Scores of talented young artists from different schools in the country were celebrated in Ibadan by Help, Understanding and Guidance (HUG) Foundation.
At the event which took place at Ohaa Crown Art Gallery, Jericho on Saturday, 7th November, 2020, the Team Lead, Ms Waliyah Oladipo in her opening remarks said the event which was themed Awakening Raw Talent was organized to encourage young creatives to look inward to tap their unused talents. “We organized the event in a bid to foster and encourage creative talents among children.
“For us to say that child development is wholesome, we wanted to recognize and work on the need to develop the unconventional skills that children possess from a very early age”.
Ms Waliyah further revealed that the selection was done online and the top ten artworks made it to the finals. “We selected the works by calling for submission to the general public through social media, and accepted digital entries of children between ages 9-16. These submitted entries were judged by experienced artists for weeks and the top ten were selected”. The judges admonished the young talented artists to be true to their craft and to pay attention to the tiniest of details while creating.
The ten year old winner of the competition, Rahmat Fakorede said her artwork was to challenge “the injustices perpetrated against the girl child”. She appreciated the organization’s effort to put their work out to the world and for providing a platform to showcase their talents.
The first-runner up, Abduhamid Dauda (12) said his work was to celebrate the “resilience and sacrifice of our health workers in the face of combating Covid’19”. Hamid who was on his facemask throughout the duration of the programme said that his works are a reflection happenings in our society.
Mosinmiloluwa Folajimi (15) who made the second-runner up position said his work was to depict the natural heritage across Africa. He hope that his works get published beyond the shores of Nigeria.
Mosinmiloluwa hope to use his works to change the course of Africa and to feed his family.
In his admonition, the Executive Director of HUG Foundation charged the students to look out for student friendly organizations like HUG Foundation in order to be accessible to various opportunities in store for them. “HUG Foundation is home to young talents. Ours is to awaken, then amplify whatever talent you have whether in sports, academics or arts”.
The top three entries won cash and material gifts.
There were certificates for all the finalists, e-book publication on the organization’s w,ebsites and materials for all 10-finalists.
