LAGOS, JUNE 28, 2016 – A sculptor, Mr Animu Oborien, has urged the Federal Government to initiate policies that will promote art exhibition and preservation of Nigeria’s cultural values.
Oborien, who works at the National Gallery of Modern Arts, National Theatre, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Wednesday that preservation of cultural values would go a long way in facilitating the country’s development.
According to him, there is need for the mass media to promote arts in line with the peculiarity of the environment where works of arts are done.
“The best approach is enlightenment through the media and government should come up with a policy that will make it mandatory to mount art works that could befit such environment.
“Art is one of the missing things in the development process in this country.
“If they carry the art sector along, you will see that what you see in the society today will be quite better off.
“We need the idea of art into every sector of the economy even in the area of production.
“People tend to appreciate a product because of the design.’’
The sculptor bemoaned low patronage of art works in Nigeria and attributed it to the perception of the trade by Nigerians.
“People have not really come to that consciousness of appreciating arts presently in Nigeria except for some very few persons that may have either travelled abroad or that have some friends that are interested in arts that may have seen what they have used art works to do, maybe in their houses, or offices.
“Maybe from there, they start picking interest.
“Apart from such few persons, majority of us in Nigeria don’t appreciate arts.’’
Oborien stated that artworks are one of the oldest professions that are capable of speeding up the development process of a country.
