Congolese Art Space Picha Launches Urgent Crowdfunding Appeal to Save Its Biennale
An artist-led art centre in the Democratic Republic of Congo has launched an urgent crowdfunding campaign after international funding dried up and operating costs climbed, threatening one of Africa's most distinctive art events.
The Picha Art and Research Center, based in Lubumbashi — the DRC's second-largest city — posted a GoFundMe appeal seeking €10,000. As of 19 August 2026, the campaign had raised more than €6,000, according to The Art Newspaper. The money will help cover the ninth Lubumbashi Biennale, scheduled for October 2026, curated by Sorana Munsya and Jermay Michael Gabriel.
Picha was founded in 2008 by a group of artists and cultural workers including Sammy Baloji and Jean Katambayi Mukendi. The spark came a year earlier, when Baloji and a fellow artist were invited to the Bamako Encounters African Biennale of Photography, curated by Simon Njami. That trip convinced them that Lubumbashi needed its own platform — and the Lubumbashi Biennale, also known as the Rencontres Picha, was born.
For nearly two decades the biennale has been a fixture on the African art calendar. It has been funded through a mix of the founders' own money, private donations and support from international cultural bodies, including French and Belgian agencies. That international backing has shrunk. Baloji told The Art Newspaper that funding in the DRC's arts ecosystem is "fragile" and that financing Picha is "an everyday challenge."
The appeal has drawn visible support from figures across the international art world. Curator Elvira Dyangani Ose — recently named artistic director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town — and Paula Nascimento, co-curator of Sharjah Biennial 17, have both backed the campaign. Belgian artist Francis Alÿs donated €1,000, according to the GoFundMe page.
Consultant and curator Camille Ostermann also donated, describing Picha as a long-term cultural institution. Ostermann had previously invited Picha to the special projects initiative at the 2025 edition of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London — one of the leading marketplaces for African art.
What gives the appeal its edge is the gap it exposes. A biennale that has run for nine editions, attracted curators from across the continent and beyond, and launched artists onto the global stage is now turning to small online donations to keep its doors open. The €10,000 target is modest by the standards of international biennials — many of which run on seven-figure budgets. But in an ecosystem Baloji calls fragile, it is the difference between the show opening in October or not.
The crowdfunding page remains live. The ninth Lubumbashi Biennale is set to open in October 2026.
