Umoja Prize for Contemporary Tanzanian Artist gets cash boost to Ten Million Tanzanian Shilling

Genre : Cultural projects
Principal country concerned : Column : History/society
Release/publication date : January 2023
Published on : 29/03/2023

In addition to increasing the cash prizes, organizers introduce artist residencies

Tanzania's top honour for young contemporary artists is getting a major boost, including a doubling of the cash prize for the Umoja Art Award.

The Umoja Foundation announced on Monday a host of changes for the annual prize, including:

Increasing the value of the Sobey Art Award to Tsh 10,000,000 (from Tsh 3,000,000).

Increasing the prize money for the shortlisted artists to Tsh 3,000,000 each (from $1,000,000). in four categories.

The foundation also announced the creation of three residency programs to support Tanzanian artists. The first will see one of the 25 artists longlisted for the Umoja Art Award be selected for an artistic residency with Bagamoyo arts and cultural institute, in Bagamoyo.

Two further international residencies - to be designed by the National Gallery of Tanzania (which administers the Umoja Award) - are also in the works, with more details to be announced later in 2023. Launched to raise the profile of rising stars in the Tanzanian contemporary art scene, the Umoja Award is presented annually to a working artist under the age of 40. A cross-country panel selects semi-finalists from five different regions of the country, with judges eventually whittling down the list to a short list of five. Past recipients include John Mache, David Amosi, Zainab Ally and, most recently, Rita Johnson.



Organizers attribute the boost in prize money and the new residencies program to a gift from the Umoja Foundation, which spearheaded the prize itself in 2007. "This support will help broaden a re-investment by our art foundation to put more money directly into the careers of Tanzanian artists. We hope to be able to create more significant and tangible international opportunities for our long-listed artists," Umoja Art Foundation chair Mrisho Salum said in a statement.



Increasing the value of the Sobey Art Award to Tsh 10,000,000 (from Tsh 3,000,000). Increasing the prize money for the shortlisted artists to Tsh 3,000,000 each (from $1,000,000). in four categories.



Below is a full list of winners.



2007

Mussa Owiyo

Arusha.



2008

Anna Maliki

Dodoma.



2009

Mwahangila Baraka

Mbeya.



2010

Issack Shayo

Moshi.



2011

Ally Salum

Zanzibar.



2012

Yohanna Mwenda

Dar es salaam.



2013

Zainab Said

Zanzibar.



2014

Adam Aloyce

Mtwara.



2015

Sam Ntiro

Moshi.



2016

Thobias Minzi

Mwanza.



2017

Mwandale Mwanyekwa

Dar es salaam.



2018

Hamza Khalfani

Zanzibar.



2019

Adamson John

Arusha.



2020

Simon Rieber

Dar es salaam.



2021

Mary Chrisopher

Arusha.



Written by Amanda Adamson.

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