A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), People, Planet and Peace Foundation, on Monday commended Nike Art Gallery for portraying contemporary Nigerian life.
Mr. Olatunji Francisco, the Lead of the Climate Beyond Borders Caravan (CBBC), an initiative of the foundation, expressed this praise during a courtesy visit by CBBC members to the Nike Art Gallery in Abuja.
After viewing the exhibitions, Francisco remarked that the Nike Art Gallery depicted Nigerian artists’ encoded history, values, and social issues in visual form.
He noted that the cultural storytelling through art included themes of folklore, spirituality, identity, and modern Nigerian life.
Francisco explained that CBBC is a multi-country initiative spanning 21 African nations, aimed at fostering environmental sustainability, promoting climate awareness, and strengthening cross-border collaboration.
Also speaking, the CBBC Secretary for Nigeria, Miss Olabisi Kumuyi, said the Nike Art Gallery has transformed art into a tool for social change and empowerment.
“I learned that Mama Nike Davies-Okundaye’s Foundation opened the Abuja centre partly to help girls off the streets by teaching handicrafts.
Art and craft skills can generate income, dignity, and alternatives to prostitution and poverty. Many Nigerian women have been trained across her centres.
The centre has shown that art isn’t separate from community, food, music, and daily life in Nigeria,” she said.
Kumuyi admired how the centre blends tradition with modern practices in art and craft skills.
Some staff members at Nike Art Gallery, who commented earlier on the exhibitions, said the Abuja centre regularly organises workshops and has trained over 900 people.
According to them, students can learn techniques such as tie-and-dye (adire), the ancient Yoruba resist-dyeing with indigo; batik printing, weaving, beadwork, mosaic, appliqué, wood sculpture, relief carving, painting, and pen and ink.
