18 December 2008
AN art exhibition, which links Nigeria and Australia,opened last Saturday in Lagos. The show, which has earlier been staged successfully in Australia, is a display of deep cultural collaboration between Nigeria and Australia as it is also an attempt to save the world by converting children to the refining powers of art.
It opened at the Hammarttan Workshop Art Gallery, Victoria Island, Lagos. On display are the works of Nigerian artist, Jude Ifesie, and his Australian counterpart, Damien Kamholtz.
The duo showcased their personal works as well as the artworks of pupils who they worked with in a series of workshops that they held in the two countries.
From Australia came the works of the Toowoomba children (a selected school). Ifesie and Kamholtz conducted a workshop for the children over two years ago in Miya Miya Children and Educare Early Childhood Education Centre in Toowoomba, Australia.
In Nigeria, the collaborating artists visited Ora-Eri in Aguata local council, Anambra State, where they interacted with Children of St. Mary Nursery and Primary School.
The creative pieces made by the two facilitators and the children they interacted with were displayed at the show which runs till Saturday, December 20, at the Hammarttan Gallery.
The art works (all paintings) have already been exhibited in Australia, at the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba.
According to Ifesie, the Nigeria phase of the show will mark the fourth level of the project. Thereafter, "the works are then donated to sponsors, cultural embassies, orphanages, schools and hospitals.
The entire project package is tagged Painting Bridges: Play on Play, a community-oriented art development concept intended to exhume hidden creativity in children as well as celebrate, nurture and support the bold, vivid and candid creativity in young ones.
Ifesie, who studied Fine and Applied Arts (Painting) in Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, Art Education in University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and also had a Post Gradute in Maritime Transport Management from Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), noted that they were prompted into the project because of their understanding that, through such projects with strong multicultural and environmental themes, children are brought up to appraise the need for a better, more unified world.
The Painting Bridges project, Ifesie explained, has nine major goals. Among the goals are to: Create international bridges via children's creativity, build a cooperative relationship between Australia and Nigeria through collaboration and shared creative expressions by exchange of children's art, thereby channeling their energies to positive ways of expressing themselves.
Facilitating the channeling of children's creative energies whilst contributing to the growth of arts and multi-cultural awareness at grassroots levels in both Nigeria and Australia; to generate awareness, interest and sense of unity amongst different cultures.
To encourage an interest in the arts for all ages at both local and international community levels.
To bring children and adults together in the celebration of the language of art.
To inspire children to realize their importance and to visualize and shape their own future.
To nurture children's self esteem by seeing their works exhibited.
And to enable children express what they see and feel about the society they live in.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
