25th October, 2016
A visual artist, Nkang Ini-Dan, the Chief Executive Officer, “Brother art Productions’’, has urged government at all levels to set up art residency foundations as a platform to boost the career of budding artists.
Ini-Dan said in Lagos on Tuesday that the government needed to do more for the visual art sector to grow to enable artists to benefit from their works.
“In other climes, artists both established and new comers are provided good structures and a sizeable grant to start their career.
“In foreign countries, they have things like resident artists, where you stay for a year and practice before setting up your own,’’ he said.
The artist said that during the period of residency, the government provided food and money for the artists to concentrate fully on their craft.
He added that after the residency, the artists are given a loan to start their career.
“Unfortunately, all these are not made available for us here by government.
“Lack of government intervention funds are the reasons why Nigerian artists are still struggling to keep their heads above water.
“Those who cannot endure leave practicing art to look for other jobs,’’ he said.
Ini-Dan, who graduated from the Department of Creative Arts, University of Lagos, however, compared art to priesthood.
“It is like a calling; when you have passion for it, you cannot look back.
“Arts invoke something in you that makes you feel like you are close to nature and its environs.
“Some people buy art works because they believe it invokes something in them whenever they look at it.
“It is the belief of every artist that he or she has to propagate the gospel of art,’’ Ini-Dan added.