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In this issue, we offer several contrasting perspectives on this controversial show of lecturers’ work. Elsewhere, correspondent Henry Mzili Mujunga returns with a reflection on the contentious issue of nudity in the arts and local urban culture. Mzili also profiles successful Ugandan photographer Eric Rwakoma, one of those rare and envied members of our artist community who manages to make his living doing what he does best. On the international scene, Leah Sandals provides us with a primer on how to break into the exciting and lucrative Canadian art scene. Read on for more features on the latest trends and techniques in the Ugandan art world.

In the second issue, we explore the vital—and sometimes uneasy relationship between the arts and the commercial world. Artist and writer Henry Mzili Mujunga returns as our chief correspondent, exploring the recent rash of “biennales” and other art festivals in Africa and around the globe that have, in a desperate search for approval from the arts establishment, looked suspiciously similar. Mzili also profiles Segah, the rising Ugandan sculptor with a refreshing work ethic and takes us behind the scenes for the making of The Stride, the sculpture commissioned for last year’s CHOGM extravaganza. Anne- Liese Prem looks at the trend on the international art scene of works fetching staggering sums and the struggle to bring funding to our local arts scene. And finally, Catherine Meyer writes about how the arts in Uganda are giving something back to communities.

In this first issue, founders Daudi Karungi and Henry Mzili Mujunga talk about the success of the recent “pothole art” produced during La Ba “street art” festival in Kampala and the role of public art as a way to promote the visual arts in African cities and make art more accessible to local residents. We talk with Maria Naita, perhaps Kampala’s premier sculptress; Mzili reflects on the identity politics of being an artist in Africa today and Dean George Kyeyune gives us the history of Makerere’s Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Art — one of the most venerable art schools on the continent. We also pay a visit to the Mona Studio in Kamwokya, where local artists are pioneering a new kind of inner city art studio.