LAMENTATION OF AN ARTS MANAGER

To be Arts Manager of substance, one needs to be subtle, gentle and persistent, these are the good qualities and on the other hand, brutality is a virtual which needs to be applied as at when due. Because if you do not apply it, your image or personality may be rubbish and the project you are trying to safeguard may be a thing of the past through the name of being a partisan manager. Arts Manager needs to be tactful too to be a successful one. 

As an Arts Manager, I created Poetry Potter in 2005 and it commenced in January 2006. It’s been a monthly platform since then for both young and old artistes and arts enthusiasts, to express and enjoy themselves. It’s fun being around at every edition of the project.  

This project at least runs close to seven times in a year and at times more than that. But for the first time since the inception of the project, I am confronted with the reality of funding.

Well, one will ask: where were the funds you’ve been using from inception come from? And it will be interesting to know that I solely funded the project with my money throughout 2006. I was able to gain people’s confidence in the project and they started contributing monetarily to the progress and continuation of the project since 2007. However, my personally financially contribution towards the production monthly is more than what I get from my sponsors so to say. This reflects in the organisation’s annual financial report every year since 2006.

For the fact that January is a significant month in the history of the project, I managed to produce the last month edition (33rd edition) of the project, against all odds. And I immediately started advertising the February edition afterwards to make it a memorable one. But as the day close by, I realized that there is no fund available to produce the show and so, I announced to the fans and fellows of both the project and organization that this month’s edition is dicey. And so I was given the go ahead to conceal the event.

Here was the message I sent in cancellation of the programme:

It's with great regret we announce to our wonderful fans and friends of the family that the much advertised and talked about Love Edition of POETRY POTTER will not hold for a common reason which is 'LOGISTICS.'

Please bear with us. We promise to bring this event back on track soon and big (even bigger).

We are indeed sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks for being there for us.

Thanks for your understanding. 

Tears flew through my heart while I was writing the above text because I felt pierced with a spear through my heart as I typed each one word which summed up the statement of cancellation. It’s indeed sad to want to produce a show and there is no fund available. I look forward to the day I will my first grant to produce a project.    

OUR COLLABORATORS

In the meantime, I will like to thank our collaborators since the commencement of operation of Kowry Kreations Media in 2006 till date.

  

Committee for Relevant Art is a group of artistes, art enthusiasts, art promoters and art writers committed to the development of the Arts of Nigeria and their enabling environment. 

The Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) came to life on June 2, 1991. It's a culture activist organisation with the agenda to facilitate creation of an enabling environment for the flourishing of the contemporary arts of Nigeria, in the forms of Literature, Theatre, Fine Art, Movie, TV Programme Design and Production as well as Music. In these past 17 years, CORA has been at the forefront of championing the major issues that have shaped – directly or otherwise – the cultural landscape of Nigeria. The members operate as a body of facilitators of the sharing of ideas through the creation of the sort of interactions that lead to the birth of ideas or sharpening of existing ideas. Some of the most forward looking initiatives in the Nigerian culture environment came out of CORA-organized fora. CORA has carried on this intermediation role through the vehicle of its various programmes, projects and activities.

CORA According to Prince Claus Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) is a unique Nigerian organisation that creates spaces to engage the public in debate on cultural issues. Started in 1991 as a non-profit, non-governmental activist organisation, CORA’s aim is to explore all legitimate means to create an environment for the flourishing of contemporary culture in Nigeria, in particular to make the arts a lively, social and enjoyable experience for all people especially the young generations and to create a culture-friendly society.

Revolution Media, one of Nigeria's most dynamic media companies, the company’s focus has always been about youth empowerment with initiatives that are no different. The specialty of this company is to help young entrepreneurial to take their financial destinies in their own hands. This in view that in many other countries around the world, visual design and communication is almost the exclusive preserve of young people.

Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos (CCA,Lagos) is an independent non-profit making visual art organisation set up in December 2007 to provide a platform for the development, presentation, and discussion of contemporary visual art and culture.

CCA, Lagos will prioritise new media and experimental visual art practice such as photography, animation, film and video, performance art, and installation art, which have been under-presented in contemporary Nigerian artistic practice.

It will present a diverse programme of exhibitions, workshops, talks, seminars, performances and film screenings. CCA, Lagos will focus on Nigeria and the West African Region in addition to collaborating with other African and international organisations, artists and curators.

CCA, Lagos consists of an art space and a visual art library. 

ANA LAGOS

There was creative writing being before in Africa before the emergence of a Nigerian literature. It was with the rise of the Nigeria-Cyprian Ekwensi, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, J.P Clark Christopher Okigbo, Mabel Segun, T.M Aluko, Flora Nwapa, Gabriel Okara, and Elechi Amadi-the African literature came into its own as a categorical enterprise for the rest of the world to appreciate. It was not a fluke. 

Nigerian creative writers have contributed to some of the most positive elements to the international image that Nigeria has acquired since independence in 1960. They have attracted grand international visibility and respect to the country through their outstanding creativity and by winning all the accessible international literary prizes: First prize at the 1962 All-Negro Festival for arts, Commonwealth Prose and Poetry prizes, BBC Drama, Poetry, Short Story and Folklore prizes, Noma award the Booker prize and the Nobel Prize.

The Lagos chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors remains the most vibrant amongst the 36 chapters, including the federal capital city, Abuja. In 2007, Kowry Kreations Media collaborated with ANA Lagos to a pay a tribute to an active member of the association and the chapter. 

GML Entertainment Company – the runner of Club O2, a club with special interest in the promotion of entertaining arts and improvement of youth in the Cultural industries, an adjunct of the Creative industries at large.  

HEV/Snap PICTURES is an emerging company with bias for the still picture and motion pictures.

 

Capricorn Tents and More, an event management company.