Building capacity, promoting public health through arts

It was a dream long incubated in the mind of the dreamer and birthed at the opportune time.

For Azubuike Nwagbogu, chairman and founder of the foundation, the main thrust of the foundation is to help people discover their God-given potentials and work to develop it as well as make a living out of what they have inside of them rather than looking outward. Besides the primary goals of empowering and building capacity in the creative industry in Africa, the foundation, according to Nwagbogu, has the manpower to do and to promote public health agenda using the arts. Its focus is helping to provide a source of livelihood to many people by encouraging them to look inwards for success before going out. "We try to encourage people to see what they can do for themselves before trying to see what else is out there", he stated.

To further create awareness of its vision, the foundation recently had an outing at the Nigerian Breweries where they met with managing director, Michiel Herkemij. It was a visit with the sole aim to commend and appreciate the contribution and support of the brewing giant to art and creativity. AAF made a presentation of an art painting done by Mike Beed Okpara. The painting was to celebrate NB brands and encouraging them to continue with the good work in the support of the art industry. "They have not been supporting our foundation directly but they have been supporting the creative industry generally in music, drama. And so it about what they have been doing over the years which we have identified and try to appreciate them".

On their membership he said are people who are into various forms of the art like dance, painting, sculpture, and so on. There are others who have taken up photography as a career. "These are people who otherwise would have been trying to get a job in the bank or investment company. We are therefore trying to encourage people to say I don't have to queue up around offices looking for jobs, I can do something for myself using my God-given ability".

According to Nwagbogu, "we demand that all our members and people who work with us promote public health agenda because we have so many social issues to deal with in this country" and going by the traditional definition of public health which means organised community effort to improve health and social well-being; all hands must be on deck to address the social needs of the citizens.

He observed the enormous art potential inherent in the country noting that Nigerians are very gifted and talented people with a lot of mingling of tribes and culture. "The diversity and difficulties of living in a country like this make it a good recipe for producing creativity".

To ensure a national coverage for their activities making sure young talented youths scattered in the nooks and crannies of the country are reached, they have put in place an administrative structure according to the six geo-political zones of the country with a zonal representative in each. To this end he said they are reaching out to all areas of the Nigerian society to discover those who are creative and begin to work to develop them.

And on the international scene, they collaborate with organisations that share the same aspirations and goals with them. "We are spreading our wings; we have contacts in America, Europe and we have programmes lined up for the year and even up till next year", he stated. Some of the exhibitions held in the short space of their existence include Tola Wewe in Port Harcourt, for Peter Ohiweiri and Dankota. And the one on Bob Aiwerioba who happens to also be the zonal representative for the south zone promises to be the biggest of our shows.