NGA visits Egyptian Cities of Cairo & Alexandria
in preparation for NIVATOUR.

The NGA Nigeria is set to take Nigeria’s visual art to the rest of the world, beginning from Egypt, the cradle of black civilization. Australia, India, China and Italy are countries that have shown interest to host this epoch-making visual art world tour.

In Egypt, the ancient cities of Alexandria and Cairo will be hosting the visual art train after which the touring exhibition will move to other countries. In preparation for this first ever adventure, an advance team from the NGA, Nigeria led by Abdullahi Muku, The Ag.Director-General paid a working visit to officials of the fine art sector, under the Ministry of Culture in Egypt, in order to firm up earlier deliberations and ensure a successful outing.

The visual art train is expected to travel to major cities of the world with works mainly from the Nigerian National Collection and ten (10) different artists to each country NIVATOUR will be visiting. In the total collection to be exhibited, there will be works spread across all genre ranging from paintings, to sculpture,textiles,ceramics,photographs and so on, with variety of stylized forms and diverse techniques.

The total number of works is estimated to be almost a hundred pieces that will be exhibited in two world class venues-The palace of Arts in Cairo and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria. The events will include, but not limited to exhibition display, press conference in venues, a proposed interactive workshop that will feature 5 artists from Nigeria and five Egyptian artists that will experiment on a synergy of some sort during the visual art discourse.

There will also be a “Nigerian day” where our cuisine will be served and savored by all while our contingent and the Egyptian officials will display our rich traditional wears (Adire attire).All these activities will be starting in Cairo on the 25th of July, 2010 and will run till  August 18th, 2010 in Alexandria (Cairo: July 25 - August 03, 2010; Alexandria: August 09 - August 18, 2010).

The major objective and noble idea of this World Tour is to provide opportunity for the best of Nigerian visual art to be showcased and also to serve as a platform for selected Nigerian artists on this train to network and collaborate with fellow professionals in countries where the visual art train will berth.

More Images @ Cairo, Egypt.

Mr. Abdullahi Muku and Mr. Mohsen Shaaian, exchanging a point of interest in
Mr. Shaaian's office in Cairo

Mr. Abdullahi Muku presenting NGA publications to Mr. Hassan Kamy, Director of
the Opera House in Cario

The NGA delegation recieved by Mrs. Fayza Abdul Moneim, Director of Exhibition
Opera House, Cairo.

NGA delegation with Mr. Sam Madu Okonkwo (middle), Charge d'Affaires
Nigerian Embassy, Cairo