Arts and artists continue to connect Atlanta and Lagos

In honor of the 50^th anniversary of Mayor Maynard Jackson’s founding of The Sister City Rising, the Ashview Community Garden on the west side of the Atlanta Beltline hosted two art exhibit unveilings. When Jackson, with the help of Andrew Young, put together the idea of ​​The Sister City Rising, it was about building a relationship between Atlanta and Lagos Nigeria. All these years later, their work to achieve this is still visible. Both art exhibitions were curated by Lauren Tate Baeza and created by Nigerian artists Taiye Idahor and Kainebi Osahenye.

Tate Baeza is the curator of African art at the High Museum of Art. She selected Idahor and Osahenye to participate in this project.

Tate Baeza said, “I knew I picked the right artists,” when it came to who she should come to Atlanta from Lagos. During the 10-week residency the artists did in Atlanta, Baeza explained that they were both very ambitious with their ideas. Because the artists had so little time to bring their ideas to life, Tate Baeza was inspired by watching them work. She also said she was “excited to see the growth of the art sector between Lagos and Atlanta” in the future.