The 2015 edition of the Vision of the Child (VOTC) competition for children between the ages of nine and 12 organised by the Lagos Black Heritage Festival (LBHF) in collaboration with Lagos State Government has started.
A component of the annual LBHF that focuses on the individual vision and artistic inclinations of children in Lagos State, this year, features a painting competition and literary arts with the theme, ‘The Road to Sambisa’.
This year, instead of the uni-disciplinary interpretation of the given theme, participants will express their vision in two creative media: painting and the literary arts (poetry, prose, fiction or essay), said the organisers at a briefing that also had Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism and Inter-Governmental Relations, Disun Holloway, in attendance.
Holloway read the statement by Professor Wole Soyinka at the gathering that said the journey will this year begin with the latter section, a poem, essay, or short story of fixed length, on the chosen theme.
“Those who scale through this stage will be invited to Freedom Park, Lagos Island, provided with brush, paint and easel, and set to illustrate their literary presentation in the complementary medium of painting,” he said.
As is often the case with events related to the arts, the issue of lack of sponsorship came up at the briefing, with Holloway saying that only Diamond Bank has been magnanimous enough to provide sponsorship for the VOTC. He explained that no other organisation in corporate Nigeria approached seems to be forthcoming. He was reacting to the clamour that older children should be eligible for the annual contest.
The registration for VOTC 2015 opened on November 13 and closes on December 19. Screening of entrants will begin on January 12, 2015. Open to schools all over Lagos, the many students who were at the briefing got application forms which they will fill and return.
