He estimates that he has spent about a million rand, or $84,000, so far, believing that it will help level the gender playing field while raising Africa’s profile in the global art market, and its share of the $67 billion it generates.

Mr. Lutaaya knows what it means to fight through adversity. Abandoned by his parents, later a street child in Kampala, Uganda, he managed to get a scholarship to a university. In 2011 he won a residency at the Bag Factory in Johannesburg, which offered a studio and materials. He said he made the eight-day journey overland with a packet of cookies and a bottle of water. When the three-month Bag Factory residency ended, Mr. Lutaaya said he found part-time janitorial work, but soon also found himself, again, hustling to sleep indoors, making a loaf of bread last a week. He collected discarded newspapers and cut them into pieces for collages that he initially peddled for a few dollars.

A few years and breaks later, Mr. Lutaaya has grown into an outsize presence. The scraps and flecks of newsprint work like Impressionist brush strokes: up close it’s hard to see the image, but a few steps back you see poignant portraiture. Last December, at a sold-out solo show in Cape Town, one work went for 500,000 South African rand, about $40,000 — a soaring figure for any contemporary Africa-based artist not named William Kentridge.

Mr. Lutaaya’s premise is that success in the art world depends as much on business savvy as it does on creativity and technical skill. Women of color need more opportunities to learn how the business and society of art works — from galleries to agents, collectors and selection committees. It robs them of possibility, but it is a loss for the whole continent, he said. And as time goes on, they often get discouraged and abandon their efforts.

“They need to develop from within the system in a way to give them enough exposure to know what’s going on, to engage with the broader community, locally and globally,” Mr. Lutaaya said. “Once they do that, they became also great mentors for other young people they meet.”

For Ms. Dass, the fresh air of success also blew through the curtain of her family’s disapproval. They have since restored their relationship. But the journey has given her something even more vital.

“I’ve found my voice and what I want to talk about,” she said.