Qanya graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art degree at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town in 2005. He has since been active in the Visual Arts and Heritage fields working as a Curator and Arts Administrator. From the late 90s, he facilitated various art classes in Cape Town including the former Community Arts Project (CAP) in Cape Town, James’s House Childrens’ Home and at the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust. Upon graduation, he participated in various workshops including the Tupelo International Workshop in 2005 and 2007, the Curator’s Workshop in 2006 and Critical Writing Workshop in 2008. Qanya was appointed as a Trainee Curator of Contemporary Art and Sculpture at the South African National Art Gallery (Iziko), where he curated ‘Imbacu: Art from Inside/Outside’ exhibition form the permanent collection in 2008. In 2009, Qanya also curated ‘Umahluko’ group exhibition for the CAPE ’09 Biennale in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. He served in various committees including the Founding Board member for the Visual Art Network South Africa (VANSA) Western Cape region, a member of the Selection Committee of the Association for Visual Arts (AVA) gallery in Cape Town and Adjudicator for Sanlam Child Art Competition. In 2011, Qanya joined the Market Photo Workshop as Coordinator: Exhibitions for a year and re-joined the Market Photo Workshop in 2019 as a Coordinator of Archives and Research, where he is currently working in Johannesburg.