Int'l Sculpture Day 2020: Lagos, Zaria Artists celebrate virtually

A sculpture tittled Eclipse (wood,121.5cm x 152cm, 2020), by Iyke Okenyi.

Over 25 sculptors in Nigeria beat the lockdown in Lagos and Kaduna States to celebrate International Sculpture Day 2020. Held across the world on every last Saturday of April, the International Sculpture Day was first celebrated in 2015.
As early as February, a Lagos-based professional group of artists, Sculptors Association of Nigeria (ScAN) announced its programmes for the year, which included conference and art exhibition. While the conference was held before the lockdown, the exhibition, titled Now Sculpture, scheduled to hold in April at National Museum, Onikan, Lagos has been postponed. The artists, had clarified that the online exhibition will not feature works previously submitted for the postponed and main national show."The creative spirit of man operates beyond the realm of physical (3d) dimensions of human space; and so cannot be subject to physical restriction of a pandemic lockdown," stated Secretary Genreal of ScAN,  Dr. Shola Kukoyi. "Though ScAN members are in full compliance with government directive of lockdown, we have not relented in practice." He assured that ScAN members' "creative spirit has continued unabated, in fact; with a renewed vigor.  "TitledSculpture: Beyond Lockdown, the virtual exhibition, which featured recent and old works of members, according to the group, "remains opened online till ceasation of the lockdown."For art lecturers of Ahmadu Bello University in  (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna State,  the International Sculpture Day 2020 was marked in symbolic online display. "The International Sculpture Day, an initiative of the International Sculpture Center, held at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria in a virtual form with the Sculpture Lecturers posting e-posters to create awareness around the immediate community," stated Prof Tonie Okpe.

Listed among participants are Prof Okpe, Dr. Ken Okoli, Dr. Muyideen Adio Jaji, Dr. Wesley Emmanuel Okachi,  Dr. Lamidi Lasisi and Dr. Kevin Damden.

Earlier, on April 15, artists from few countries celebrated World Art Day, which first emerged in 2012. And for the first time, UNESCO got involved with the 2020 celebration. From 2-4 p.m, a virtual event themed ResiliArt, which featured debate over the challenges faced by artists was launched by UNESCO. Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General who launched ResiliArt stated: "Our Organization would thus like to pay tribute to the solidarity shown by artists and institutions at a time when art is suffering the full force of the effects of a global health, economic and social crisis."

Unlike the World Art Day, which, for the first time last year got the recognition of UNESCO, the International Sculpture Day is yet to be so listed among the global cultural body's events. The first International Sculpture Day was celebrated in many countries across the world, including Germany, U.S, England, China, Australia, Spain and Mexico. The next year, according to records had 20 nations held different events to celebrate the International Sculpture Day. Nigeria, Australia, Denmark, Poland, Canada, France, Burkina, among others were listed among countries that celebrated the second edition.

Among the diverse events were artists talks, open studios, demonstrations, competition, workshops, public art tours, open museums, brown bag lunches, sculpture scavenger hunts, book signings, foundry pours and pop up exhibitions.

Baltimore Museum of Arts to provide financial reliefs to local Artists and Businesses

Baltimore Museum of Art

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) is launching three new initiatives that will provide immediate relief to Baltimore’s artistic community amid the coronavirus pandemic. “As part of our mission of civic engagement, we felt it was incumbent upon us to develop new opportunities to support the cultural fabric of our community,” said director Christopher Bedford. “Our new initiatives build on ideas core to us as an institution from connecting audiences with exciting, thought-provoking works of art to championing artistic experimentation and positioning creative production as central to social change.”

The initiatives—BMA Salon, BMA Screening Room, and BMA Studio—aim to provide direct support to artists, businesses, and familes across the city. For Salon the museum will invite twenty galleries, including As They Lay, Catalyst Contemporary, ICA Baltimore, and Galerie Myrtis, to present shows on its digital platform—each participant will be given a $2,500 stipend and will be allowed to keep all proceeds from the sales. For Screening Room, fifty artists will receive a small licensing fee, ranging from $500 to $750, to display video works on the museum’s website. Among the artists chosen for the initiative are Rahne Alexander, Erick Antonio Benitez, Markele Cullins, Tanya Garcia, Nia Hampton, Chung-Wei Huang, Meredith Moore, Clifford Owens, and Lendl Tellington. For Studio, museum employees will create at least 1,400 ready-to-go artmaking kits to be distributed by the Greenmount West Community Center staff to the Maryland Food Bank, World Central Kitchen, and families in the neighborhood. Conceived as an at-home extension of the BMA’s Free Family Sundays program, the initiative intends to address disparities in digital access.

The new programs were made possible through funds from the Suzanne F. Cohen and the Cohen Opportunity Fund, which were originally earmarked for “The Necessity of Tomorrow(s),” a series of talks on social justice and art that was put on hold because of Covid-19—the series’s next event was rescheduled for October. Cohen, who passed away in 2018, was a longtime museum trustee who served as board chair from 2003 to 2006. During her four decades of involvement with the BMA, Cohen supported dozens of exhibitions and advocated for free general admission and transportation services for Baltimore City students to visit the museum.  

