Please join The GoDown Arts Centre for an Open Archive event on Saturday 5 September, 2 - 5pm Nairobi, with an orientation to collections on the design, planning, arts, and culture of Nairobi. In person and online (times in EAT).

14:00   Refreshments, GoDown Arts Centre tour 

15:00   Welcome 

15:15   Special collection tour. Open to the public and webcast. 

15:45   Roundtable and audience discussion. Open to the public and webcast. 

Moderator: Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi
Panelists: Patrick Abungu, Kabage Karanja, Rachel Lee, Henry Musangi, Gilbert Ouma, Ruth Sacks

16:30   Refreshments 

17:00   Academic workshop. By invitation only, in person and online.  

Moderator: Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi
Introductions: Academic workshop presenters
Presenters: Warebi Brisibe, Ikem Okoye, Itohan Osayimwese, Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi

This event coincides with the Nairobi Biennale of Architecture & Art (7-11 September) @arch_ke, the Pan-African Biennale (7-11 September) @biennale_africa, and the African Architectural & Urban History Network conference (AFRAUHN, 8-10 September) #AFRAUHN. 

Organized by Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi, Associate Professor at Barnard College, Columbia University, and Fellow at Harvard University Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. 

The GoDown Arts Centre is a hub for East African arts and urbanism in Nairobi’s Industrial Area, within walking distance of the Central Business District (CBD). It hosts residencies that support artists to deepen their practice and build more sustainable careers, alongside cultural programmes that connect people with the arts, with one another, and with a city historically shaped by spatial and social division.