Margaret Trowell's School of Art - A Case Study in Colonial Subject Formation

Margaret Trowell (1904-1985) founded one of the first schools of 'fine art' for Africans in the Uganda Protectorate -  a British colony - in the 1930s. A close reading of her arguments for introducing fine art into the 'indigenous' curriculum and accounts of her teaching methodology reveals that despite her extensive and sophisticated knowledge of the material cultures of East Africa, and despite her emancipatory intentions, the vision that underpinned her approach to art education was of the extension of colonial governmentality into the aesthetic realm.

Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, born in 1976 in Glasgow, studied English Literature at the University of Cambridge (GB) and Fine Arts at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London (GB), where she is currently a research associate. She was formerly a researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academy (NL) and is currently a fellow at the Graduate School for the Arts and the Sciences at the University of Arts Berlin (DE) working on representations of late colonialism. Recent exhibitions, screenings and events include: 'Tricky Assignments: Representing the Colonial Prison' (House of World Cultures, Berlin), 'Paradise' (Kampala Contemporary Art Festival), KM.500.5 (Kunsthalle Mainz), 'Between Inner and Outer Space' (Vienna International Film Festival), 'Chewing The Scenery' (54th Venice Biennial), and the Serpentine Gallery Map Marathon.