Khaish Studio

Address: Sudanese Kuwaiti building 4th tower rst oor, Khartoum, Sudan
Contact: Elhassan Elmuontasir Omer Elfaroug
Email: khaishstudio@gmail.com
Website: https://www.facebook.com/KhaishGalleryOfArt/ 
Phone: +249 911250091
Open Hours: Sunday – Thursday 11:00 am – 08:00 pm

How is the project operated?
Khaish studio is an artist-run project.

How long has it been in existence?
Khaish studio was founded in 2012.

What was your motivation?
We started simple. We wanted to have our own space to paint and do art – since it’s very difficult to be a professional artist in Sudan – so we stared as a very small painting studio workshop space for the three of us and then friends. Young artists started to come visit and spend time at the studio and it became a meeting spot for young artists where they can talk about their art and bring workshops, projects, paint, design, do their preparations for exhibitions, etc. The space got popular and alive…it became an important space for us and also for so many artists and young people.

Number of organizers/responsible persons of the project.
Khaish project started with the two artists Hazim Alhussain and Elhassan Elmuontasir at the beginning and artist Galal Yousif joined a few month after so these are the social founders and members of Khaish Studio. Additionally, we have a large group of artists as Khaish’s partners and artists whom are an important part of Khaish’s life, space, art projects and workshops.

How are programs funded?
Khaish studio is funded by its founders still… Khaish studio expenses to maintain it open and running come from the three social founders.

Who is responsible for the programming?
The programing and directing in Khaish Studio are happening organically most of the time yet we do hold some quick and small meetings to set up programs.

Number and average duration of exhibitions/events per year.
The average for is 3 to 4 per year and the duration mostly are 11 days to 2 weeks. Other events like artists talks and arts receptions happen around 5 per year and for workshops around 5 per year from 1 day up to 3 weeks

What kind of events are usually organized?
Khaish Studio works as a connecter for artists and musicians with cultural centers so events are art exhibitions, music concerts, and community workshops.

How is your programming determined?
Usually we design the programs together with art centers or other partners we may have and determine our role and whom the participants are and set up the dates schedules accordingly. Also some of our events may happen spontaneously like when visiting artists come.

Do you accept proposals/submissions?
We do not accept proposals yet because of our lack of finance and support but our hope is to organize an artist residency space in the future and more workshops and social engagement projects.

What is your artistic/curatorial approach?
What we are looking for in artists and galleries we work with is the contemporary sensation, ideas and we decide to work with the artists, a person, an art spaces whom care about sharing their art and ideas and whom have more social approach in their art work and willing to work in group collaborations more than selling their art works. So we sit down with the person and talk with an open mind to see where our ideas meet and if we like what they doing then we push the work forward. When it comes to art prices the artist have full freedom to set their art prices.

What’s working? What’s not working?
We have faced problems when it comes to international projects, collaborations, and workshops and bringing international artist to our space. Sometimes we couldn’t get visas to Europe and also we were working and pushing for a triangle project with an art space from South Korea and an art gallery in Los Angeles, USA and this project has been paused now because of president Trump banning the seven countries, Sudan included. It’s hard for us to travel to the Western world in general because of the media image of Sudan as terrorist country.

What kind of role do you hope to play in your local art scene or community?
Khaish studio is an art space with cultural, social engaged and international interests working with international organizations and international art centers in Khartoum. Khaish Studio is a space of social and cultural community workshops hoping to enriching the local art scene by working more on collborative projects with more young artists and projects, to bring more African artists to Khartoum’s art scene, and to be a part of the cultural social policy makers in our city to rise more awareness about visual arts and arts in general. With such hope and plans for the future we continue…

What idea are you most excited about for the future?
We are continuing working slowly now building our network within the Khartoum city and countries within Africa and countries like India and South Korea. We have had art curators, students, and researchers from different countries coming to Khaish studio to get information about art in Sudan and Africa so we think we are heading in the right direction of pushing forward the art scene in Sudan and becoming part of the art scene in Africa – and hopefully worldwide – changing the image of Sudan in the media and showing the real image the country. We also have difficulties when it comes to funding because we need a bigger space for exhibitions and workshops which is a difficult with our limited budget.

Images courtesy of Khaish Studio.