Muse Uganda – Arts Educational Center is an innovative educational program for disadvantaged youth, located in Namulanda, Uganda. The program is based on cutting-edge Ugandan and Israeli knowledge and experience in the areas of arts education, social entrepreneurship and social responsibility.
The program identifies artistic potential in gifted street children, AIDS orphans, and disadvantaged teenagers from across Uganda, who would otherwise never be given the opportunity to receive an education. By developing and honing their creative and artistic abilities, the youth are given opportunities to learn and experience the arts in a professional manner, allowing them to acquire the necessary skills to become independent artists, thereby ensuring their ability to sustain themselves economically, enjoy a brighter personal future and become creative and industrious members of their society.
The curriculum consists of general knowledge, computers, math, English, and art studies. The program also includes a boarding school facility providing the youth with a safe and protective home during their study period and an adjacent medical clinic. The program instills values of social and community responsibility that empower the students to become responsible individuals and leaders within their community for the benefit of the wider community.
Muse Uganda’s educational curriculum is specifically designed and focused on integrating between the arts and cultivating a culture of entrepreneurship. In addition to art education it puts an emphasis on developing social business entrepreneurship.
Muse Uganda was inspired by the Jewish value of “Tikkun Olam” and Israeli values of social responsibility and the Namulanda Academy for Arts and Design’s (NIAAD) vision of social responsibility to ensure a better future for Ugandan youth. The program builds on an existing successful arts school program in Jaffa, Israel by the name of Muzot, which served as a model for the program.