May 18, 2010 – Telecommunication solutions firm Safaricom has opened a centre through which budding local artists can develop and showcase their talents.

Chief Executive Officer Michael Joseph said the contemporary Safaricom Centre will among other things hold art exhibitions, which will give artists the much needed exposure while also providing an avenue to showcase the diversity of the Kenyan art and culture.

“We have a very close connection with art in Kenya and so we wanted to provide a space for artists to showcase their work because many of them find it very difficult to exhibit in the main exhibition centres,” he said.

The centre, which is located on the ground floor of the firm’s third office block in Westlands, has four functional spaces; Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the Art, Technology and Interactive Space.

The Art Space will host temporary art exhibitions in all genres of such as performances, visual arts, fashion, photography and video-graphy. The current exhibition is dubbed “Islands of Creativity” and showcases works from 25 local artists.

“We wanted to create a space where people could come and see what Safaricom is all about; to see what we do from a CSR point of view; to see how our technology works but also because we have a close connection to art in Kenya,” the CEO told the hundreds of art lovers who attended the official launch of the centre.

Members of the public, their clients and students will be able to access the venue free of charge in the space which is designed to be interactive and dynamic exhibition.

The Centre will also be used to hold events such as Safaricom’s press conferences which will in turn save millions of shillings for the company’s shareholders.

The opening of the centre, Joseph said, demonstrate the company’s connection to the Kenyan public which has catapulted them ahead of the pack and turned them into the successful telecoms firms.