‘Art foundation, panacea for its development’

By Japhet Alakam

Art has been described as a goldmine as well as the best alternative to oil as far as revenue generation , job creation etc, are concerned in Nigeria. In fact, Art has made Nigeria a significant country in the world culture map as a major contributor to the development of world civilisation. But despite these laudable goals, the sector is still faced with many problems which need to be addressed by the various actors in the industry.  And for art to overcome some of these challenges, there is the urgent need for the establishment of a foundation for the arts by the federal government run by a Board of Trustees with professional integrity and ethics where all the various sectors of the arts have a clearly defined fund to draw from.

This was the submission of Professor Jacob Jari of faculty of Environmental Design, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria while delivering a lecture at the third Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF) lecture series titled “The Price of Art and Its Implication on Art Practice in Nigeria”.

[caption id="attachment_411690" align="alignnone" width="412"] *L-R, Prof. Jacob Jari, guest lecturer, Prince Yemisi Shyllon, OYASAF founder and Jessica Williams, OYASAF scholar at the event[/caption]

Prof Jari who has seen it all in art, having taught art in the secondary, tertiary schools and have practiced it for years during the lecture held at the OYASAF  conference centre, Maryland, Lagos enumerated some of the challenges facing art in Nigeria. The problems include: the neglect of art teaching in primary, secondary and universities in the country, not encouraging the art teachers, government’s failure to provide an enabling environment, art for money sake etc.noting that there has not been any significant transitions in more than 50 years of modern art practice.

Speaking on money exchange for art work, Jari said that his experiences have made him understand that in art business reputation counts, but asked whether it should really count?  According to him “why not collectors accept a person’s work on the aesthetic value of it and not on the history of the artists. If art is to be developed should it be so.” He added.

He made reference to incidences where works of art were bought because of the signature of the artist and  opined that such attitude is affecting the development of young artist in the country. He also noted that this situation and the economy of the country has forced many artists to produce art just for the market sake thereby retarding their creativity and development of the industry.

In all, he stated that the problems which led to the absence of any obvious change in the works of modern Nigerian artists is encouraged primarily by the price of art which is not founded on any logical basis. And to overcome this issue, “patrons of art and artists with a sincere desire to develop art should set up art foundations which should provide funds to assist creative artists with new ideas which might not be, from the superficial point of view, commercially viable but which sharpen the artists’ desire for freedom of expression, a condition which gives birth to different feats of gainful development.”

After listening to the well detailed lecture, the audience was left with no option than to  agree with the fact that the process is not well taught and that the stakeholders have not built institutions that promote art and until they do that the challenges will continue. They also observed that collectors taste determine how money will exchange hands in art but that the artist must be able to place a value for the work by painting good works.

The lecture which was organised by Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF) as part of its efforts towards the promotion of art was attended by art patrons , scholars,  teachers, writers, artists and others.