By Japhet Alakam

Veteran artist and CEO of  Win Arc gallery, Archie-Abia Godwin, is set to take arts to a new level  with the establishment of Art Academy. The History and International Relations graduate from Lagos State University, who ruled Lagos art environment as a bone-collage artist in his former studio at Ikeja recently relocated to a new site at Peace Estate, Baruwa Ipaja.

When Vanguard Art visited the serene environment where the structures have been put in place, the soft-spoken artist who confessed that ‘Art is life, it is what I eat and drink’ disclosed why he left Ikeja, his plans for an art academy and others.

*A piece by Archie-Abia

According to him,”Art is a very interesting profession for me; it has been very interesting and challenging. It has made me to meet people who I wouldn’t have met ordinarily if I was in any other profession.”

On why he relocated to Baruwa Ipaja,  he said: “We want to take the arts to the grassroots which has been my dream. We noticed over the years that arts activities are more on the Island, we want to change that by redirecting arts traffic to the hinterland of Lagos.

In this place, WIN ARC Studio/Gallery, we intend to expand on what we had in Ikeja, bringing more functional and creative ideas to make it work as an Arts Resort which will accommodate summer class, excursions for primary, secondary and tertiary institutions and organise exhibitions. So schools should bring their students or pupils to this place so that they will see different forms of art, different concepts. During summer, children will come here and do their summer class. Children from five years up because when a child is  up to five, he should be able to scribble some things on the paper or be able to build his/her mind. Because I keep saying over time that we need to input creativity into our children so that they will grow up with creative minds and be able to create wealth.

Government is talking about empowerment; empowerment is not about buying Keke or sewing machine, empowerment is to look for those talents, train them and put them where they can groom their natural talents. Any talent children throw up, we should be able to tailor them along that line so that we will be able to have a better society. That was one of the reasons when I gave up my former studio at Ikeja, I said no, I don’t want to rent any other place at Ikeja or going to Victoria Island, let me bring art down to the real people, that is the villages so that people can have a touch of what they have been seeing on TV.

In my former place where I spent over 28 years, I organised a summer art class for schools and it was very successful and that gave me the impetus to tow this new line.

The problem we have in this country is that the leaders or people in government are not creative, they should be creative to be able to do things in different ways. Like I said, I am bringing art to the real people, that is my target. They may not be the ones to buy, but with what I am planning to do here, the people in Lekki and VI should drive down here and see art in a different way.

*Archie-Abia Godwin

 Training the younger ones

It’s about making them to know that going to school is one thing, but trying to develop a talent God has given them is another thing. In this present Nigeria, you must have multiple streams of income to be able to survive.

Already, I have competent hands to go along with me. I have also spoken to other seasoned artists and they have given me their words. As far as it is about educating and empowering the children, they are willing to come to contribute their own quota, as government cannot do everything. Government has its own politics, if you believe that they will help, you are lying. For example, Nollywood, it was individuals that built and raised it to the level that government is running around them now.

So the visual art industry should be able to come up with ideas of how to impart the knowledge to the younger ones and that is what I am up to now.

How to actualise this

I will send letters to schools to bring their students/pupils. They will be taught the rudiments of arts, they will see art in various media and when they go back to their classrooms, they should be able to know how canvas is prepared, how colours are mixed etc.

Another thing is that schools should be given funds to go into research of colours so that we will stop the dependence on imported materials.

There is definitely something in arts, you can see how Nigerian artists are making waves all over the world. Recently, the work of one Nigerian girl was auctioned in million dollars and we have so many of such girls, we have so many Bruce, Enwonwus in the younger ones  that we should be able to bring into limelight and that is exactly my vision.

Govt attitude to creative art has not been encouraging. Can you imagine buying wheelbarow for somebody and you say you are empowering that person? That person is a creative person God has created with all endowments. “Government at all levels should create enabling environment for the artist. If I may ask, what is the art policy statement of this administration and the previous ones? There are core steps the government should take if they want to create jobs, arts is one major area to empower youths.  Again, government should empower the statutory bodies in charge of arts and mandate them based on their policy in all the states.

“All our Embassies should be encouraged to have functional arts activities to showcase our indigenous works, government at all levels should factor arts into their budget like other items and encourage corporate bodies to patronise art. Government should be honest to do what is right because they know what is right, they know the kind of persons they should put in place when it comes to visual art.”