eyes so she can finally see life is so unfair. When you're looking for help there's always no one there. And no one cares about where she's going to sleep. And no one cares about how she's going to eat. She's going to be a survivor with God right beside her. Men try to bribe her to sell herself but she a good girl. She take care of herself. Expecting nothing from nobody and she always [inaudible] tomorrow. He's going to take away all the pain and sorrow. [Inaudible] and take it for granted because in the end you might end regret it. Don't ever forget it. >> [Singing] Hear our voices. Someone listen. We're your future. We're only children. So just help the children. These children. [Inaudible] children. >> [Rapping] [Inaudible] thank you for what you started because even as an orphan [inaudible] started. [Inaudible] fathers and [inaudible]. She was 6 years old. [Inaudible] education. She had no celebrations [inaudible]. [Inaudible] molestation. [Inaudible]. Protect the children and save the [inaudible]. Protect the children and save the world. >> [Singing] Hear our voices. Someone listen. We're your future. We're only children. So just help the children. These children. [Inaudible] children. ^M00:49:09 [ Music ] ^M00:49:19 [Singing] Can please somebody listen to all [inaudible]? Protect the children. [Inaudible] children. And [inaudible]. Protect the children. These children. Protect the children. >> [Singing] Hear our voices. Someone listen. We're your future. We're only children. So just help the children. These children. [Inaudible] children. >> [Inaudible]. >> [Singing] We're only children. So just help the children. These children. [Inaudible] children. ^M00:50:10 [ Background sounds ] ^M00:50:17 >> Isn't it fantastic? Isn't it? ^M00:50:21 [ Clapping ] ^M00:50:24 And the names of the singers are Timmi [phonetic], Belvik, Beauri, J.K. and the girl called Kabi. And the last word I want to say in conclusion is this. We're now in the stage preparing for the next year, MASK prize. And we need funds. We need funds to sustain this program. We want to increase the prizes especially for the schools. And for this, to raise those funds we want to organize the Great Walk of Art in D.C. And if you want to take part in this walk, please come forward. We do need you. And this could be a great experience for you but also for children who will participate in the next year MASK prize. Thank you very much for coming and listening. Thank you. ^M00:51:21 [ Clapping ] ^M00:51:24 >> If anybody has any questions, I have a question myself. And that is since your first experience with the MASK prize through the second, did you have to change the criteria in any way to open it up to more youth in Kenya? I see that some of the -- a lot of the winners were older in their 20s. >> Yeah. Yeah. We haven't changed the criteria. From the beginning, we decided to make it under 25 and schools. And the schools will get only prize if they not private. If they're state. >> Okay. >> We see more older young people because in schools there's no arts. And somehow when they're older they can take charge themselves and either practice more by themselves or parents maybe help them. I had a parent came. A man came from Mombasa [phonetic], Indian man with his son. And his son was probably 14. And this man brought him from Mombasa for the opening just to ask how he can continue working because there's nothing in school. So that's why we see less young people and -- but when the wonderful project of some charities take on, then we'll see -- we see the young participants like Clemen [phonetic] who is 9. >> Okay. >> So that's how it works. Unfortunately in schools there's no art education. So -- >> Any other questions? >> I have a quick question. You had said that you had a 1,000 submissions in 2013. How many in 2014? >> In 2014, we had about 380. It was less and the differences because we think, the first year we send a lot of letters from London to schools in Kenya. We took the yellow pages and sent a lot of -- hundreds letters to that yellow pages addresses. The second year we didn't have resources to do that. And in the first year, they also could submit region award by send and by post. In the second year, last -- this year we decided that it's -- logistics are too much for us. We've been taking artworks from Kenya to London and it's very difficult, bulky and cost a lot. So we set up an online submission although they could send -- they could have option to send it by post but online was our preferred choice. And we promote it online submission. And I suspect not every child in the rural school that has an opportunity. Has that access to the internet. So we have to balance what we can do with our limited resources and also open up to more young people. ^M00:54:23 [ Background sounds ] ^M00:54:28 Any questions? Any more? >> [Off mic]. >> Categories for the prizes. >> And the ages. >> And the ages. We decided not to go for ages. So we had no age categories. Categories are visual arts and music for this year. Last year it was only visual arts. This year music -- we said that videos of dance, singing, poetry reading. There were submissions of poetrists. So we have visual arts and videos of everything else. And the visual arts included photography. So the bottom line everything. >> And why do you not go [inaudible]? >> It's complicates. It's complicates the procedure. We have so limited prizes. So we have 6 prizes. And if we will have ages, we will have to basically have more money for prizes. But I also believe, personally, that you can't -- especially in the context of Africa, if these children not been practicing forever and then they're 18. So and then a child of the same experience younger, that that doesn't make sense to us. And I also -- when I work with young people, creativity doesn't have an age really. That's what I think. So it's the process and it's an idea or an artwork but age is just too insignificant for us, somehow. It's the artwork but the not age. But I know what you mean. We thought of that hard and long but I think we decided to have no age. And I think it works for us. ^M00:56:36 [ Background sounds ] ^M00:56:38 Yes, Will. >> I really liked how you created [inaudible] guidelines really [inaudible] critical thinking with materials and [inaudible] subject. In the 2015, how are you going to [inaudible]? >> I think we'll stick with the same theme for a few years now. I think we really want to -- we might tune it. We might have -- well for example questions that young people asked we're going to incorporate in the explanation or question -- ask questions. But I think it's the -- such a title and young people love to create. And I think we'll stick with that. Thank you, Will. ^M00:57:22 [ Background sounds ] ^M00:57:24 >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov.