New Telegraph

Fresh breath for arts, culture sector

It has been a very challenging year, especially for the Arts and Culture, because of the COVID-19 pandemic which appears not to relent. Since it broke out, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected, and continues to affect, different people in different ways. It has not only led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide, it has also presented an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems, and the socio-economic wellbeing of people.

Indeed, the economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic has been devastating, especially the lockdown and social distance and other protocols that followed. Worst hit is the performance arts because of its audience based nature. But in spite of the challenges, the never-say-die spirit and innovative nature of the artistes, and indeed, the practitioners, it was not an unLimitedeventful year.

There were series of activities that shaped the sector last year. The year 2021 witnessed a slow start in the world of art as the various players and stakeholders struggled to start from where the Global COVID-19 Pandemic forced activities to a standstill from the first half of 2020. Galleries that closed their doors to artists, collectors, and audiences opened their doors and exhibitions started hosting exhibitions. Some of the galleries include Thoughts Pyramids, Ko Art space.

Particularly, the Ko art Space showed an impressive line-up of artists, giving a much needed vibe to Nigeria’s art scene. The year saw the exhibition of started with a major show organized to articulate the progress of the New Nsukka School. The works of the following artists were showcased in separate solo exhibitions of Ngozi Omeje, Eva Obodo and Ozioma Onuzulike.

The exhibitions come at the heel of sustained interest in the institutional field of arts in recent times. Other artists exhibited within the year by Ko art space include Peju Alatise (February/ March), Damilola Ogunajo(June/July), E.D. Adegoke(August), Busayo Lawal (August), Uzo Egonu (September), Chike Obeagu’s Cogitations (October November) Ko Space also presented a special project involving Yusuf Grillo (1934-2021) one of Nigerian modern Masters in Nigerian. while Obiora Udechukwu was presented by Ko at the Frieze Masters London, a selection of oil paintings, acrylic, watercolours and drawings from the 1960s-1990s.

The project was part of Frieze Masters’ Spotlight, featuring pioneering artists of the 20th century. While much interest has been relatively paid to artists and their works in Nigerian art history in the forms of publications (journals and Newspapers), the contributions of art collectors, art institutions like University art departments are usually silent. The year 2021 more than it is in recent years saw the field receiving more attention in a manner that will help articulate an art history that is appropriate and encompassing. As the 2021 edition of Art X Lagos opened with a fanfare for its first physical show after the Pandemic, it brought to the fore, the importance of art collecting in the growing art ecosystem comof Nigeria.

Titled “Beyond Collecting: Building an Ecosystem.” The panellists at the Art X Lagos included: Prince Yemisi, Grand Donor and Chairman of the Museum Supervisory Council of the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art; Kavita Chellaram, Founder, Art House Contemporary Auction House and Ko Gallery, Lagos; Marwan Zakhem, Founder, Gallery 1957; and Hakeem Adedeji, Founder, K-Air Residency. The art talk focused on the art collector’ contributions to the art scene through their projects on the African continent and in the diaspora. Nigeria was acknowledged by the panellists as a major collector base in West Africa and by extension Africa.

This was hinted when Marwan Zakhem, the founder of Gallery 1957 declared his intention to open a new gallery in Lagos due to its strategic importance as an art market in Africa. With this move it is expected that other art galleries will open in Lagos, and this will be a good boost for the Nigerian art ecosystem. With the successful inauguration of the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Arts at the Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, in October 2019, the role of an art collector in the Nigeria’s cultural sphere became an open knowledge. The museum built and donated by Prince Yemisi Shyllon was also gifted a donation of One thousand pieces of art works by the art collector.

This success is yielding more interests in the local art collection activities in Nigeria. On November 16, 2021, the Committee for Relevant Art, Lagos, organized an art talk with the theme: “State of the Collectors’ Vaults. The Panellists namely: Dr, Sola Ogunfuwa (artis and academic), Olu Ajayi, (Painter and art administrator, Dr. Kunle Adeyemi (artist and academic), Prof. Jerry Buhari (artist academic), Moses Ohiomokhare, (artist, art manager), took a look at the large art collections of Rasheed Gbadamosi, Sammy Olagbaju, Frank Okonta and Abdulazeez Ude with the hope that their large art collections will not disappear as un-institutionalized art collections often do.

The attention given to the institutional field of art will continue in 2022 for Nigeria to have a multifaceted history. This as The National Gallery of art has planned a symposium titled ‘Institutional Art History in Nigeria: Documenting Art Departments in Universities, Polytechnics and colleges of Education in Nigeria. It is to be held at the Federal University Lafia in early March 2022. The return of artworks that were inappropriately taken from Africa continues with more Western cultural institutions returning such art or making concrete plans to repatriate them.

Towards the end of last year, The New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on November 22, 2021 officially returned three works of art that were looted in the 19th century. France and Germany are also at different level of returning these works. In 2022, more of these art works are expected to be brought back to their places of origin. The society of Nigerian artists had its general election this year which saw Oliver Enwonwu, the scion of late Nigerian modernist artist, Ben Enwonwu, hand over to Sulaiman Mohammed in Abuja. Enwonwu served two tenure.

Sulaiman is an Abuja based artist and an art administrator. It is hoped that his tenure would bring added value to the fortunes of artists and the art sector. The DG of the National Gallery of Art, Mr. Ebeten Ivara, has doubled efforts to secure the building of a befitting edifice for the National Gallery of Art. The DG in line with the aspirations of past administrators of the agency continues to make a strong case for such facility to enhance the administration of art and to increase in all the aspects of visual arts in Nigeria. The year had its sad notes with the death of two great Nigerian Modernist artists namely Yusuf Grillo and Abayomi Barber. Grillo (1934-2021) and Abayomi Barber (1928-2021) were both influential artist who made impact in the history of Nigerian art. In an interview with New Telegraph, on how the sector has fared in 2021, one of the leading arts collectors and arts patron, Chief Frank Momoh, noted that the art space in the last one has not been without challenges, adding that the exhibitors and the curators were, however, able to adapt to electronic space, being innovative, and by also creating content “First of all, we have to give glory to God for the last year because of the challenges, especially the COVID-19 pandemic.

It affected every sector, including the art space, but the good news the fact that practitioners and stakeholders were able to adapt to the changes and the challenges of the last two years as a result of the pandemic, particularly, in the area of exhibitions.

The exhibitors and the curators were able to adapt to electronic space – online viewing, online auctions, exhibitions, and I think they were well received. “So, the art space in the last one has not been without challenges, but to the glory of God, we (the stakeholders) were able to circumvent these challenges by being innovative, and by also creating content. I particularly thank our curators, there is no need to mention names, they are so many, and Art X has turned the yearly event into a national event that is now global. “In the area of festivals and theatre performances, there was a major hit on that sector because those are 100% physical-driven events, people have to be personally present to view live performances on stage; people have to be physically present to feel, touch a sculpture and talk about the sculpture, have an interaction with the next person…

So, of course, they were affected, and I think the performing art was more affected because of the crowd issue,” Momoh said. “I always look at things from a positive perspective; I always look at the bright side of things. It is my hope and belief that next year will be better because the pandemic itself is now being understood. So, it is about management.”

