Ex-High Commissioner of Nigeria to Singapore, Mr Ogbole Amedu Ode, has said Nigeria’s Creative Industry is a low-hanging fruit that government must develop appropriate policies to help propel the industry to the global stage.
Ode made this known at the ongoing Art and Tech Festival, an exhibition by the Creative Arts and Visual Imagery Center (CAVIC) showcasing the innovative results of the infusion of creatives arts and technology.
Chief among the exhibits are: an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Interactive Kinetic Sculpture (KST6) that educates viewers on Sustainable Development Goal 4; Data Couture – the wearable tech fashion pieces, solar rechargeable and data protective accessories; the original AI, CHAT-GPT animation installations of Sustainable and Industrial Designer, Teddy Atuluku, that espouses and expands on SDG Goal 3, and how health is essential to wealth, and the AI-infused Visual Paintings of Philip Agbese Jr, with an extended animated visuals of the artworks.
Ode, said the development and implementation of appropriate policies that explores and exploits the abundant creative arts and tech talents in the country, will not only provide untold levels of employment, but also boost the nation’s economy.
He noted that the infusion of the creative arts and technology in Canada had not only led to the establishment one of the premium innovative schools in the globe, but also placed Canada as a go-to for sourcing talents in the animation among other cross-discipline collaborations in the creative and tech industries.
A largely self-funded project by the CAVIC Creative director, Philip Agbese Jr and his friends, The Festival of Arts and Tech, began with a three-day Art and Tech Social Impact workshop that convened about 60 young people in the creative arts and tech industry.
20 youth in groups of four were selected based on the innovation and feasibility of their projects, which led to the ongoing exhibition.
The objective, Agbese said, is to scaleup the festival, and to place it and the city of Abuja in the global creative arts and technology events calendar.
This, he said would require government support, not so much as funding but endorsement and the provision of the enabling environment for the industry and cross-industrial conversations to kickstart and thrive.
Referencing the current Japa trend amongst young Nigerians today, Agbese defended the youths stating that migration to foreign and better climes spring from frustrations, on lack of their engagement/employment.
Meantime, a director, NGA, Mundung Bridget, urged government to support private organisations in the development of the creative arts industry; in addition to, entrenching the infusion of interactive arts courses at the basic educational level, as a means of catching them young.
Mundung who represented the director -general of the NGA, Mr Ebeten William Ivara said, “This is a very rare exhibition. Not many artistes promote the infusion of art and tech in the creative industry. Bringing them together to come up with these creative pieces could not have been easy. I wish government could support the private sector in this journey of promoting creative arts and tech. it would go a long way to keeping our youths gainfully employed and useful to the society,” concluded Mundung.
