Gatore Mukarhinda sees art as way to healing, community

By Debora Gordon for Ashland.news

A weekly art-making event in Ashland provides paint, brushes, markers, paper, and a host of other supplies for anyone who wants to get creative. 

Held weekly from 1 to 5 p.m Wednesdays at Ashland Starbucks, 512 Walker Ave., Gatore Mukarhinda heads up the program and provides supplies to all attendees.

Mukarhinda, 49, has lived all over the world, including the Congo, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Senegal and France. He moved to the U.S. in 1996. His family, Tutsis, includes cousins and friends who were killed by the Hutus during the Rwanda genocide. He came to Ashland in December 2024 to be closer to his son, who attends Southern Oregon University, and previously spent some time in Grants Pass. 

He has also been an artist for many years. 

“I did art from childhood, in Africa, in middle school,” he said. “You do a lot of art; you build your own book, you tell your story.  Then I got into sketching as a little kid. I had a lot of friends; we would do some sketching competitions, as well as sketching just for fun. I didn’t know that you can make a career out of sketching.” 

While living in the Bay Area, he organized events for KALW, an NPR station in San Francisco, on Montgomery Street downtown.

“I have friends who were street artists at Fisherman’s Wharf who sold my art,” Mukarhinda said. 

KALW also profiled him in a May 2024 story, “Gatore Mukarhinda’s musical journey from Rwanda to San Francisco.”  

Mukarhinda’s art includes both drawing and painting, with jazz musicians and their instruments as frequent subjects. Additional art pieces focus on baseball and basketball. He’s also found additional subject matter in magazines.

Mukarhinda attended Rutgers in New Jersey, earning his bachelor’s degree in economics. He later worked for the New York-based nonprofit Urban Justice, which advocates for the rights of street vendors. After writing his thesis on urban economy, he advocated for other artists to sell art on the streets and worked with law enforcement to create a better relationship between street vendors and police.

A jazz musician, Mukarhinda plays the bongos and what he describes as a “shaker,” a type of rattle, which he began learning after watching Latin bands as a child in Africa. 

“I fell in love with the percussion instruments: the drums, the shakes, the claviers,” he said.  

He has played in San Francisco jazz clubs, where he also sketched his musician friends, both in person and from photos. More recently, he performed at the Ashland Tuesday Market near ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum.

“Then I brought my art there, and then I let people know what I’m doing on Wednesdays, and I brought coffee from Starbucks to the market, and then I just promoted the project and brought some paintings,” he said. “Some kids and families came and sketched. A few people came from the Farmers Market to the Starbucks.”  

Starbucks manager Bonnie Elliott provides free coffee and allows Mukarhinda to spread out the painting area across tables.

“We want to bring in the community as much as possible and create a warm, welcoming environment,” Elliott said. 

Before organizing the community art events, Mukarhinda would go to Starbucks to draw and sketch on his own. Living nearby made it convenient. After sketching there for a few months, he approached the manager and asked if he could do the art events. Some writing on barista aprons read: “Craft, Uplift, and Connect,” an encouraging phrase for someone wanting to arrange art gatherings. The idea was approved, and the first event drew 12 people, thanks to word of mouth.

 At a recent Wednesday gathering, 67-year-old Steven French — also a percussionist, which is how he met Mukarhinda — stated he does not consider himself an artist.

“And (Muharkinda’s) saying, ‘It doesn’t matter; what matters here is the creative process and the creation of community,’” French said. “I feel like we’re at a point in society where the more community we can create, the better it is for all of us.”  

French also brings homemade cookies for the participants.

“I really like the idea of doing artwork collectively,” said event regular Denise Gerkey. “It’s a great way to get together and enjoy something collaboratively. Sharing artistic ideas is just as important as sharing art.”

 Mukarhinda, who has also participated in First Friday sidewalk celebrations, says his overall goal with the art events is to use art as a medium to bring people together.

 “And I know sometimes America has a culture of a ‘me space,’” he said. “So I see art as a way of healing and bringing people together, and myself, I’m using that as a healing process.”

Debora Gordon is a writer, artist, educator and non-violence activist who moved to Ashland from Oakland, California. Email her at [email protected].