Shell trains 60 Niger Delta youths in art and crafts

No fewer than 60 young artists from the Niger Delta have been enrolled at the Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya Training Centre in Agbarha-Otor, Delta State, for training in arts and crafts.

The two-week training is a partnership between the Shell Petroleum Development Company Joint Venture and the Bruce Onobrakpeya Foundation, and will focus on metal construction, ceramics (pottery) and leather crafts after which the participants will be provided entrepreneurial opportunities and mentoring under Professor Bruce Onobrakpeya, a renowned Nigerian printmaker, painter and sculptor.

In his message to the participants, SPDC’s Sustainable Development and Community Relations Manager, Mr. Igo Weli, said, “Through the training tagged ‘Arts of the Delta,’ our commitment to achieving sustainable development through youth empowerment in the Niger Delta is being realised.”

Weli, who was represented by SPDC’s Senior Partnership Advisor, Mr. Michael Adande, enjoined the participants to give their full attention to the programme describing it as “an opportunity to acquire success nuggets from the iconic Onobrakpeya Foundation”.

The participants, made up of academically-trained and non-academically-trained artists, were drawn from Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Imo and Rivers states.