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From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
One hundred and five artists are competing in this year’s Life In My City Art Festival (LIMCAF) 2022 Art Exhibition going on in the Coal City of Enugu.
The artists are participating in what the organizers called Top 100 Works with the theme: Paradox of Muted Echoes.
Declaring the exhibition open at the International Conference Centre, Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, the Chairman of LIMCAF and former Chairman, Union Bank, Elder Kalu U. Kalu described the LIMCAF exhibition as a very strange one, noting that “when we think that we give up, the thing grows on its own.”
He said he was yet to know of any other group that has consistent supporters as his group has in Limca, assuring that LIMCAF would continue to succeed.
Elder Kalu thanked the media for giving them a lift and urged them to continue to support the group.
The Executive Director of LIMCAF and former Director General of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Kelvin Ejiofor, in his remarks said, “Now we have the federal government, ASUU year, I am mentioning that because we have on the whole just about 270 entries for 2022 which is low compared to what we had built up to, it used to be up to between 400 and 500 in each year but because schools are not there, their teachers who encourage them to do their works and guide and so on were not available, only a few were able to manage to send their works. We are looking forward that by next year there will be many more people.
“The whole thing is that we want to build a festival every October in Enugu. Our vision is, e want to get to a time when the whole world will be converging in Enugu in October and all activities will be built to certain levels.”
Ejiofor had in an earlier briefing decried the growing lack of interest in Arts among students and the dearth of teaching of the subject in public schools and urged schools to take serious the study of arts, stressing that “the world without art is unimaginable.”
The Arts Director, Dr Ayo Adewunmi, described Life in My City Art Initiative as an annual celebration of creativity featuring young talents in the Nigeria art landscape, noting that “LIMCAF is the biggest youth art event in Nigeria featuring visual art competition, festival lecture, school children’s and art teachers’ workshops, photography competition, as well as multimedia workshops.
Adewunmi added that in the past 15 years, LIMCAF had empowered over 150 young artistes and promoted art pan-Nigeria through the annual competition that offers young people an avenue to showcase and commercialize their productions.
“It has involved young people in a national interactive visual art fiesta in various centres across the country, which enables them to meaningfully express themselves on the state of their lived environment through their art and created a notable national and international art tournament destination in Enugu to complement other existing events and attractions in other parts of the country.”
