2021 Msanii Kijana Project – Meet Asha

Msanii Kijana (“young artist”) is an independent study project for high school students who are interested in art history and the visual arts. Each participant tours the National Museum of African Art’s collection, selects three works of art to research, creates three original artworks inspired by the pieces selected from the museum’s collection, and writes brief narratives about his or her artworks.

Msanii Kijana offers students an opportunity to investigate works of art through specific questions or themes of their choosing, build their portfolios, and gain experience to highlight on college applications and scholarships. The young artists’ original artworks will also be featured on the National Museum of African Art’s website.

Asha Sanaa Jenkins

2020

Hello, my name is Asha Sanaa Jenkins. I am 13 years old and homeschooled. As long as I can remember, I have always been an artist. Whenever anyone asks me what I want to be when I grow up, I never hesitate to say, “I am an Artist.” I love color, particularly the way colors can be blended together. Whenever my mother took me to the Smithsonian museums or the National Gallery of Art, any painting that had many colors always made me want to move closer and touch it.

My biggest inspiration to create is my older brother, Assad. He is an amazing artist, and I have always tried to draw just like him. He was my first art teacher. I often begged him to teach me how to draw the action figures he loved, like Spiderman or Anime. Growing up watching Assad become better and better inspired me to draw every day. This helped me to build my skills and, at the age of nine, I won a blue ribbon at the 4-H Montgomery County Agricultural Fair for a color drawing of a group of women. It was on display for thousands of people to see the entire nine days of the fair and this made me feel amazing.