Born to Ugandan parents and growing up in Zambia, Teesa Bahana ’11 dreamt of becoming the next Kofi Annan, an international superstar of African origin. On the global stage, she watched Annan wield power on issues that mattered. Like him, she also wanted to make a difference in the world. With a career in the development world, she thought she could do just this, so Bahana enrolled at Colgate, double majoring in anthropology and sociology.
Now, as executive director at 32° East Ugandan Arts Trust, a Kampala-based nonprofit focused on creating and exploring contemporary art in Uganda, Bahana traces the progression of her career path from culture enthusiast to arts practitioner.
“My classes [at Colgate] made me want to learn about particular contexts, histories, and societies,” she says.
Under the tutelage of Professor Meika Loe (sociology and women’s studies), she was encouraged to develop a deeper worldview, questioning what her day-to-day interactions revealed about society. In the same way, Bahana argues, art also decodes.
“I like the way art accesses intellect,” she says. “It can help you think about something in a way that you wouldn’t have [previously].”
At 32° East, Bahana oversees artist residencies and exhibits by an array of multidisciplinary artists, alongside a free resource library, workshops, and research and concept development labs, where artists are encouraged to explore their ideas. While its audience is primarily local, 32° East joins the work of other community-led arts initiatives that are making a case for the arts on a continent where infrastructure is still scarce.
“Funding on the continent is mostly directed to health and education, but we also need art,” Bahana says. “We need investment in things that make us think through how society is organized and that help us imagine new structural systems.”
32° East offers a physical space for critical thinking, self-learning, and expression among Ugandan artists. It also creates dialogue between artists and their communities. For example, through the KLA ART festival, Bahana leads the commissioning of new work ranging from the visual arts to sculpture, photography, writing, and live performance. In its first year, the festival turned Kampala’s streets into a living canvas, placing 12 containers around the city as exhibition spaces for 12 visual artists. After being forced into hiatus in 2020, the festival returns this year under the theme “This Is Ours,” inviting artists and audiences to reflect on questions of ownership and collectivity.
Before the pandemic, 32° East was preparing to break ground on a new center with community and income generation at its core. The pandemic has been particularly hard on the arts and artists and Bahana is looking forward to resuming their building plans and raising more funds to support artists in Uganda. For her, the arts center in-waiting is a manifestation of the world she wants to live in — one that is more just, beautiful, and joyous.
The name 32° East comes from its location east of the Prime Meridian line.