Young & Emerging Leaders Forum Spotlight: Ivy Ogott

YELF is jointly hosted by Creative Generation (CG) and the International Teaching Artist Collaborative (ITAC) to bring together and recognize young practitioners from across the field fostering a collaborative learning environment based in critical reflection intended to interrogate, mutually share and learn, and radically reimagine future possibilities for one’s work.

I am a creative, teacher and human rights lawyer. I founded a non profit organization known as Obulamu in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic hoping to provide a safe space where children could growth and thrive emotionally, spiritually, physically, socially and mentally. As of now, we have established a children centre in the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya where we host classes/events for children, which has an art gallery filled with paintings done by me and a collaborating artist depicting personal experiences that we hope will inspire generations to come, a play area, grounds for physical activities. We have set up an online learning platform on youtube where children can access free lessons taught by children as well. We also visit several schools and or children homes to spread love and hope while fostering creativity within the children among other upcoming projects. We hope to build a library and hub that would serve the community here as well as establish a centre at the coast of Kenya as well as in Uganda to serve the same purpose, in the near future.

How do you personally define leadership?

Leadership is all about taking initiative and accountability to guide and support a group of people. A good leader is one who is a role model, one who is willing to learn, one who teaches by example and takes into consideration the feelings, opinions, limitations , strengths and weaknesses of those in his/her team.

What is a driving question you have?

How do I mobilize more resources to be able to reach out to more children?

What titles/terms do you like to use to describe your work?

Human rights lawyer, creative, teacher, founder

What is something (in your own work) you are particularly proud of and why?

I am proud of being able to inspire people especially children with my authenticity and uniqueness.

What makes you excited to work at the intersection of the fields of Arts, Cultural & Education?

The fact that I can combine my knowledge of the world, critical thinking as well as playfulness and then share that with the world, makes my work in the field absolutely exciting.

What is one change you would like to see made in our field?

I would like to see creative educators being appreciated more for the service they offer to the world.

If you had a superpower, what would it be and why?

My superpower is empathy because I have an extraordinary level of compassion and love for others.