Ms. Biola. O. Awotedo, deputy director, marketing (NGA) and Dapo Lere Orelaja pay courtesy visit to The Vanguard Media headquarters

Ms. Biola. O. Awotedo, deputy director, marketing, publicity and promotion and Dapo Lere Orelaja.

Early in the week, a team from the Marketing Unit of the National Gallery of Arts, Abuja led by Ms. Biola. O. Awotedo, deputy director, marketing, publicity and promotion and Dapo Lere Orelaja paid a courtesy visit to The Vanguard Media headquarters in Lagos to intimate the Senior Editors of the paper on the level of preparedness reached by her prastatal for the up coming first African Regional Summit on Exhibition and Visual Arts, ARESUVA billed to hold in the nation's capital city of Abuja, September 7 to 13, 2008. In this interview with Arts Editor, the team leaders also spoke on a number of issues around the culture fair and why Vanguard should partner with NGA.

Recently, NGA sponsored about sixteen artists and some selected arts journalists to Senegal, where they participated in this year's Dakar Art Biennial. Government alone cannot provide all the funds to expose our artists to the international scene, hence there is the need to solicit for support of private individuals and corporate organizations. ARESUVA remains one of the many programmes lined up by the parastatal to promote the nation's visual art sector. It is designed towards the promotion of visual Arts as a strategy for achieving rapid economic development in the African region as envisioned in New Partnership for African Development(NEPAD).

Gains and level of participation of Vanguard as a media partner: After a careful study we carried in respect of the circulation and acceptability of most national newspapers, we discovered that Vanguard has a mileage than every other newspaper in terms of reach. Vanguard cuts across all the classes and sectors of the Nigerian economy. Everybody reads Vanguard like Punch newspapers. Both are birds of the same feathers. Vanguard is like a leveller. It deals with the people on the top, the middle class and also, the lower class people. That's why we have settled to partner with the Newspaper. Yes, art in this country has been relegated to the background. ARESUVA is poised to reverse the trend. We solicit for your wide coverage, while we promise to carry the organization along in whatever that concerns the project now, and thereafter.

Level of preparedness for the summit:

Already, we have booked the whole of the International Conference Centre. We have also, opened a secretariat there, where all correspondences and inquiries are been received. All facilities need to make the summit succeed have been put in place. Last Thursday, we held a cocktail party for all African Head of States, and embassies as well as stakeholders in the sector. It was hosted by the Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Prince, Kayode Adetokunbo. Right now, all logistics have been put in place, and accommodations booked for the participants coming in from different parts of Africa.

There is an insurance company that is trying to partner with us, which has agreed to insure the incoming participants on arrival here. But not with their artworks. Once they touch the Nigerian soil, they will be picked up by our officials from the airport and taken to their designated hotels, which they would have paid before now. The organizers will not be held responsible for any record of loss of artworks belonging to the incoming participants, as a result of the late arrival of such artworks.

Selected ARESUVA Curators:

Like I said earlier, in the central working committee, there is a curatorial committee to nominate the artworks to be exhibited. Apart from some staff of the National Gallery of Art, who are curators, we have equally employed renowned artists as curators from Ahmadu Bello University and Yaba College of Technology. The question of showcasing substandard works as are alleged over the 2008 Dakar' Art; NGA does not arise. It is however important to state that NGA does not necessarily promote only already established artists, but also emerging ones.

Our concern is to bring up some emerging artists and give them international exposure. Art is a very funny thing. What is beautiful to you, may not be beautiful to me. And what is appealing to you, may not be appealing to me. So, everybody has his or her own individual appreciation of the work of art. I was not in the team that went to Dakar. But I can tell you that the biennial was well covered by the local television stations such AIT and Channel.

I am not an artist, but I have an artistic view of what is going-on around us. We are aware that some Nigerian artists have been asked to submit their artworks. You do know the Nigerians attitude towards time. Some artists have submitted their works, while many others are yet to compile with the directives. May be, come next week, the committee might decide to close the door and start working on the entries received so far.

Those who failed to submit their works on time, might be tempted to insinuate something that is not obtainable. Initially, the committee invited entries through the various art groups in the country; Society of Nigerian Artists(SNA), Gallery Owners Association of Nigeria etc. And their Presidents are also members of the central working committee of ARESUVA, who are basically giving professional advice to the committee.

Countries expected to participate in ARESUVA and their artists: As at the last meeting which we held last week, about twenty-two countries have indicated interest to participate in the event.

Indicating interest

In Nigeria, five artists each have been selected from the six geo-political zones. Also, some states have been invited to participate in the event. States like Osun, Bayelsa, Lagos and Rivers have been invited to the event. We are still expecting more countries to indicate interest in the event before the end of this week. The participating countries are expected to bring at least six artists t o the event. Indeed, apart from ARESUVA, NGA has also lined up lots of programmes for the rest of the year. There is an Art Expo, billed to open at the National Museum towards the end of this month.

The Art Expo, is meant for Gallery Owners in Nigeria. NGA, already has set up an art programme, where children from different backgrounds; primary and secondary schools come together to learn how to paint and draw. We are also looking forward towards instituting a zonal art competition for all categories of primary, secondary and tertiary institutions as well as professional artists. The grand finale of the competition will take place in the second week of October, 2008.