They always say that when success comes to you, you don’t drink the cool aid. Instead you invest in self development to remain relevant. But for artists to drive the road smoothly without bumps and contours, there’s always a toll to pay apart from knowing their onions.

“Talent is never enough! Talent is never enough!!” The bespoke motivational speaker yells at the young audience who dream big in the big cities at a recent motivational speaking event. Another speaker, a delectable lady in a spectacular fashion focuses on the girls and ladies; “if you really want to make it big, then you should be ready to deal with it. You can’t prepare to be a sisi and expect success. Endless hours of make up won’t launch you into million dollar machine.”

Veteran artist, sculptor and lovable teacher, Olu Amoda gave an insight few years ago about the changes in the art and art business. He echoes “when I wanted to have my solo exhibition in 1984, I was timid to get close to the National Museum at Onikan to book for a space. I wasn’t just confident enough to try it. But my fresh students today are already running group and solo exhibitions while still trying to honour their compulsory service year. Everything has changed. Globalisation is sincerely playing a big role in art business and funding”, Olu Amoda affirms.

Space
From the past theories, artists, curators and art managers used to break the rocks for access to harness space for art exhibitions. But today, there are virtual spaces such as Art 635 provided by GTBank. Also, the Internet and social media revolution have raised the standard and connecting a lot of artists to free space.

Investment

Funding art business is going through a renaissance phase just like the similar experiences we have had with the Nigerian music industry and Nollywood. There are investors and pitches are being won. There are open calls for art scholarship that were hitherto lacking in the past. Prince Claus fund is still very much on. Grants are available but artists must invest in networking.

Contemporary art centres are bringing necessary funding into visual art though with meticulous approach. There’s a clear cut approach of assessing such grants. Center for Contemporary Art, Nlele Institute, African Artists’ Foundation, PhotoGarage have joined Bruce Onobrakpeya Foundation, and cultural agencies such as the British Council, Goethe Institut and to Alliance Francaise to channel quality pathway for artists and open access to funding.

We won’t continue to live in denial, and the reasons we have to appreciate the input of some of the corporate world and their artmospere influence on contemporary art. Art business is a bankable business. Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) Nigerian Breweries Limited and Access Bank have given tremendous support to art funding through support grants for school competitions, investing in Biennial festivals such as LagosPhoto and Art-X.

GTBank stepped up more by founding Art 635, a virtual art space for artists to put their works for sale and networking. Such support systems are huge and encouraging to project the industry. While Access Bank inspired the Accelerate Project to give new auteurs a strong foundation to excel.

P

atronage, Networking and Alliance

The Unseen Artman is no more a topic to nag about anymore since the introduction of the digital space for growth is enormous. A lot of artists now invest in their social media platforms to create followers and buyers for their works. The beautiful news is some of the artists are now social influencers, because of the easy access they now have from a collector and the buyer’s relationship and inability to connect their creations with social issues.

Space and time should be consumed for budding talents to harness their potentialities in the art business. And as they say, hardwork pays. But always remember that there is art and there’s art business.
Talent is never enough!

Words/Ireho Aito /photographs /Ben Enwonwu Foundation