New lease of life for the National Theatre

On Sunday February 14, 2021 the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the Revamping and Restoration of the National Theatre was signed between the Federal Government and Central Bank of Nigeria/Bankers Committee. They also signed the contract awards for the project. The signing of the MOU and contract awards was witnessed by the Host Governor, Babajide Sanwoolu of Lagos State, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, Honourable Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Mr. Sunday Dare, Minister of Sports and Youths Development, CEO of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe, General Manager/ CEO of National Theatre, Prof Sunday Ododo, fsonta, FNAL and the Director of Legal Ministry of Information and Culture, Mr Nnanna Ibom, in a very colour ceremony held at the Entrance ‘A’ of the National Theatre. The CBN Governor stated that the Renovation project is expected to take 15 months to complete. Speaking before the signing, the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed reiterated that the renovation will not lead to a single job loss, rather it will lead to the creation of at least ten thousand direct jobs. The signing was the culmination of a journey that started July 12, 2020 when the National Theatre was officially handed over to the CBN and Bankers Committee for Revamp and Restore. Significantly, while renovation and revamping of the edifice has been ongoing, Prof. Sunday Enessi Ododo, whose appointment as the General Manager/CEO, National Theatre, took effect from 1 Sept. 2020, has since brought the cultural edifice alive with series of activities despite challenges of access to the various halls. Speaking with New Telegraph, despite the challenges the Arts and Culture sector had to contend with in 2021, there is great improvement, adding that the concentration of Federal government in improving the lot of the creative industries is beginning to yield fruits. “If you observed, there is a lot of private sector investment in the creative arts now, and the artistes themselves are also growing in ideas that are edifying to nationhood. And within the government parastatals committed to culture are also beginning to see obvious cooperation amongst all the parastatals to drive the cultural space of the country. And the honourable Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, is also unrelenting and navigating the landscape of this country, organizing town hall meetings to engage Nigerians to appropriate our moral consciousness and cultural values towards supporting and sustaining government infrastructures, installations, particularly orientation towards positive synergy amongst all Nigerians,” he said. According to him, the tourism sector is also doing well “but there is still a lot to be done, because what it takes to actualize economic tourism, a tourism that is vibrant and buoyant, that can impact our economy, we have it. What remains is to create enabling environment to make tourism thrive, and also to get the buy-in of state governments.” He added, “For us in the National Theatre, we are very clear in our vision and action plan. We want to identify young talents and give them platform to project themselves to the world. We continue to do this through our National Theatre Festival of Unity. We have just had the second edition, and through what we have done positive partnerships are also coming in, to expand the scope of talent hunts. Last December, we had Trillerbandz@Theatre live band competition in collaboration with Evergreen Musical Company limited, where we hosted about 50 live bands in contest. This is an innovation not only to give the young ones opportunity to perform live, we are also bringing back the culture of live band that we have almost lost to electronic band system.”

Boost for live theatre as National Troupe returns on stage

Another significant development in the sector is the National Troupe of Nigeria, where its Artistic Director/CEO, Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed, has ensured that the Troupe takes its pride of place as foremost performing arts company in Nigeria. “I am happy to tell you that we were able to achieve a lot of things within seven months. The first thing is our Children Creative Station which used to be between Lagos and Abuja. I said we are a National Troupe of Nigeria, not just Lagos and Abuja. So, we need to extend our programme across Nigeria, in everything we do. And for the first time, we took it to the North East, and went to Bauchi. Before we went to Bauchi, I thought about the stakeholders that could be involved in this, because we want to see continuity in what we do, not a one-off activity. Theatre is a living thing, culture is a living thing; yes, it is dynamic, but it is a living thing. I was able to engage UNICEF, I was able to engage the Bauchi State government through His Excellency, the Governor of the State. I was also able to extend my hands to the North East Development Commission. We had a very good, robust activity in Bauchi, with the support of UNICEF and the Bauchi State government.

The command performance took place at the Government House Banquet Hall. The Chief of Staff of Bauchi State represented the Governor; and the children who performed demonstrated the ability to showcase Nigeria’s unity in diversity through dance, drama and music. In fact, one of the children, called Amina, was applauded such that after the event, the Chief of Staff requested her and her family and her school teachers to come to his office and takeover his office temporarily. It was all over the media. Somebody from Bornu saw it and gave this girl scholarship,” said the Artistic Director in an interview with New Telegraph. He disclosed that UNICEF has also seen the potential in our their strategy, adding that they want “to expand the Children Creative Station to five states where they have their programmes.

I am also in discussion with the Save Children Fund in Abuja to see how we can also provide our own technical support in their children programming, especially looking at Child Rights Act… These are our success story. “Another thing is that for over five years before now, the Troupe had never been out of this country to showcase Nigeria. I am happy that our engagement with the Federal Ministry of Industry yielded positive result. Also, with the support of our Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, we were able to be in Dubai on December 3rd last year, where we presented Nigeria’s diverse cultures in dance, drama and music, in the presence of our President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. And the whole world applauded us for that performance. “Recently, December 12th and 16th, last year, we were able to showcase Nigeria’s history through ‘Strings’, a folk music drama in both the National Theatre and Terra Kulture here in Lagos. We hope this month or next month, we get more funding from government to take this activity even to Abuja.”

It was a great year for the award-winning Nigerian singer, rapper and songwriter, Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, known professionally as Burna Boy, who is, arguably, one of the biggest and most successful African artistes today. In 2021, his album, Twice as Tall, released August 14, 2020, won the Best World Music Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. It was the icing on the cake for his many achievements as his fourth studio album ‘African Giant’, which was released in July 2019, was nominated for a Best World Music Album category at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.

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