Visual arts child prodigy, Kanyeyachukwu (Kanye) Tagbo Okeke opened the 2023 edition of his annual charity exhibition No Child Left Behind.
The exhibition which held March 29 to April 4, 2023, at the Hilton Hotel showcased 42 works of the 14-year-old artist, created within the past two years, at the venue. Its purpose is to promote inclusive learning for all children living with special needs.
Since the charity exhibition has been around for a while, and the artist recognized by the Nigerian government, one would think that it would have yielded in some change in narrative on inclusive education in Nigeria. Sadly, it hasn’t. Despite the lack of a national impact, the charity is broadening awareness on autism amongst friends of the Tagbo’s and in other families of children living with disabilities.
“It has increased their scope of knowledge on autism just by their showing up every year. It is a very little change, but in that little way, we have increased awareness,” said Kanye’s father, Tagbo Okeke.
The seminal change comes in the form of free therapy sessions for children with disabilities, who are either adopted or living at orphanages, and those whose parents cannot afford the quite expensive therapy treatment.
The free six months to one year therapy sessions are funded with monies made from the sale of Kanye’s artworks which commands between N300,000 to N10 million.
Speaking of the salability of the artist’s work, executive director, Orisun Gallery, Adebola Adetunmbi the custodian of Kanye’s works, said the prodigy’s works command attention and appreciation from both enlightened and non-enlightened audience.
“There is a drawing force in his works. You just stand transfixed and try to decode them. Any true connoisseur of art will like to have at least one of Kanye’s artworks. They move a lot. I wouldn’t want to use something as mundane as a bestseller, but his is a very fast moving art globally,” she said.
And while the Nigerian government is slow to the point of crawling in providing inclusive education for the Nigerian child, artists like Kanye and the art community are taking seminal steps to ensure ‘no child is left behind’.
“What we are doing today is a part of it. The conversations we have during World Autism Month, and Kanye’s foundation is generating a lot of awareness. Right now, I think there is more awareness about the role of arts in developing the minds of children. There is still a lot to do, but this is a part of it,” Adetunmbi said.
For Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), its ambition is to ‘catch every child alive and ensure that they are into art’. “To understand what development is in any nation that is advanced, you do so through art. But Nigeria has not come to understand this. Behind every disciple – engineering, architecture, information technology, is art. Your phone, laptop – these things are designed first. Without art study there can be no fine architecture. Art is something you must do for every child from day one if possible so that they grow with it, and know the place of art in life,” said SNA President, Mohammed Suleiman.
He however believes that there is a starting point, and Nigeria, he said is growing in the appreciation and celebration of autism day. “What we have done today is say to people, to parents, “do not ignore your child, even if he/she struggles with disability, until you are able to identify and then we (artistes) pick up from there.
“We believe that if we pick up a child and continuously give him or her endless support, people will begin to understand the value of art. We have seen art help those dealing with PTSD incurred from their time in Sambisa Forest. We have done that working with police headquarters, military and paramilitary institutions, and art helped them overcome their trauma,” said Suleiman.
So, there is hope for increased action in inclusive learning in Nigeria.
