Artist's Biography
FATO WHEREMONGAR
Fato Wheremongar is the founder and director of ChildArt Liberia (1999 – present). He is also Chairman of the Union Liberian Artists and art teacher 2015 winner of world children best art teacher with International ChildArt Foundation(ICAF), Washington, DC.
He is devoted to teaching art to children in Liberia and has introduced art to over 2,500 conflict-affected children over the past 11 years. The non-profit promotes the positive effect art has on learning and art’s ability to heal trauma in children and youth from the civil war and ebola in Liberia.
He is a professional painter whose works focuses primarily on nature phenomena as well as abstract showcasing the inspirational beauty he finds in nature. He was formally trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He has participated in exhibits in Europe, the USA, France, Germany, and Liberia. More of his work can be viewed at the US embassy in Washington, DC.
Wheremongar's art depicts everyday life in the war-torn country. His exhibit in 2011 was part of a two-and-a-half week visit to Colorado sponsored by Hope for Children of Africa, an Alma nonprofit supporting educational opportunities in African communities. Executive director Nancy Wood stumbled across Wheremongar's youth arts training center, Child Art Liberia, during a conference with other organizations to explore educating young adults who had experienced the war and never went to school. Basic life skills, sixth-grade literacy and some kind of counseling were being discussed, but no one really knew what any of it would look like. Wood said these things were on her mind when she walked into Wheremongar's office and came across a group of young boys quietly painting.
"Here you are in Monrovia with noise and motorcycles and trash, and you step into this oasis," she said. "The paintings themselves validate the beauty of Liberia."
