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An ambitious school for the arts and design has been established in Lagos with a mission to improve the level of art appreciation, Ayodeji Rotinwa reports
Located on Raymond Njoku Street, South-West Ikoyi, is a nondescript
white building called the White Space, which is curiously decorated with
bamboo seats, seemingly growing out of the ground in the veranda,
suggesting an attempt to transplant the tropics to stone-cold
industrialisation.
The institution was birthed by way of perquisition. After having plied
the somewhat customary route of acceding to parents’ career wishes,
studying and working as an accountant for four unfulfilling years,
founder, Adenrele Sonariwo decided that her love for the arts could no
longer be kept at bay. Invigorated by this newly-earthed conviction,
while in the U.S.A. (where she had been living and working) she
commenced an exhaustive search for schools of reputable, world-class
standards in Nigeria, where she could study in-depth, the arts and hone
her passions.
Months after, she came up short. There wasn’t a single establishment
across the length and breadth of Nigeria of high standing, wholly
committed to imparting education in the arts. This revelation jolted
Sonariwo into undertaking a venture she had never previously considered
nor fathomed. Thus Modern Day School of Arts was born.
Modern Day School of Arts, according to its autobiography online, is a
“training institution dedicated to providing high-quality professional
education to its trainees.’’ Education within its walls, “aims to
liberate creativity, exploration and expansion of talents.” Divided into
two sub-schools: School of Performance Arts and School of Creative
Arts, training is offered at a basic, beginner level of difficulty, in
six fields, namely: Creative Writing, Photography, Fashion Design,
Visual Arts, Multi-Platform Communications, Web Design and Development;
and is largely aimed at freshly-minted secondary school graduates in a
bid to “catch them young”, harness their gifts and talents in their
formative years, so they may be better finished products in the future.
The school also boasts of a painstakingly-designed curriculum that
mirrors what obtains on the international landscape, keeping in line
with world-best practices and standards and is flexible enough to keep
in touch, at all times, as a matter of policy almost, with technological
advancements.
Admirable, though the institution’s mandate may seem, it did not
receive fair, commensurate support or reception in its early days and
still struggles with some niggling challenges at present. ‘’The
perception of the arts currently in the country is not encouraging. A
lot of people are yet to realise that one can make a decent living
solely off the arts. The employment opportunities are endless if you
have focus and position yourself accordingly,’’ Sonariwo stated.
She also pointed out that the school suffers the early problems of most
start-up ventures- finance. ‘’I don’t know that people trust it so much
to invest in it. People are yet to build trust in such a unique
establishment and spend sizeable sums on education and training in
fields such as creative writing, fashion design.’’ The school’s
shortcomings don’t stop there. All its activities take place in the
rented quarters of White Space, which is a really a chameleon-like
facility, with rooms of requirement, that can be turned into anything
the user wishes, in this case, classrooms.
However, it is not adequate. The makeshift chairs used, for instance,
are something of an inconvenience, making steely concentration needed,
while in class, difficult. (This interview took place on one of these
and this reporter found sitting up straight a herculean task.
Alternative sitting positions resulted in moderately sharp back pains)
Any plans for a permanent site? That could be a reality in another five
years.
This is not to say there are no silver linings. The school has, as core
of its faculty, an impressive line-up of seasoned, accomplished,
well-renowned, industry experts, artists and professionals such as
Omoyemi Akerele, Don Barber, Kelechi Amadi-Obi, and Ituen Basi who are
highly regarded and respected in their various fields. They have so far
set a very high bar in their lessons, so high that Sonariwo herself was
and remains stunned at their supersonic progress. The school also offers
its students employment, publicity opportunities that would most
likely, not be available anywhere else. It periodically holds
exhibitions, open to the general public, for its students, is affiliated
with several bodies with regard to internship provisions and has set
about, aggressively, aligning itself with the Corporate Social
Responsibility programs of a host of blue-chip companies. It also hopes
to provide grants to students who may not be able to honour its
(probably) steep financial requirements.
These offerings, however, will not be available to all, come September,
of this year. That is when the school kicks off its two-semester
session, full-fledged programme. Then, Sonariwo stated emphatically,
only the exceptionally talented who must have scaled a rigorous
admission process will have access to these opportunities. ‘’One needs
to be able to place value on things. In Nigeria, people don’t appreciate
anything that comes cheaply. We need to be able to see not only the
talent but the desire to put in the work required because it is never
easy to be the best at what you do.’’
All things considered, Sonariwo projects a bright future for the school
and is fiercely optimistic about it. ‘’I expect, over time, that Modern
Day School of Arts will be a beacon of excellence, produce the very
best when it comes to the arts and design and will be heavily involved
the improvement of Nigeria’s creative economy.’’
Her sentiments are shared by a number of highly-placed stakeholders in
the arts industry but only time will tell if the school will stay the
course…
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