By Eriah Lule
Art is one of the most profound ways that humans over centuries have used to express themselves, even before Christ. It gives you the ability to explore all that is at heart in a piece that many will encounter at any interval.
A case that is just like the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Incubation center that unveiled its Mural to the university fraternity.
The many designs and themes that were painted would only leave many questions to be answered by Alex Mubezi and Joshua Kabitanyi, who were both outsourced but employed students from the Industrial Art Department to explain.
“The idea was for the incubation coaches. We sketched and they guided us on every step that we knocked,” said Mubezi. “We had to sketch it depending on the university’s strong Christian values.”
The many stories hidden in the piece are relenting. The emphasis on the university’s Christian values, the preaching of the gospel, David’s psalm, and African culture, among other things, are the many themes. One would just grab a manual to understand all of them.
For there is no successful journey without hiccups. The proposals, budgets, acquisition of materials, and giving accountabilities stages will never be rubbed in Kabitanyi’s oblongata, ‘for memories are treasure no one can steal’.
“The more challenging the work became, the more we learnt from our experiences,” he said. “On every stage, I learnt something and I believe I can now run big jobs just from UCU’s experience.”
Kabanda Martin, the Head of Undergraduate Studies and Head of Entrepreneurship Department in the School of Business, says that the Mural is a strategy to increase incubation visibility amongst the university fraternity and community.
“With this kind of work, the fraternity will always want to find out what’s going on, to find out if it’s a hub which in return comes to visit or stay,” he said, “For curiosity killed the cat.”
The incubation is under the School of Business and at the function they were joined by members from Uganda Partners, Jack and Linda Klink, who funded the project.
Jack was astonished by the kind of work that Mubezi and Kabitanyi had put together. He was also very excited from the moment he had the idea and read the proposal to construct it.
“These young men have a big future for that which I recommend, for the hub.” He said, “I was very interested from the moment I saw the idea of the proposals to see something like this.”
Elsie Nsiyona, the Associate Dean of the School of Business, was delighted by the good work that has been established at the Hub. “The Myra is a baby that has blossomed; it is just beautiful and irresistible for a passerby not to pose for a picture,” she said. “It has even added to the Vice Chancellor’s beautification project of our campus.”
The whole project has run for six months and cost over $1000, which was a donation from Jack and Linda Klink. The Myra was a dream for Mary Chowenhil, the project manager and coordinator for the Hub, a visiting professor and missionary who helps to solicit funds for the Hub.
Alinda Martha, a second-year civil and environmental engineering student, claims that the Myra has opened up the Hub’s location and even increased its visibility to passersby. “It’s so good looking, when I went to take some pictures I ended up in the hub,” she said.
