PAA YA PAA
Founded in 1965. Paa Ya Paa is a compound Swahili name which literally means “The Antelope Rising”. In Swahili “paa” means “rise” and also means an “antelope”. In the 1960s the antelope had become a regular subject for the curio wood carvers designed to attract tourists in East Africa. Symbolically, therefore, Paa Ya Paa is a spiritual calling in the hope that the simple artistic expressions will rise in to a new realm of open-minded creative adventures, adventures that will give new scope for free creative self-expressions of the artist as well as the ethics and aesthetics that make the pursuit of excellence in the creative arts a worthwhile discipline
The spirit of art should float like the dollar: one never knows when it will rise or fall!” says Elimo Njau (founder).
Since he believes art has neither a beginning nor an end, he sees himself as merely one phase in the entire saga.
Despite his many years “in business,” Njau refuses to give himself any grand title.
ART
