U.N. official from Nigeria paints with local kids

Students at La Conner Elementary School received a visit from U.N. Arts Ambassador Ibiyinka Alao from Nigeria on Tuesday, who gave the fifth-graders a painting lesson. The youth gathered around the table as he explained step-by-step how to draw and paint a nature scene with palm trees, a road and the sun.

Alao’s easygoing, big personality made students laugh with his quick jokes, and he told the students “at all times, you must make sure you’re smiling. Smile and your work should be fine.”

The fifth-graders then painted their own works of art after he finished teaching them. He reminded them to not judge their neighbor’s artwork and shared his experiences of teaching art therapy.

“Art is frozen music,” he said. “This is about storytelling. Think of art as a language.”

Alao is an artist, lecturer and author of two children’s books. After visiting the fifth-graders, he was introduced at an all-school assembly.

He previously visited La Conner on Jan. 21 for the Museum of Northwest Art’s Family Art Day. MoNA facilitated both of Alao’s visits.

Alao’s own artwork, colorful paintings showing a variety of themes, often reflect his inspirations from religion and African culture.

He is currently on a tour of multiple art organizations and schools within Washington State and said he will be returning to Nigeria in three weeks.

“It’s been really wonderful having him here,” Chloe Dye Sherpe, the Associate Curator from MoNA, said. Sherpe said she’s enjoyed hearing about Alao’s work to negotiate peace and his stories of the power of art to bring people together.