Office hopping aside, 2018 was a year of more wins as well. We won the Google Impact Challenge and start- have left many dead for decades. The project ed building Kalabars, a digital Content On Demand platform (that we have shamelessly plugged all over this gave a voice to all the women working hard book). to make ends meet for their families. We also partnered with The Junction Mall to start Art at The Junction. Kenyan artists who felt locked out of Women whose sacrifices have been more conventional galleries in Nairobi who only had Instagram and Facebook as the only way to display their ignored yet have made a lasting im- art were given a chance to participate in a weekly open-air gallery. This opportunity meant a lot for the artists pact on their communities. While the most of whom made their first sales at Art at The Junction. principal geographical location for the We also self-published our first photobook Prosexsive. The Prosexive project seeks to encourage open project was Tana River County, CG pushed the project’s outputs, short documentaries and narrative pieces, via digital media to a Kenyan and global audience. Travelling to Tana River was exciting; we needed police escorts for some parts of the journey and it felt like we would never arrive, especially after another 50 Kms of nothing but scrubland and savannah But it was worth it, not just for the project outputs but in the forever family creatives garage found with Jawariya, Maria and Aisha We started our first masterclasses, support queer refugees from the region this is a success… dialogue regarding sex and sexuality. It’s a daring project and one that we approached carefully. Any time an arts organisation decides to tackle topics such as sex and sexuality they run the risk of government censorship with associated fines and even jail time. Despite the risk, we hosted 3 talks and 4 exhibitions. The latest output 2018 under Prosexive is a photobook that visually explored depictions of sex in African society. Our funders decided it wasn’t enough ‘African’ enough, so we decided to publish it ourselves. 2018 started rough. Our landlord at Kirichwa road decided to knock down the buildings on the property and build a block of apartments. We were once again without an office. We moved to a new space on Galana Road and started settling in but once the creatives started 2019 coming to the office we were asked to move again. The neigh- bours made complaints and the large number of people with Sondeka Festival had had rousing success over the past years but we decided to go the extra mile. Instead of dreadlocks and ‘dirty jeans’ who came to our office (Deja just showcasing artists on stage, we started our own awards ceremony. Creatives Garage believes that appre- Vu much?) posed a “SECURITY RISK”. We weren’t even ciation is a fundamental human need (it sits up there next to WIFI). The Sondeka Awards aim is to bridge the there long enough for the ink to dry on our new business gap between mainstream award ceremonies and innovative talent in Kenya. This after the fact display of prop- cards. Thankfully we found a new office just nearby on er acknowledgement for their extraordinary efforts in the arts earnestly builds their confidence and encourages Wood Avenue. them to continue passionately in their work. 50nd3k4 22 50nd3k4 23 50nd3k4 22 50nd3k4 23