Canadian ambassador’s wife, Mrs Grendel Alvarado, has commended the Founder, Nike Art Gallery, Mrs Nike Okundaye, for promoting Nigeria’s arts and culture.
Alvarado said this on Saturday at the Capacity Workshop on Painting and Tying and Dyeing for Ambassadors’ Wives in Nigeria, organised by Nike Art Gallery in Abuja.
She said: “I participated in tying and dyeing artwork. I am impressed with the training because this is the first time I have done it. It is nice experience.
“Mama Nike always does activities that are interesting that promote the art in Nigeria.
“Nigerian art is very diverse, beautiful and shows the culture and lifestyle of its country and people,” the envoy’s wife said.
In her remarks, Okundaye said the workshop was to improve the skills of expatriates’ wives onpainting and Adire tying and dyeing.
She said that this make them propagate the good news about Nigeria’s arts and culture to the world.
“Today’s training is for all the expatriates’ wives, that is ambassadors’ wives, to take something back from Nigeria.
“We are doing this training under the locust bean tree which we use for our soups and that is why Nigerians are not getting cancer like other countries,” she said.
According to her, the locust bean is good for our eyes and some people who have no kitchen cook under the tree.
“That is why we make the workshop under locust bean tree for them to see our environment that is clean and also no pollution.
“And then is like therapy as you can see that everybody has the fresh air and no air condition because the breeze is better than the air condition,”she said.
She added that the workshop would change the perception of the wives of ambassadors about the misconceptions of Nigeria.
“Some of them cannot see anything good in Nigeria but we want to show the good parts of Nigeria that the Nigerian art is ambassador to them especially Nigerian foods and movies.
“As you can see, they are all happy when they see Adire tying and dyeing. A lot of them hear the name but they don’t know or never see how it is made.
“So, by them coming today, whatever they do, they take it back home and it is their good memories, signatures and their own identity for Nigeria.
“That is why we called them to come and see the culture of Nigeria,” she said.
