With Obi Asika chairing the gala and Paul Usoro lending his presence to the event, LIMCAF’s nineteenth version is as a lot a celebration of younger artists as a reminder of the company assist the competition has struggled to safe regardless of practically 20 years of nurturing rising skills. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke stories
Finally, the Life in My City Art Festival – merely LIMCAF to its rising devotees and habitués – stomps into its much-anticipated grand finale exhibition week in Enugu in an much more upbeat temper. The competition, held at the International Conference Centre of the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu, culminates in a gala and awards evening on Saturday, October 31, bringing its nineteenth version, themed Open Letter, to an in depth.
Besides its customary enterprise of bringing a recent crop of rising artists into the highlight, the competition will, this 12 months, additionally function two outstanding figures from Nigeria’s artistic and company worlds, lending their weight to the proceedings.
As is perhaps anticipated, the hallmark of the occasion is the recognition of excellent artists. But the presence of Obi Asika, director-general of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), and Paul Usoro, SAN, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), offers the event added weight.
Asika, a grandee of Nigeria’s artistic trade, will chair the gala and awards evening. He has the trade connections and expertise having constructed a profession in music and associated industries in addition to his hyperlinks to the UK, to allow him steer the occasion to successful. His current perch at the helms of the NCAC ought to stand him in good stead to understand what LIMCAF has been doing from 2007 to take the visible arts out of the galleries and cultural establishments of the metropolitan areas.
Usoro represents a special part of the Establishment. He is a former president of the NBA, and a communications lawyer, having beforehand chaired Access Bank. He heads Paul Usoro & Co. Law agency in Victoria Island, Lagos. “LIMCAF provides a platform for emerging artists to showcase their work, engage with established practitioners and connect with wider audiences,” Usoro stated. “The participation of distinguished personalities further enriches the festival and reinforces the importance of sustained support for the visual arts in Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, Adaora Oji-Ngwu, the government director of the Life In My City Art Foundation, known as the grand finale the finish consequence of months of actions throughout the nation, in addition to the efforts of the artists, companions, and supporters who saved the competition going.
“The grand finale celebrates the artistic achievements of the participants. It provides us the opportunity to strengthen our relationships and conversations with colleagues in Nigeria for the advancement of the visual arts,” she stated.
Among different occasions, there can be artwork and craft exhibitions, artist excursions of Enugu, a celebration, Prof. Jacob Onoja’s lecture, a trend present, a movie screening, and spoken phrase performances, and a tribute to Obiora Udechukwu, artist and co-founder of AKA Circle of Artists, along with the nationwide exhibition that formally opens on Wednesday, October 28.
Events related to AKA will function the publication, Kindred Spirits: The AKA Circle of Exhibiting Artists, by Iheanyi Onwuegbucha. A historic dialogue on artist-led initiatives in Eastern Nigeria will accompany the publication. The dialogue will unravel artists’ frustrations with exhibition alternatives and taking the initiative to organise exhibitions. This is historical past that youthful artists ought to know.
Thus, Udechukwu and the AKA Circle carry an earlier chapter of Eastern Nigeria’s artwork historical past to LIMCAF. Though the competition is concentrated on rising artists, its contributors must recognise different chapters of historical past as nicely.
Currently in its nineteenth 12 months, LIMCAF deserves recognition as Nigeria’s longest working artwork competition. The indisputable fact that it has endured as the solely present artwork competition that’s youth-focused and rising over the years ought to have earned it extra vital and sustained company sponsorship.
Now, it has matured and attracted the curiosity of outstanding personalities in the area of visible arts and past, together with Bruce Onobrakpeya, El Anatsui, Obiora Udechukwu, the late Ola Oloidi, the late Okwui Enwezor, the late Olabisi Silva and Kolade Oshinowo. Anatsui, for one, funds the annual all-expenses-paid two week journeys of the competition’s high six winners to the Dak’Art, the Dakar Art Biennale. Others who’ve taken curiosity in LIMCAF embrace Jerry Buhari, curator of this 12 months’s grand finale exhibition, Kunle Filani, Sani Mu’azu, Peju Layiwola, Joe Musa, Frank Ugiomoh, Sam Ovraiti, Blaise Gundu Gbaden, Chijioke Onuora, the late Nsikak Essien and Tonie Okpe, in addition to a number of worldwide consultants.
Beyond the exhibitions and competitions which LIMCAF is well-known for, the basis has branched out to internet hosting artistic workshops for youngsters and youth residing with disabilities.
The Elder Okay.U. Kalu Grand Prize for Young Artist of the Year, the competitors’s highest recognition, is valued at roughly $2,000. Other class prizes embrace the N1 million Capt. Everest Odengene Nnaji Prize for Painting, and the ₦500,000 Tayo Adenaike Prize for Watercolour.
Indeed, the competition has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception in 2007 by the founder of Rocana Nigeria Limited, Robert Orji. Much of its endurance has been on account of the goodwill of its supporters starting from the Alliance Française community to the French Embassy, different company organisations, artwork foundations and people. Some of these are Clam Lab, Paris, Honeywell Group, FBN Holdings, the Pan African Circle of Artists, the Enugu State Council for Arts and Culture, the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, and Thought Pyramid Art Centre, Abuja. Special donations have been made by the Justice Anthony Aniagolu Family, Vin Martin Ilo, Mfon Usoro, the Pius Okigbo Family, Art Is Everywhere, and Professor El Anatsui, and Engr. Gesi Asamaowei amongst others.
The growing quantity of contributors from throughout Nigeria, and the persevering with success of previous contributors present an concept of the competition’s progress. The subsequent LIMCAF is its twentieth, and the basis can be celebrating its fifteenth anniversary.
