Creative Development Institute honours foreign missions, hotel for promoting arts, culture

The International Institute for Creative Development (IICD), recently marked eight years of creativity in Nigeria with exhibitions and awards to partners for supporting the development of arts in Nigeria.

IICD as a brain child of a young artist – Ndubuisi Ahanonu (Nduwhite), the founder and curator, is a capacity building centre that provides technical assistance for creating and managing cultural exchange programmes for the advancement of cultural diplomacy and social development.

Over the years, the centre has provided an enabling environment for local and international artists to share experiences and creativity through its residency programmes.

With several curators aside Nduwhite working at the institute, participants enjoy the privilege of discovering more ideas and building more frontiers of knowledge and creativity during their stay.

The recent 8th year anniversary and award was organized in collaboration with the U.S Embassy. The event brought together both local and foreign artists including representatives of different diplomatic missions in Nigeria.

Among those that were honoured for their various roles towards promotion and development of arts in Nigeria include the French, German, Spanish and American Ambassadors.

Also honoured with an award was the Transcorp Hilton Hotel and the Public Relations Manager, Mr. Shola Adeyemo, for their contributions towards art development in Abuja.

Aside his personal award and recognition, Adeyemo, who also received the award on behalf of his hotel, stated that it was always a pleasure to support the art.

He described the hotel as an integral part of Abuja landscape, noting that since it began operations in the country, it has been in the business of supporting everything art.

Pledging Hilton’s continued support for the arts, Adeyemo stressed that the language of hospitality is arts and culture. According to him, providing needed supports and encouragement for artists formed part of the hotel’s corporate social responsibility.

He also commended the organizers for recognizing him, stressing that his efforts were in line with the hotel’s tradition to build an enviable brand in tourism and hospitality industry

Earlier in his welcome address, Mr. Ahanonu, emphasized the role played by arts in building bridges of friendship among people and nations.

Commending various missions, organizations and individuals that have stood by him in the course of the years, he noted that art is dynamic and has remained the only industry whose language is universal and without any form of barrier.

“That is the reason we are celebrating our eight years of arts and creativity. This is the beginning of all that we have planned to do.

In their goodwill messages, the envoys described arts differently. The U.S Ambassador to Nigeria, W. Stuart Symington, noted that cultural diplomacy was essential in the foreign policy of any country.

He commended the effort of the young artist, stressing that their working for some years has proved Ahanonu an art enthusiast.

The envoy noted that art should not be for art sake but for the sake of the people.

“I don’t believe in art for art sake. I believe in art for our sake”, he stated.

For the French Ambassador, Mr. Jérôme Pasquier, the partnership with the centre was a mutually beneficial and a cherished one.

Also speaking, the Spanish Ambassador, Alfonso Barnuevo, noted that coming from a country with the third highest number of heritage sites in the world, arts meant so much to him.

He also commended IICD for the extraordinary works in the past eight years. “We appreciate the collaboration and the culture. You have a rich culture that is common to ours. We have so many things in common”, he said.