Gahaya Links Creative Residency

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.

A Genuine Exchange

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.

What the Residency Offers

Each cohort brings together fifteen creatives from across Africa for an immersive

season of collaborative making. page1image66668368

For Resident Creatives

As a resident, you will:

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 other materials and methods you may never have encountered

Co-own the collections you develop. What is built together belongs to both partners

Expand your skills beyond your craft — in design thinking, quality assurance, and production management — while contributing knowledge that cooperative members carry forward as trainers for their communities

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

For Artisan Cooperatives

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.

Step	Phase	What Happens
1	Selection & Matching	Fifteen creatives are selected from across Africa and carefully matched with a cooperative whose craft traditions, materials, and aspirations complement their skills
2	Immersion & Co- Creation	Residents embed with their cooperative, understanding local techniques and cultural context, then move through ideation, prototyping, and refinement
3	Production & Showcase	Final collections move into production with the cooperative, with retail positioning supported by Creative Rwanda
4	Legacy & Ripple Effect	Trained cooperative members become trainers. Collections continue generating income. Creative networks become lasting professional relationships

Who We Are Looking For:

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.

We are especially interested in creatives who:

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.

Apply to the Residency

Or email us directly at residency@gahayalinks.com

Gahaya Links Creative Residency

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.

A Genuine Exchange

What the Residency Offers

For Resident Creatives

For Artisan Cooperatives

Who We Are Looking For:

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.

Create with us. Bring your vision. Meet extraordinary artisans. Make something the world hasn’t seen before.

About Gahaya Links

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