Arts and Vibes, a platform promoting the potential of Northern Nigeria through arts and culture, on Saturday showcased in Lagos to help address stereotypes and change people’s perception of the North.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two-day event is being held at the British Council in Lagos, with the theme, “Mindscapes of the North”.

The event is hosting 22 artists exhibiting about 41 pieces that focus on portraying the culture, lifestyle and religion of northerners through artworks.

The idea, founded in 2021, was inspired by Kaduna State, known for the commercialisation of its budding artistic and literary scene.

The Festival Director of Arts and Vibes, Suchet Baba, said the exhibition was aimed at breaking out of stereotypes and the usual narrative, by telling stories of the north through arts, regardless of what is happening there.

“There’s a lot of potential in the North; there’s a lot of unheard stories; there’s a lot of unheard arts.

“People haven’t seen enough of the arts in the North because everything else happens in the East, West, especially in the southwest but there’s very little light shed in the North.

“There’s always that stereotype that it’s a very unsafe region,” she told NAN.

Baba urged the media to lessen the negative perception of individuals about the North by reporting incidents appropriately.

“If an attack happens in a small village, they would say Kaduna was attacked but if it was in the U.S., they would not say America or New York was attacked,” she said.

Baba said the exhibition would give Northern artists from various states including Kano, Kaduna and Plateau, with potential places to keep their works.

She said Arts and Vibes had featured no fewer that 1,000 attendees and exhibited about 80 artists in the four years of its existence.

She urged Nigerians to have a mind-shift and change of perception of how they viewed the northerners.

Also, Abraham Seriki, the Operations Manager, said the theme was to draw attention to the mental perspective of how an average northerner approaches life.

“We’re creating a platform where popular norms can be deconstructed, where people can have constructive conversations about stereotypes, and the degree of what they hear about the North.

“Some of the misconception of the northerners is contentment, which is often interpreted as mediocrity, lack of education and exposure.

“For me, my friends and the people I have interactions within the north, we chose the quality of life over the standard of life.

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“If the standard of the world is working nine to five, working and living for a business or company just to get those standards, we are more worried about the quality of life that we have,” he said.

He urged Nigerians to be open-minded, inquisitive and increase their ability to be receptive to ideas and thought processes.

One of the artists, Williams Chechet, a Visual Artist and Illustrator, said he derived satisfaction educating people through his works.

Chechet, who is from Kaduna, said, “When people see me, they say, ‘Hausa boy’, but there are a lot of tribes in the North apart from the Hausas.”

Another artist, a Textile Designer, Khadija Dikko, said she sought to protect her cultural heritage through her works.

Dikko said her passion was using textile and traditional medium in art form to create something new that reflects current realities. (NAN)