Thika, Kiambu County, Kenya
What the town throws away, we make speak.
We are a collective of artists and makers working out of one studio in Thika. Scrap metal, seed packets, maize sacks and bottle tops come through the door. Finished work, paid commissions and trained hands go back out.
Why the studio exists
Material is never the problem. Access is.
Thika produces more usable waste in a week than the studio can carry in a year. Packaging, offcuts, sheet metal, sacks. What young artists here lack is not raw material or ideas, it is a bench, a mentor and a buyer.
So we built the missing part. The studio collects and sorts the material, trains the people who want to use it, and sells the results so the makers get paid.
Nothing arrives here as rubbish. It arrives early, in a shape nobody has used yet.
Where to start
Three ways into the studio
The programs explain how the studio runs. The artists are the people who run it. The gallery is what comes out the other side.
What we work with
Sorted, cleaned, logged, cut
Everything that comes through the gate is weighed and recorded before it reaches a bench. What we cannot use goes on to recyclers who can.
Get involved
Buy a piece, teach a skill, or send material
The studio runs on three things: sales, volunteer hours and a steady supply of material. Any of the three keeps a bench busy next week.
