Art Unlimited with one of its initiative “ART ARMY” project with an objective to raise an army of young minds by unleashing and developing their ability in different forms of contemporary and creative art. It is a platform for the enhancement and arousal of the interest of the Nigerian child (especially teenagers) in visual art. This project brought together students from both Junior and senior schools.
Art Army is an initiative of Art Unlimited. The objective was to raise an army of young creative contemporary artists. The project kicked off with a creative assessment in all the 5 schools where the best students were assembled and they carried out a freestyle drawing of anything they could think of. The best 20 students were picked from the 5 schools (4 students per school) after a team of artist judged the drawing.
Then the project started in the Art Unlimited Academy Magodo GRA II and Batsardo Art Gallery Magodo GRA II. Two Saturday in each month from February – May 2016.
There were 5 Schools in attendance , Babs Fafunwa Millennium Senior Secondary School, Ojodu Junior Grammar School, Agidingbi Senior Grammar School, Opebi Junior Grammar School, Oregun Senior High School all from the same district.
The Creative Director, Mr Bimbo Afolabi was joined by Ayomide Aladetohun, Autin Ekhaiyeme, Mayowa and Adeola Gbadebo to train the students.
The project featured:
- Practical art classes drawing, element and principles of art, painting, art critic and judgement,
- Interaction with great creative artists was achieved during the project period.
- Art documentaries to help participant gain a clearer understanding of the development of visual art and the various medium of expressing their creativity.
- Talks from experts on different self-management issues like self discover and temperament, time management, and change management, developing personal vision and values
- Project works to assess the students level of knowledge gained
The final phase of the training was a group visit to Nike Art Gallery Lekki and Rele Gallery Onikan on Saturday 4th of June. The happy students were not only excited about the road trip but were also inspired by the works of the different great artists, they had the opportunity to interact with not only the works but the creative minds behind them and gain insight into the works and possibilities that abound in the world of visual art.
At Rele Gallery, the top outstanding students were presented with gifts and art materials to appreciate their ingenuity and further propel them to hone their skills and talents.
Art Unlimited is not stirring these ones to creativity and leaving them to their fates, to further enhance the growth of these students in their pursuit of their creative ability an internship program is being planned with various artist close to where the students live.
School feedbacks are also in place to make sure the students can go back to their various schools to share the knowledge and experience with their peers back in school and create a bigger ART ARMY.