The Life In My City Art Festival (LIMCAF) is preparing for its grand finale exhibition week in Enugu, and has its sights set on the younger artists who have been part of the festival as well as the older generation who have helped shape the art scene in Nigeria. This year’s festival will have the theme, Open Letter. The festival will come to an end with a gala and awards, on Saturday, October 31, at the International Conference Center, Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu.

Two personalities from both the creative and corporate worlds of Nigeria will headline the event. Obi Asika, Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) will be the chairman of the gala night. He is very much knowledgeable about the music and creative industry. With his wealth of experience, he will bring a lot of insights that will complement LIMCAF festival , which for the last 18 years, has helped to stimulate and challenged the younger artist outside the established frameworks of Lagos and other cities in Nigeria.

Paul Usoro, SAN, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), adds experience to this year’s event.

He is the chairman of Paul Usoro & Co, a Lagos-based law firm, and is also a communications lawyer. Before that, he was the president of the NBA and chairman of Access Bank. His association with the festival celebrates a less-known side of an artist’s life, the financial side. Artists have to find other ways to fund their work and the exhibition of their work. Often times works of art are sold even before a patron shows interest in making a purchase. “LIMCAF provides emerging artists the opportunity to exhibit their works and have interaction and engagement with established artists.

The festival provides a broader audience, and helps raise the artists’ profile,” Usoro said. “The presence of such celebrities has a multiplier effect on the festival, as well as reaffirm the need for sustained support to the visual arts in Nigeria.”

Adaora Oji-Ngwu, executive director of Life in My City Art Foundation, said the grand finale is the culmination of all activities for the year, a celebration of all partnering and supporting artists and organisations and their collective effort to support the festival.

“We have pulled together the best of the participating artists this year, partnering with and supporting organisations. It is an opportunity for all participants to strengthen and reawaken a dialogue that will advance the development of the visual arts,” she said.

The national exhibition and awards ceremony are only a part of the scheduled activities. Others are an art and crafts fair, film screenings, festival lecture, artist tours of Enugu, spoken word performances, a fashion show and a party. The national exhibition opens on Wednesday, October 28.

One of the historically more resonant activities in the programme is the celebration of the artist and co-founder of the AKA Circle of Artists, Obiora Udechukwu, which includes the unveiling of Iheanyi Onwuegbucha’s Kindred Spirits: The AKA Circle of Exhibiting Artists, and a fireside chat on the history of artist-led initiatives in Eastern Nigeria.

The chat reinforces the period when artist frustration with the lack of opportunities to exhibit, pushed them to organise their own exhibitions rather than wait on galleries and institutions. This is a critical period in the history of the arts that deserves to be remembered. The example of the AKA Circle shows that in the absence of opportunities, there is a need for self-reliance and resourcefulness by artists. Udechukwu and the AKA Circle, therefore, serve to fill a gap in the Eastern Nigeria art history of the 1990s. A festival such as LIMCAF that engages with emerging artists cannot only look ahead.

Of course, the past holds lessons regarding the obstacles artists face and how they have historically confronted those challenges.

Now in its 19th edition, LIMCAF has proven to be the only surviving art festival in Nigeria dedicated to showcasing young talent. With so many fairs and festivals related to the arts coming and going, LIMCAF has continued to thrive.

What’s more, LIMCAF provides a platform to interact with creatives for a long time, and, fortunately, this is beginning to attract the interest of the corporate world.

Apart from Rocana, who has helped sponsor LIMCAF, along with the French Embassy and the Alliance Française, the festival has attracted the interest and solidarity of many prominent personalities of the Nigeria/Africa art world, such as Bruce Onobrakpeya, El Anatsui, Obiora Udechukwu, Ola Oloidi, Okwui Enwezor, Bisi Silva, and Kolade Oshinowo.

Anatsui, for one, funds the annual all-expenses-paid trips to the Dakar Art Biennale for the festival’s top six winners. Others who have supported LIMCAF in the past include Jerry Buhari, curator of the grand finale exhibition; Kunle Filani; Sani Mu’azu; Peju Layiwola; Joe Musa; Frank Ugiomoh; Sam Ovraiti; Blaise Gundu Gbaden; Chijioke Onuora; the late Nsikak Essien; Tonie Okpe, and some international consultants.

The activities related to the competition and exhibition stretch beyond the biennial festival.

The Nigerian non-profit organisation, The Life in My City Art Foundation spearheading the initiative, has conducted art workshops for children, youth and persons living with disabilities.

There are attractive monetary category prizes. The Elder K. U. Kalu Grand Prize of ₦2,000,000 is awarded to the Young Artist of the Year. Other category prizes are the ₦1,000,000 Capt. Everest Odengene Nnaji Prize for Painting, and the ₦500,000 Tayo Adenaike Prize for Watercolour.

Some of the components that have ensured the festival’s longevity include the goodwill of a diverse range of supporters including cultural institutions, businesses, art foundations and private donors. These include the Alliance Française network, the Institut Français, the French Embassy, Clam Lab in Paris, the Honeywell Group, FBN Holdings, the Pan African Circle of Artists, Enugu State Council for Arts and Culture, Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, Thought Pyramid Art Center, Abuja, and many others.

Special donations and prize endowments have come from the Justice Anthony Aniagolu family, Vin Martin Ilo, Mfon Usoro, the Pius Okigbo family, Art Is Everywhere, and Professor El Anatsui and Engr. Gesi Asamaowei, among others.

The growing number of participants from across Nigeria, and the progress made by past winners, shows how LIMCAF has developed over the years. However, it makes us consider the following. An initiative that has proven its worth, over nearly two decades, should be able to gain sustained support to continue identifying and fostering young artists.

Next year’s 20th edition of LIMCAF will definitely be an event to celebrate the journey made since the early years at Rocana Nigeria Limited. The finale, on October 31, will provide yet another platform to showcase young artists, while the presence of Asika and Usoro will bring together individuals from various spheres of the society.

However, the true test of success will be whether they are able to sustain the support for young artists for many more years to come.