PRESS STATEMENT FOR ART ARISING ART FESTIVAL 2026
By Juliet Ezenwa Maja Pearce.
Late 2024 while many Nigerians still battled with increased insecurity , weekly abductions and kidnappings, insurgence and bandit's
attacks and the world bank observed an increase in poverty rates, we at Art
Alliance 51 creative group set out to organise the Art Arising Art Festival of
2025. It was our mission to have this festival once in two years. We refused to
be overwhelmed by the barrage of negative news, we sought solace in the creative arts.
We had previously had one in 2018, 2021 and 2023 respectively, we
were not about to give up now . Consequent of these socio-economic and
political turbulence only 3 participants
responded to the call for the 2025 Art Arising Art Festival yet we pressed on. Hopeful
the artists would register in time.
In the interim we had
worked hard at follow ups and networking on getting the special guests, special guests of honor
and the chairman to commit. By June of 2025 with only 3 participants consisting
of only the organisers, we had to cancel and postpone. We were disappointed, they
were very disappointed. At this point we considered having this festival with
only a few participants just to avoid cancelling. We were like a Lagos bus
driver risking driving from CMS to
Oshodi with only 3 passengers, how will he account to chairman MC Oluomo at
Oshodi? And if we choose to cancel and postpone, how do we inform our special
guests after they had committed to this event? At the risk of looking
unreliable and inefficient, we resolved to postpone. It was a difficult
decision. We settled for the superior argument that what we present is larger
than a group exhibition, it is a festival. Therefore we must give the
performers time to be prepare. Thus we waited for these artists to come on
board.
The special guest of honor and the chairman were
disappointed, not to mention the feeling of failure on our parts due to the amount
of efforts that had gone into the preparations. Many prospective participants
appealed for more time to prepare. So with God on our side, we chose a new
date. We motivated ourselves by the
world bank’s projected economic growth
of 4.2% for Nigeria between 2026 and 2028 . We were determined to experience and
benefit from this growth. So therefore we resolved to present the Art Arising Art
Festival not because we have the funds to do it but because we consider it our
responsibility to maintain Nigeria’s one redeeming reputation- that of
producing world class art and artists.
True to expectation, the artists began to emerge slowly but
steadily. We want to thank Mr Adewale
Maja Pearce , Prof Ebun Clark and Madam Juliana Edewor for sponsoring some
participants to this festival.
A big thank you to
the management and leadership of the National Museum, especially the curator Mrs
Nkechi Adedeji and Mr Okechukwu for their patience and support in making the
2026 Art Arising Art Festival a reality.
With this festival we pushed our online presence to the
fore. Insecurity was the major limiting
factor preventing participants living outside of Lagos especially those living
in Northern Nigeria. By early 2026, the US became publicly involved in Nigeria’s insecurity challenges. This
brought a ray of hope which was quickly dashed by the US/Israel war with Iran. Some participants of Art Arising Art Festival
expressed fear of the uncertainty caused by rising fuel prices and anxiety of a
global war. As tensions escalated at the straits of Hormuz, they talked about
pulling out of the festival . Global conflicts had impacted us at last. But
come what may, we all assembled at the national museum Onikan from Saturday 18th-
25th April exhibiting,
performing and thanking God for Art Arising Art Festival 2026! IJN !.it was a resounding success!
We as a nation may have failed in other areas but everyone
knows that the creatives in Nigeria are holding it down, and no one and nothing
can take that away from us.
By Juliet Ezenwa Maja Pearce
Surulere Lagos
12th April 2026
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