On a recent Tuesday morning, some 20 Congolese villagers sat bent over mounds of river clay, determinedly pinching and massaging the orange-brown masses into expressive lips, eyes, and fingers. Birdsong floated into the open-air atelier, a two-story structure set alongside the gently coursing waters of the Kwenge River, as a pair of instructors wandered among the sculptors, asking questions and offering gentle encouragement.

You won’t find the name Lusanga among the likes of Bilbao and Miami on the art lover’s global circuit. Simply getting to this town in western-central Democratic Republic of Congo entails either a ten-hour drive from the capital of Kinshasa or a two-hour flight on one of the 19-seaters that arrives here just twice a week. What you