THE FOUNDATION

The Women and Youth Art Foundation (WYART) Project is a not-for-profit, non-governmental, non-political organization devoted to generating wealth through the development of the arts. The ‘W’ stands for women and ‘Y’ for youths. It is an ‘art’ for empowerment Foundation founded in 2004 by a female Nigerian artist, Peju Layiwola, a lecturer at the Department of Creative Arts, University of Lagos. WYART Foundation is coordinated by an eminent Board of seasoned artists, culture activists and scholars drawn from fields as diverse as the new media, humanities, and social sciences.

Why art? Because Art is life and Art is beauty. So we try to put in beauty into the lives of people by empowering them through skill acquisition. Art is one aspect through which Nigeria has contributed meaningfully to world civilization. We have had a rich traditional past and our heritage is of great renown....

The main mission of this Foundation is to empower women and youths, without any discrimination based on class, religion or age. We have trained so many women and youths in local and urban communities and also through religious groups that identify

The WYART initiative was borne out of her early life experience. Her mother, Princess Elizabeth Olowu is an artist and as a child she grew up learning a lot from her. She was always engaged in one activity or the other. She was also involved in art training and as a teacher, she not only taught her students while in school but was involved in several