Some stakeholders in the arts industry have urged government at all levels to invest in arts education for economic gains and employment generation for the youth.
They spoke in Ibadan on Friday at the award ceremony of an art competition organised by Gessomate Professionals Arts Society.
The event. which took place at the Department of Art, Design and Printing Technology (ADPT) of The Polytechnic Ibadan. was entitled: “A Tour to the Root’’.
The Gessomate Professional Art Society President, Mr Abiola Olugbile, said the competition was to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the association and to give back to their alma mater, The Polytechnic Ibadan.
Olugbile enjoined students of the institution to take whatever opportunity that comes their way with all seriousness and put in more efforts toward a brighter future.
“Government should still do more, art is a good business in Nigeria that is not well harnessed as it should be.
“If the government put more into this, a lot will still be done. We have so many tourism attraction sites and so many other things that are untapped in this nation.
“So, let the government do more to encourage the younger ones coming, so that we can be able to meet up and attract arts patronage from the outside world,’’ he said.
In his address, the Director Centre for Africa Arts and Design, Ibadan, Dr Ellis Oyekola, emphasized the need for arts education to harness the gains in the industry and develop Africa’s cultural heritage.
“The passion for art in this country is very low as people are always after money. But sometimes, art can generate funds because in the western countries, art serves as a treasure.
“When you are broke you carry your artwork, the treasure that you have collected and auction them then get a lot of money.
“The artistic tempo in Nigeria generally is very low, may be due to foreign religion that we embraced and the initial notion that African arts are fetish.
“But a contemporary African art is not fetish. We are there for functional purposes and economic purposes,’’ Oyekola said.
He noted that art could stand on its own as a means of employment by owning arts galleries of their works and also collect works of other artists and sell.
“But how many people patronise? Except in Lagos which has a lot of galleries that promotes arts, that is why Lagos is thriving in arts,’’ he said.
The Head of Department, ADPT, Mr Olumide Olufowobi, said art was not what you see but made to see and there is a need to invest in art education in Nigeria.
Olufowobi appreciated the association for giving back to their alma mater and for motivating the current students on how best to go into the world of arts.
“The government should give an enabling situation to support arts education. Most of the tools we are using, we improvised them as no school can provide all to teach arts education.
“Our institution is trying to make available necessary tools for arts education. We have gone round other institutions and we have seen that this institution is trying, we are not doing badly,’’ Olufowobi said.
The winner of the arts competition, a 21- year- old ND1 student who came first, Ayomide Akinpelu, attributed his success to hard work and prayers.
Akinpelu enjoined his colleagues to keep burning the midnight candle and put in extra work to excel in life, regardless of the present economic situation of the country.
“My painting was based on the transformation brought by electricity into Nigeria, from the colonial era till date,’’ Akinpelu said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 68 entries were submitted for the arts competition in which 20 artworks were shortlisted and five outstanding artworks made it to the final. (NAN)
