Yemisi Shyllon, founder, Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF), has urged the the Federal and State Governments to create incentives for the rapid growth of arts in the country.
Shyllon told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that with serious interventions from the government, Nigerian arts could be the most cherished in the world.
“We have been talking and governments have been promising but the mechanism of government works very slowly.
“If we all aimed at growing the Nigerian arts, putting in more effort and letting the world know what we have, it will be significant.
“We need to showcase our arts and culture to the people of the world and it will make us more pertinent,” he said.
The arts’ enthusiast said that Nigerian arts are raw and it would be well appreciated and only when we do that we are contributing to civilisation.
“We have lots of talented youths in Nigeria, the only thing needed is to create a platform for them and that is what we want government to do.
“The youth and some other artists are ready to go and create a lot in the area of arts and they are committed in doing that.
“We do not want the present generation to be a wasted one, that is why I am calling on government at all levels to quicken their action in providing structures to help arts growth,” he said.
Shyllon, however, said that the country’s economy needed to be diversified, noting that this could be achieved through the arts.
“We should be striving until we achieve what we want, even when we are not getting it right, we should not relent.
“It is a long road but we are ready to travel that road to get it right.
“I want to help to develop this culture of creativity for the country and in young ones; we have to catch them young,’’ he said.
NAN reports that Shyllon ventured into arts collection since his undergraduate days decades ago; his interest in art has grown into a passion.
The Lagos State government commissioned him to put sculptures in the Freedom Park consignment of 18 life-size works.
The Lagos State government after remodelling and restructuring the old colonial prison yard in Broad Street, Lagos Island, renamed it Freedom Park.
Shyllon was appointed alongside, a popular artist, Mrs Nike Okundaye, into the board of the National Heritage Council and Endowment for the Arts.
The National Heritage Council and Endowment for the Arts is being packaged by the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture and Tourism for the betterment of arts in the country. (NAN)
