…as Estate, NGO partners

By Japhet Davidson

In his bid to change the narrative during summer holidays, self-taught artist and director/founder of Win Arc Gallery, Archie Abia, established the summers art class for students within his vicinity. Archie-Abia is of the view that teaching vocational skills during summer classes is important for providing practical and life-long skills that complement academic learning. The summer art class which started with few people has now attracted many students and sponsors. At the end of the 2025 summer art class, Vanguard Art had a chat with the founder where he explained the reasons behind the workshop and other issues.

On the reason for the summer art class.

I am of the view that teaching vocational skills during summer classes is important for providing practical and life-long skills that complement academic learning, preparing students for the competitive job market by fostering self-reliance and entrepreneurial potential. This was what was in my mind.

Another reason is that it is very obvious that our own cannot be compared with the school own, knowing very well that we are a Studio/Gallery, we are more grounded on the rudiment of art than school as some of them even bring their assignment for us to handle. So we organized summer Art class so that the children should have a basic knowledge of creativity because when a child is creative it will be able to solve every other problem in school and life. For me it is a calling I’ve been called to do, you know that our own calling is completely different from the school. We deal with art pure in all medium of art and the children and the parents can test testify every year the number keep increasing, if they have not seen any gain we won’t be in business till now. Some parents even blamed us that we did not inform them about the summer art class, that they wouldn’t have registered their children in the normal school lessons so when they go to the school summer lesson, when they finish they still come to us, that is why we had two sessions, the one in the morning and the one in the afternoon to accommodate them.

Since inception, how many artists have you produced from the class?

We have been able to produce a lot of children artist, when I said a lot, it is a lot and some of them are still in secondary and primary school. In our last exhibition in the Estate last year, most of their works were sold.

My vision is not only for them to be a visual artist, but to inject that creativity in them so that even if they want to be a medical doctor there is that creativity. The one to be an engineer there is that creativity. The problem we have in the society is we are not creative, you can see what is going on in the political scene. My only way I want to help this children to think well.

On the initial reluctance of parents to release their children?

Thank God, you were there at the beginning, now they have seen over the years what their children are doing. The children even do more in some other subjects not only in Art and that is the reason why I keep emphasising on Precision and Thinking. The children are more calm, some of the parents testified that before when they come back from school they will be running around and playing, watching TV, but with the Saturday Art class, I give them assignment so when they come back from school they stay in their various homes and make sure they do that assignment because they know they will bring it on Saturday for all of to see and any of them that is doing well of course they can testify what we have been doing with them, we are like a family.

Parents now know that creativity pays, one six years old sold his work and the parents were happy.

And this year we did not even advertise, I used to do that but the parents are the ones chasing us to get their wards registered and also be part of it.

Challenges and way out?

Definitely, there are challenges, in as much as I’ve talked about the the glory part of it, there are some parents that don’t have money to pay for their children and in our little way, we accept them, there are also some that don’t even have materials to work with, we provide certain materials and if it’s above our level we inform the parents. But sometimes they are not interested but we go beyond that to make sure we do the work we are called to do. Another challenge is space, we don’t have enough space, I have to even collapse one of the room in the gallery to be able to accommodate many, we will overcome some of these challenges as years go on.

The CEO of an NGO, Hope Builder Foundation, Folayemisi Adu partnered with us in the last summer class. She even promised to link us with the Lagos state government. Also, the chairman of the Estate and his vice Engr Omojowo and Waisu respectfully announced in our last general meeting in the Estate that each zone of the estate will sponsor at least two students to be part of the art class next year and as usual we exhibit all the works produced in the summer class and Saturday class at the end of year party to create more awareness in the area.

My final advice to some parents is to allow their children to pursue their passion because there is a prospect in the children even if they want to be a medical doctor is even better to have a multiple streams of income in this our country. Even, if the children are not going to be visual artist they should pursue this talent that God has given them to develop critical thinking, creative thinking and become better tomorrow.