Sunday Ehigiator
Winners have emerged in Premier International School, Abuja, art competition titled ‘2021 Art Explosion’.
Hauwa Adamu, Fatima Shehu, and Jidenna Okechukwu emerge winners in secondary, primary and pre-school categories.
The virtual event with the theme ‘The New Normal’ saw the winners go home with different prizes worth up to N100,000 each.
The initiator of the competition and head of the Department of Fine Art of the school, Agoreyo Armstrong, said, “They were to interpret the theme to the best of their knowledge using any medium of their choice, either clay or pencil or water-colour, paint or sculpture.”
Armstrong added that the students were to upload the same on their social media platforms and tag the school.
“The people with the highest numbers of likes initially get 50 per cent chances of winning, while the judges decide on the other 50 per cent, as they will sort out for works that fit into the theme, and also meet up with other judgement parameters such as proportion, use of space, etc.,” said the teacher. “The school doesn’t compromise on excellence in every part, including arts.”
Speaking on the idea of the competition and efforts of the school in promoting arts, an art instructor, Ifeanyichukwu Onyeiwu, said, “We have art academy and art clubs which we hold every Fridays and Saturdays respectively.”
Explaining why the works of the three students stood out, one of the judges, Onyekachi Bertha, said, “(The) best three artworks from different categories were critiqued in respect to the theme, originality of concept, use of colour, neatness, adherence to theme and attention to detail. They were found exceptional because they passed the message of the pandemic clearly even to a layman and possessed great attention to detail.”
Adamu said about her victory in the secondary school category: “I’m still surprised and excited that I won. Although the process was easy, I was not prepared. I didn’t want to join at first because I saw other better artistic kids, but my sister helped me through the journey.”
The student added, “I’ve been in Premier International School for a year now with the dream of becoming a scientist someday, but with this victory, I’ll try to participate in more art competitions and may change my mind and become an artist instead.”
The winner of the primary school category, Shehu, said she initially doubted her abilities while preparing for the competition.
Commenting on the students’ performance, the Head of School, Charles Husseni, said he was not surprised at the emergence of the three students as winners in their various categories.
“One of them, Fatima Shehu, qualified to the national level of the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest. The others have been consistently achieving and have represented the school in art competitions in the past,” stated Husseni. “We expect more wins, more participation in any available art competition around the country. The school will put machinery in place to track their progress and exploits in this area. This nurturing will continue until their artistic potential is fully maximised.”
