On this week’s African Voices Changemakers on CNN, host, Arit Okpo reports on how Nigerian art and culture is being showcased alongside some of the world’s most notable brands in the United States of America.
CNN accompanies British-Nigerian designer Chuks Collins at New York Fashion Week, which took place in February. Known as one of the highest-profile platforms for fashion brands, this year’s edition was virtual due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The change of format does not dull the opportunity for Collins, as he tells the programme: “For you to do these shows, that means you are a designer and recognised as a designer in America… That is the stamp on your career, I’m grateful to God, and I’m so excited.”
Part of his gratitude comes from the fact the show presents a second opportunity to make it in America following a kidney transplant after a car accident back in 2012.
“Thinking about it now it is bringing bad memories for me.” Collins tells African Voices Changemakers “In those moments, I felt like ‘Is this is the end for me? Is this where the journey ends?’”
After complications from the surgery and during the resulting recovery period, Collins was able to relaunch his fashion career with the Chuks Collins brand in 2015. The whole experience had not impacted his career aspirations but also encouraged Collins to give back via his own non-profit, Vie.
“I said that everything I design; I’m definitely going to give back a percentage of my proceeds — if not all — to every organisation I decide to work with. You know, issues like social justice, health care, women empowerment.”
CNN hears that Collins has also partnered with other organisations like Housingworks in New York City, the Oando Foundation and, most recently, the Irede Foundation in Nigeria for his latest line. He tells CNN that the foundation, which helps child amputees get prosthetic limbs, is a cause close to his heart.
“I’m very excited about this project because my grandmother before she passed, was on crutches as well… Donating a percentage of every sale that I make from the US will definitely help this organisation and that’s my way of being a changemaker.”
Speaking after a successful show at fashion week, Collins tells the programme he believes his experiences and the response to his work have motivated him for the next chapter of his career.
“I’ve gone through depressions; I’ve gone through those things that I’m grateful for because they made me what I am today. I am grateful really because the sky is just the starting point. I can’t wait to get back on the drawing board, I can’t wait to create and start working on the next collection.”
African Voices Changemakers also sees how art is being transferred from Lagos to Los Angeles by speaking to Nigerian art curator and entrepreneur Adenrele Sonariwo.
Speaking at her gallery in Lagos, Sonariwo tells CNN she had initially planned to have a very different career path in finance before being drawn into the art world and establishing the Rele Gallery in 2015.
“I worked in an accounting firm for about four years. When it was time for me to move back to Nigeria, I was just tired. I really wanted to do something that I love to do… Seeing what the young artists were creating and also seeing that there wasn’t a space for them to be able to exhibit freely, was what sort of spurred my interest in establishing a permanent space.”
Since then, Sonariwo has sought to foster a new generation of artists and founded the Young Contemporaries Program in 2016 in order to shed a new light on contemporary art in Nigeria.
Although the Covid-19 pandemic has presented challenges, African Voices Changemakers hears that the program has now been extended across the continent, making African art both more accessible and – thanks to an expansion by the Rele Gallery into California – international.
“Since the very first day I opened Rele Lagos. I knew I was going to do something in Los Angeles.” Sonariwo explains “Rele Los Angeles was a gateway into the international world. Most of these artists are known locally here in Nigeria and even in Africa, but we wanted the international art world to also pay attention.”
Alongside curating Nigeria’s first-ever pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2017, Sonariwo tells CNN she is continually motivated by her counterparts and desire to preserve the art and culture in regions such as her home state of Ogun in Nigeria. “My hope is that people learn the transformational power of art to educate, to inspire, to heal. And we can do that through the artists that exist here. I want to continue to respond to some of the challenges I’m seeing within the space, whether it’s in the art or in the culture, um, sector. That is my own personal mission.”
African Voices Changemakers airs on Saturday 3rd April at 08:30 on CNN International (All times WAT)
The show also airs at the following times:
Sunday 4th April at 06:30, 11:30, 18:30 and 22:30
Monday 5th April at 04:30
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