Art competition in Abuja this week.

The Press Release:

NIGERIAN BREWERIES AND THE AFRICAN ARTISTS’ FOUNDATION ENGAGE IN MEDIA DIALOGUE WITH MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL PRESS ABOUT INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION: ‘The Unbreakable Nigerian Spirit”

In December 2007, The Nigerian Breweries in collaboration with the African Artists’ Foundation (AAF) launched an international art competition tagged “The Unbreakable Nigerian Spirit” to showcase excellent artistic talent in Nigeria and beyond.

Since then artists from all over the country have been solicited to submit their contributions on the theme and the best works will be exhibited in Lagos at the Civic Centre on the 27th of February with exhibitions in Abuja and Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to follow.

In order to raise awareness about the initiative and build bridges between the art world and the media, the two project partners, Nigerian Breweries and the AAF invited members of the print and electronic press to an informal discussion forum at art venue and hotel Bogobiri House in Lagos on the 20th of January, 2008.

Journalists from Abuja- and Lagos-based media houses such as the Guardian Newspaper, Vanguard, the Sun Newspaper, the Nation, the Punch, the Daily Independent, Daily Trust Newspaper Abuja, New Age, Associated Press, Channels TV, NTA and Public Eye Network attended the event.

Nigerian Breweries and AAF representatives engaged with the journalists, answering questions and giving briefings on the structure and relevance of the ongoing art competition, which aims to propel Nigerian artistry into the international arena. An important building block of this is the AAF artistic selection committee tasked with conducting the selection process of the 30 most inspiring works, 10 of which will be showcased internationally. The committee is made up of leading art experts in Nigeria and headed by Prof. Perkins Foss, an art historian from Yale University and a specialist on African art. The attending journalists commended Nigerian Breweries and AAF for this initiative and expressed their hope that the effort will be sustained and the exhibition will become an institution in the Nigerian art world.