From: Segun Adio
As part of efforts to boost the Arts sector in the country, the Laureates College, has exhibited over 90 of its students’ collections before the public.
The exhibition was held over the weekend.
An exhibition of Arts and Craft by Laureates College Students, tagged, “Renaissance”, of over 90 collections exhibited by the students, included; drawing, Waste to Wealth (Mix Media), Waste Collage, Paper Collage, Fabric Collage, Pen and Colour, Paper Collage, Charcoal and Acrylic, paintings, sculptures and textile works, among many other arti-facts of intrinsic beauty and technical interest.
Organisers of the event also said it was part of attempts to unlock embedded potentials of arts deposited in Nigeria schools.
The school explained that the Art Collection serves the College’s mission of teaching and learning through Arts.
Speaking at the opening of the exhibition by the students, in Lagos, renowned visual living legend in the Nigeria’s world of Art, Dr. Bruce Onobrakpeya, said the show confirmed an awakening and a renewed interest in the Arts among Nigeria’s secondary schools where the decision to take Art as a career often take place.
Onobrakpeya said that visual art has not always enjoyed this exposure, because as a pioneer secondary school teacher, he was one of those who fought to make art central in the school curriculum and respectable as a profession.
According to him, “Nigeria attained a high point in our culture and artistic development going back 2000 years ago with the NOK sculptures in Jos, Plateau State, while the Ife terra cottas and bronzes, Benin and Igbo Ukwu bronzes and Esie stone carvings, among other Nigerian antique works, remain world famous.
In the words of Onobrakpeya, “Renaissance in Nigeria arts culture received a boost when the entire world assembled in Lagos and Kaduna to celebrate Festac in 1977. The evidence of the Nigerian art renaissance can be clearly in both government and private developments which are now yielding great results.
“Our artists/artistes are now very much respected in our societies, before now it was difficult for talented students to gain sponsorship from their parents to study art in higher institution. Parents don’t hesitate anymore to support art studies”, he explained.
Onobrakpeya is a renowned printmaker, painter and sculptor.
He, however, charged Laureate College to continue the good work of creating an environment that is helping to discover and nurture geniuses, while advising the parents to please continue to encourage their wards.
“Because an artist in a family is an ambassador at large, an employee of labour, and a source of renewable income”, he said.
Also, a lecturer and the former president of Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), Mr. Kolade Oshinowo, commended both the Art teacher and Instructor of the school for their contributions to the development of the students but tasked them to do the best they can in helping the students achieve more.
Oshinowo, however, noted that success and achievement attainable by the school teachers and the students are limitless because the school has a committed proprietress, even though he advised the student6s to put in their best in as much the parents are putting the resources.
In his words: “In my own case I was discouraged by my parents because in those days if you were caught drawing you would get a knock on your head and asked to go and take your book and stop drawing.”
“I have the cause to talk to the teachers areas that they should tidy up a bit and concentrate on. But I think basically, I’m impressed and if you look at all the work, they are well presented and mounted very well and not congested. I think one should just wish them all the best and hope this happens annually”, he said.
Earlier in her welcome address, Proprietress of the school, Dr. (Mrs.) Olatokunbo Somolu, espoused the school’s prowess Art sector.
She expressed her joy over the success recorded at the exhibition, while explaining how long it took put together such a wonderful and historic event but finally happy to have recorded a huge success.
According to Dr. Somolu, “You know, art is from the heart and it helps the children to able to express themselves to be more creative, and exhibit their own inborn talents. So, in any subject, be it biology, mathematics, geography, art in its fundamentals would help the students to understand and do better in all their subjects.”
She also said that the school is also doing great in the Sciences, saying the two students of the school, Aderemi and Chigozie, came up as the overall winner of the just concluded Enoch Adeboye Adejare Mathematic Competition, with cash prizes of N500,000.
