We are raising funds for the Inkundla Arts Festival in Freetown—three days of poetry, music, drama, and visual art shaped around mental health and wellbeing. Last year’s pilot was mostly self-funded and run largely by volunteers. This year, we want to pay artists fairly and fund creation workshops with mental-health practitioners, so the work on stage comes from real healing practices, not just performance. Some venue costs are already covered in-kind. Your gift makes the rest possible.

Inkundla Spaces is a community-based arts platform dedicated to creativity and community—curating welcoming spaces where stories can be shared safely and honestly. Since 2023, Inkundla has hosted the Wi Kreative Playgron (intimate open-mics in living rooms and small venues that nurture first-time performers), opened Wi Art Space for emerging visual artists (including exhibitions by Zato and Jozy), produced Jabulani Music sessions that connect scenes through sound, and piloted the 2024 festival with 25+ artists and 200+ attendees. Alongside that, we run practical workshops in performance and writing, began deliberate conversations around wellbeing and safe practice, and built a partner network so more of every leone raised reaches artists and audiences.

Why this matters..and why here, why now

In Sierra Leone, public funding for the arts is almost non-existent and very few entities support art for art’s sake. Inkundla Spaces has built something rare: an open, welcoming platform where people gather to create, reflect, and connect. The first festival (2024) proved the demand—audiences showed up, artists showed up, and most of the work (and costs) were carried personally or by volunteers.

Now it’s time to do it right: pay artists, resource their creative process, and hold space for mental health in ways that are culturally grounded and genuinely supportive.

What your support will do

Your contribution goes directly into two priorities:

1. Fair pay for artists

• Stipends for 25+ poets, musicians,

actors, and visual artists

• Transport support so artists outside

central Freetown can participate

• Small production support for

exhibiting artists

2. Creation Labs with mental-health practitioners

• Workshops that pair artists with

mental-health

practitioners/psychosocial support

workers

• Safe, guided sessions to explore each

artist’s mental-health practices and

turn them into new work

• Toolkits for ongoing self-care and peer

support beyond the festival

Already covered: parts of the venue costs are in-kind (thank you to community partners). That lets your donation focus on people and process, not just bricks and lights.

How the funds break down (transparent and practical)

• Artists’ stipends & transport: ~50%

• Creation Labs (facilitators, materials, space, refreshments): ~30%

• Documentation & access (photo/video, basic comms, signposting to support): ~10%

• Community outreach mini-sessions before the festival: ~10%

If we exceed the target, stretch funds will expand the labs to youth groups and add an extra post-festival sharing circle.

Give with impact (what different amounts can do)

• $25 – Art materials and a meal for one

artist in a Creation Lab

• $50 – Covers local transport for a

performing artist

• $100 – Pays an open-mic feature slot

with rehearsal support

• $250 – Funds one full workshop seat

(artist + practitioner + materials)

• $500 – Commissions a new

performance piece developed in the

labs

• $1,000 – Underwrites a multi-artist

showcase focused on mental health

(Any amount helps. Truly.)

Accountability & updates

All funds go directly to Inkundla Spaces for the 2025 festival (via one of the organizer's Italian account, as funds cannot be transferred to accounts in Sierra Leone). We’ll share monthly updates, behind-the-scenes from the labs, and a short public report after the festival showing exactly how funds were used and what was created.

The festival at a glance

• What: Inkundla Arts Festival 2025 —

“Mind Matters: Stories That Heal”

• Where: Freetown, Sierra Leone (with

pre-festival outreach in select

communities)

• When: Three days of performances,

exhibitions, and dialogue (plus

Creation Labs leading in)

• Who benefits: 25+ artists directly;

hundreds of audience members;

youth and community participants in

outreach; and the broader cultural

ecosystem.

Join us

If you believe that art is essential, and that artists deserve to be paid while doing work that genuinely helps people—please give what you can and share this page. You’ll be funding art that heals, community that holds, and stories that change how we care for ourselves and each other.

Donate. Share. Be part of the circle.