Hands On Art Workshop
Group Portrait 2024
21st September – 9th November 2025
Please join us for the opening celebration of Group Portrait 2024 produced by Hands On Art Workshops on Sunday, September 21st, 3:00 – 6:00 pm.There will be a Q&A at 4:30pm with Hands On Art Workshops Co-directors Lisa Milroy and Stephanie Nebbia, Joyhlynn Maraka, Education Assistant UNHCR Kakuma and Julia Manheim, Director m2 gallery.
The inaugural exhibition Group Portrait 2024 launched the Hands On m2 Gallery in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya in August 2024, produced by Hands On Art Workshops. The exhibition featured a hand-painted self-portrait on A4 paper or as a cardboard cut-out from each student in the Hands On Art workshops programme, working in 10 school Art Clubs and a community learning centre across Kakuma Refugee Camp & Kalobeyei Settlement.
Group Portrait 2024 is restaged at m2 gallery in London in autumn 2025 to showcase and celebrate the talent and artwork of students in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Settlement and mark the 10th anniversary of Hands On Art Workshops.
Hands On Art Workshops is an art educational initiative that operates in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Settlement, Kenya with support from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Hands On Art Workshops offers a range of art educational projects for primary and secondary school students and artists in Kakuma and Kalobeyei, including practical art workshops delivered through video conference, mobile phone messaging and in person visits by Hands On founder/Co-director Lisa Milroy and Co-director Stephanie Nebbia, and through a programme run by local artists, who act as Hands On Coaches. Hands On Art Workshops also offers an annual scholarship that covers full secondary school tuition for a female primary school leaver in support of education for girls.
Hands On Art Workshops partners with UNHCR, Windle International Kenya, Colart, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, Book Aid International, Finn Church Aid and Vodafone Foundation.
The Hands On m2 Gallery is a non-profit, 24/7 free access pavilion located in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya created as an art educational initiative by Hands On Art Workshops for the display of artwork by students in the Hands On programme across Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Settlement. It advocates the importance and value of art education, and aims to foster imaginative thinking, innovation and creativity. The gallery presents 5 exhibitions each year, with 24/7 free access. The exhibitions and related art workshops are overseen and curated by the Hands On Coaches with support and guidance from Hands On Co-directors Lisa Milroy and Stephanie Nebbia.
The Hands On m2 Gallery is based on the m2 gallery in south London, conceived & designed by the late British architect Ken Taylor and Julia Manheim, Director. The gallery design for Kakuma Refugee Camp was adapted by UNHCR Technical and Engineering in Kakuma and is built from bricks and metal rather than timber, which characterises the m2 gallery, to allow for the difference in environmental conditions in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Windle International Kenya oversaw the construction process. The Hands On m2 Gallery is powered by solar panels to provide night-time illumination and has a water harvesting system for watering the trees planted around sets of benches built into the gallery base.
