Chantal Umuhoza

Biography

Chantal Umuhoza is a museum curator at Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy, an institution that manages Rwanda Museums, National Library and National Archives. Chantal has participated in many different trainings, workshops and seminars across Rwanda, China, UK, Kenya, France, Germany, Senegal and Ethiopia.

Among other responsibilities, Chantal is in charge of managing the museum collections and organising exhibitions. Chantal curated physical exhibitions with the aim of increasing women artists’ visibility, and exploring art drawn from cultural heritage. She was the lead curator for online exhibitions of RCHA’s platform on Google Arts and Culture that explored Rwandan heritage, history, visual art and fashion.

Chantal is interested in projects dealing with biodiversity conservation, decolonisation of conservation practices, museums inclusion, and museums as a space of well-being.

For the last two years, Chantal coordinated a project for the Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy sponsored by Google Arts and Culture with the goal of digitising Rwandan heritage sites, cultural objects, and documenting traditional and contemporary art-making practices. She also coordinated a project sponsored by UNESCO for the development of an immersive 360-degree virtual tour and virtual reality tour of the Ethnographic Museum.

Currently, Chantal is a member of African Heritage Hubs Technical Working Group and a member of Rwanda Heritage Hub coordination team. She is also the focal point for the UNESCO 1970 Convention.

Chantal previously worked as a Curator at the Institute of National Museums of Rwanda (INMR), where she organised both temporary and permanent exhibitions, assisted with the process of acquiring new objects, and played a part in the de-accessioning process.

At the British Museum
During her time on the International Training Programme, Chantal was based in the Department Africa, Oceania and the Americas, and spent her partner placement at National Museums Northern Ireland.

In 2018 participants were asked to plan and propose a temporary exhibition, drawing on their existing museum experience and the skills learnt during the programme. Chantal worked with Huyam Khalid Mohammed (Sudan) on her Object in Focus project, Life after Death: A Chinese tomb figure. Chantal went on to implement a similar project in her home museum, where every exhibition has a key ‘spotlight’ object in every room.

Chantal’s place on the International Training Programme was generously supported by the Aall Foundation.

Chantal was the ITP Senior Fellow in 2025, and is a member of the ITP Advisory Board.

Legacy Projects
In 2020, Chantal attended the International Training Programme’s series of online subject specialist sessions. Chantal attended:
Circulating Artefacts: A global platform against the looting and trafficking of cultural property
Project management in the cultural sector: a guide to principles, processes and performance
Socio-economic Impact Assessment for Heritage: Why Do We Need to Learn This?
International copyright and artist’s rights
The Samarkand Half Marathon, cultural accessibility and ‘going digital’ during COVID-19
Setting up a Subject Specialist Network (SSN)
Skill-Sharing Workshop: Interpretation and Label Writing
Go mMAD {Make Museums Accessible Digitally}
Outreach at Glasgow Museums – what now?
Egyptology in Lockdown: Connecting collections with isolated people

ITP Newsletter Publications
ITP Newsletter Issue 6 (2019), Connectivity in the 21st century: making collections accessible, The digital story at the Institute of National Museums of Rwanda
ITP Newsletter Issue 6 (2019), Global perspectives: Engaging digitally: challenges and solutions
ITP Newsletter Issue 6 (2019), Your collection in focus: Object of the month: Institute of National Museums of Rwanda
ITP Newsletter Issue 6 (2019), Bulletin Board
ITP Newsletter Issue 7 (2020), Engaging with our audiences: Rwanda Museums
ITP Newsletter Issue 7 (2020), Your collection in focus: Inyambo, sacred cows at Rwanda Museums
ITP Newsletter Issue 7 (2020), Inclusion: The mission of Rwanda Museums
ITP Newsletter Issue 7 (2020), Bulletin Board
ITP Newsletter Issue 8 (2021), Rwanda museums
ITP Newsletter Issue 8 (2021), Bulletin Board
ITP Newsletter Issue 9 (2022), The Museum of Environment
ITP Newsletter Issue 9 (2022), Did you know that…To protect the environment, Rwanda banned the use of plastic bags in 2008?

ITP Newsletter Issue 11 (2024), Museums of the past through technologies of the future: A Case Study from the Ethnographic Museum, Rwanda

ITP Newsletter Issue 11 (2024), Global Perspectives: Technology has the ability to facilitate museums reaching their goals and missions

ITP Newsletter Issue 11 (2024) Did you know that…: First sites in Rwanda are inscribed on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites!

ITP Newsletter Issue 12 (2025) Bulletin Board