Work in genuine partnership with a women- or youth-led artisan cooperative, embedded in their practice and co-creating something new together.
For over twenty years, Gahaya Links has worked alongside women's cooperatives across Rwanda — weaving together livelihoods, skills, and communities in ways that reach beyond product and market. Today, more than 5,000 women across 52 cooperatives in 30 districts carry that work forward.
The Gahaya Creative Residency is an invitation to become part of it.
Rwanda's creative and cultural industries are rich with talent. The artisan communities we work with have developed deep expertise through generations of practice — mastery in technique, material, and tradition that cannot be taught from a textbook. What the residency creates is a space for that knowledge to meet new creative voices: makers from across the continent who bring different disciplines, different questions, and a willingness to learn as much as they contribute.
This is a dynamic exchange, not a consultancy. Resident creatives are matched with a cooperative whose craft traditions, materials, and aspirations complement their own practice. Together, they develop a product collection — from concept through prototyping and into production — co-owning everything they build.
Innovation does not only happen in capital cities or formal institutions. It thrives wherever skilled people come together with intention and the right support. The Gahaya Creative Residency is built on that belief.
Work in genuine partnership with a women- or youth-led artisan cooperative, embedded in their practice and co-creating something new together.
Access a fully equipped coworking space and the materials, tools, and time to experiment, prototype, and push your work into new territory — sisal, banana fibre, agaseke weaving, and more.
Co-own the collections you develop. What is built together belongs to both partners.
Grow beyond your craft — in design thinking, quality assurance, and production management — while contributing knowledge that cooperative members carry forward as trainers.
Connect with a cohort of fifteen makers from across the continent, building professional relationships that extend well beyond the residency itself.
See your work positioned for retail and market access through partnership with Creative Rwanda, reaching new audiences across Africa and beyond.
Each residency upskills a minimum of 35 cooperative members through hands-on collaboration. These members then serve as trainers within their cooperatives, ensuring ongoing skills transfer to at least 10 additional artisans each — creating a ripple effect of knowledge and capability that extends well beyond the residency period.
Fifteen creatives are selected from across Africa and carefully matched with a cooperative whose craft traditions, materials, and aspirations complement their skills.
Residents embed with their cooperative, understanding local techniques and cultural context, then move through ideation, prototyping, and refinement.
Final collections move into production with the cooperative, with retail positioning supported by Creative Rwanda.
Trained cooperative members become trainers. Collections continue generating income. Creative networks become lasting professional relationships.
We welcome creatives across disciplines — designers, textile artists, ceramicists, jewellers, product designers, visual artists, and makers of all kinds — who bring both technical depth and a generous, collaborative spirit.
Have a demonstrated body of work, whether through formal training or accomplished self-directed practice
Are passionate about working alongside artisan communities in a spirit of mutual respect and shared learning
Bring an innovative and experimental mindset — a willingness to explore unfamiliar materials, processes, and cultural contexts
Value knowledge transfer — who understand that teaching and learning are not separate things
Are based in Africa and reflect the diversity of the continent's creative communities
The residency is designed to generate a multiplier effect. Cooperative members who are upskilled go on to train others in their communities. New collections continue to generate income. Creative networks forged during the residency become lasting professional relationships. What begins with fifteen creatives and fifteen cooperatives ripples outward — across Rwanda's 30 districts and across the continent.
By participating, you become part of a broader movement: to strengthen Rwanda's creative and cultural industries, to build pathways for economic opportunity from within, and to demonstrate that Africa's creative future is being built by Africans, together.
Gahaya Links is searching for bold, skilled creatives from across Africa to join the Creative Rwanda Residency through the Creative Rwanda programme in partnership with Mastercard Foundation.
One month virtual. One month on the ground in Rwanda. Co-create an original product collection with master artisans whose craft traditions span generations.
We welcome creatives across disciplines — designers, textile artists, ceramicists, jewellers, product designers, visual artists, illustrators, and makers of all kinds.
Email us: residency@gahayalinks.com
