Life in My City Art Festival (LIMCAF), now in its 19th edition, is heading towards its grand finale in Enugu, with six distinguished art personalities appointed to its National Jury Panel and Jerry Buhari named curator of the exhibition. This edition of the festival, themed, Open Letter, holds its grand finale exhibition in the final week of October at the International Conference Centre of the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu.

Next year, this flagship event of the Life in My City Art Foundation will be 20. And that is a long run for an art competition that began in 2007 on a much smaller scale. Recall that Robert Orji, founder of Rocana Nigeria Limited, started the festival as a yearly competition for young artists. Since then, LIMCAF has spread its net across the country, built up a sizeable purse of prizes and seen some of the artists who passed through its competition establish themselves on the Nigerian visual arts scene.

Chike Obeagu chairs the panel this year. A contemporary artist, scholar and curator, he is an associate professor at the Federal University of Lafia and has curated LIMCAF three times. Also included are Adiwu Talatu Onkala, an artist and associate professor of painting at the University of Maiduguri. She has worked around gender, identity and the social realities of contemporary Nigeria, particularly the experiences of women in the Northeast. Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, an artist and art historian and the Steven and Lisa Tananbaum Curator at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Before joining MoMA, he held curatorial positions at the Cleveland Museum of Art and Dartmouth’s Hood Museum; Bella Anne C. Ndubuisi, a cultural affairs specialist, who has worked in culture, community development and international development and has been involved with LIMCAF in Taraba; Dotun Popoola is known for his sculptures made from discarded scrap metal. Frank Omoh Agbiyoa Ugiomoh, an artist, art historian, critic and educator, has more than four decades of experience in the field, with African art history and its historiography central to his scholarship.

Buhari, who will curate the Grand Finale Exhibition, has been a professor of fine art at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, since 1982. His career has included studio practice, teaching and curating exhibitions in Nigeria and abroad.
The jury will have 100 artists to consider, following the selection process in the festival’s different regional centres. More than N60 million is up for grabs. The overall winner’s prize, formerly simply the festival’s top prize, was renamed the Elder Kalu Young Artist of the Year Prize last year. It is now worth the naira equivalent of $2,000 and is sponsored by the family of the late Elder Kalu Uke Kalu, a former LIMCAF chairman and visual arts aficionado.

The category prizes cover photography, painting, sculpture, drawing, ceramics and digital art. They range from ₦500,000 to’₦1 million, with the Chinelo Chime Prize for Best in Photography carrying ₦1 million. The prizes for painting, sculpture, drawing and ceramics are ₦500,000 each.

There are awards with more specific briefs. The Armstrong Agoreyo Prize is for the best artwork made from waste paper, while the Kanyeyachukwu Tagbo Prize recognises an outstanding work by an artist living with a disability.

Some prizes have been established by individuals, families and organisations. Among them are the Justice Anthony Aniagolu Prize for Originality, the Dr Pius Okigbo Prize for Technical Proficiency, the Mfon Usoro Prize for Best Entry from Uyo Centre and the VinMartins Ilo Prize for Best Entry from Enugu.

LIMCAF’s offer to young artists extends beyond the prizes. A two-week, all-expenses-paid trip to Dakar for the Dakar Art Biennale, or Dak’Art, is one of the festival’s rewards. There are also residencies and boot camps.

The festival has a place for gender-specific awards, too, with special prize categories for female artists. Its activities extend to children through workshops for primary and secondary school pupils, with particular attention to those living with disabilities. Abuja and Enugu have hosted some of these workshops in recent years.

LIMCAF has also drawn support from a range of institutions and organisations. Its partnerships include the Alliance Française network in Nigeria, the Institut Français and the French Embassy. Other supporters include Clam Lab, Paris; Rocana Nigeria Limited; the Pan African Circle of Artists; Honeywell Group; FBN Holdings; the Enugu State Council for Art and Culture; the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos; and Thought Pyramid Art Centre, Abuja.

The prizes, too, have attracted individual and institutional backers, including the Justice Anthony Aniagolu family, Vin Martin Ilo, Thought Pyramid Art Centre, Mfon Usoro, the Pius Okigbo family, Art Is Everywhere, the Centre for Contemporary Art, Professor El Anatsui and Engr. Gesi Asamaowei, among others.

For some former participants, LIMCAF has been an early break. Several past overall and category prize winners have gone on to establish themselves on the Nigerian visual arts scene.

The competition Robert Orji started in 2007 now has regional centres, a national jury, a growing list of prizes and 100 artists in contention for its latest finale.