“Sue’s forward-thinking approach and commitment to the arts and civic responsibility propelled the BMA’s own dedication to exploring and implementing new ways of serving our community,” said Bedford. “The expansion and evolution of ‘The Necessity of Tomorrow(s)’ in many ways continues her work in eroding the boundaries between these universes, by helping to ensure that artists have the means to play active roles in shaping our collective future.” 

Rescheduled Art events because of COVID-19

Since its emergence in Wuhan, China, last December, the novel coronavirus Covid-19 has upended numerous cities and countries across the globe. Among the various sectors that have been heavily affected is the art world—an industry fueled by perpetual itinerancy as well as social gatherings of mass scale and close proximity. As the public health crisis escalates, arts organizations have shut down events, have announced postponements, or are carefully trying to trudge forward. Here is a continually refreshed list of major events and institutions that have made such decisions due to the virus as well as a list of resources for artists and arts institutions impacted by the pandemic:

RESCHEDULED EVENTS

Venice Art and Architecture Biennales: The opening of the seventeenth edition of the architecture biennial has been pushed back to 2021. It will now take place from May 22 to November 21, 2021. The art biennial will be held from April 23 to November 27, 2022.

Expo Chicago: The annual art fair, originally to take place this September, will be postponed to April 2021.

Sydney Contemporary: The fifth edition, which was originally scheduled for September 10 to September 13, 2020, will now take place in September 2021. 

La Paris Biennale: The thirty-second edition of the fair will return in September 2021. 

Gwangju Biennale: The thirteenth edition, titled “Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning,” will now be held from February 26 to May 9, 2021.

Biennale de Lyon: Scheduled for 2021, the exhibition has announced it will push its sixteenth edition back to September 2022.

Asia Society Museum Triennial: The inaugural event is now slated to open October 27, 2020 and run through June 27, 2021.

Biennale of Casablanca: The fifth edition has been moved to 2021 and will run from May 24 through August 1, 2021. 

Prospect New Orleans:“Prospect.5: Yesterday We Said Tomorrow,” will now open October 23, 2021 and remain on view until January 23, 2022.

Folkestone Triennial 2020: “The Plot” has announced it will now run from September 2021 to November 2021.

Berlin Biennale: The eleventh edition was expected to open June 13, its new dates have yet to be determined. 

Art Brussels: Originally scheduled for June 2020, the fair will now take place from April 22 to April 25, 2021.

Front International: Originally scheduled for 2021, the triennial will now be held from July 16, 2022 to October 2, 2022. 

Helsinki Biennial: Originally scheduled to take place from June 12–September 27, the exhibition has been pushed back to 2021. 

June Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland: The 2020 edition will run from September 14–September 20. 

Liste Art Fair Basel, Switzerland: The event will be held from September 14–September 20, coinciding with Art Basel.

Art Basel, Switzerland: Organizers have moved the fair from June to September. It will now take place from September 17 to September 20, with preview days on September 15 and September 16.

Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil: The event has been pushed back one month and will reschedule all programming that would have led up to the fair; it will now kick off on October 3.

The Other Art Fair, London, Sydney, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Dallas, Melbourne, Chicago: The fair postponed all of its 2020 spring editions. 

Made in LA 2020: a version:Originally slated to open at the Hammer Museum and the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens on June 7, the biennial will now run from July 19 through January 3, 2021.

Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA2):Originally scheduled for May 16–October 11, the exhibition has been postponed. 

Biennale de Sydney: The twenty-second edition of the exhibition, which opened on March 14, has closed. Organizers are teaming up with Google to launch a virtual edition of the biennial for the public, which will remain live until the physical exhibition is able to reopen. 

Manifesta 13, Marseille: The biennial, which was set to open on June 7, will now run from August 28 to November 29. While Manifesta’s project space at Tiers QG at 57 rue Bernard du Bois will reopen June 12, for now its second space—Espace Manifesta 13 at 42 La Canebière—remains closed.

TEFAF New York: Originally scheduled for May 8–11, the fair will now take place October 31–November 4, with a preview day on October 30.

Cannes Film Festival, France:Originally scheduled for May 12–May 23, the festival will announce new dates in the coming weeks. 

sonsbeek 20→24, Arnhem, the Netherlands: Originally scheduled for June 5–September 13, the twelfth edition of sonsbeek will now be held in 2021. 

1-54 New York: Originally scheduled for May 8–10, the fair will now take place in 2021.

Photo London: Originally scheduled for May 14–17, the fair will be held in the fall. 

Object & Thing, New York: Originally scheduled for May 7–10, the fair has been moved to November 13–15.

MIA Photo Fair, Milan: Originally scheduled for March 19–22, the fair will now be held September 10–September 13.

Art on theMART, Chicago: The fair’s spring launch has been postponed.

Glasgow International: Originally scheduled for April 24–May 10. The visual arts festival will be restaged in 2021.

NYCxDESIGN: The May festival will instead present programming in October. 

Sotheby’s: The auction house has closed its auction houses in Dubai, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Milan, New York, Paris, and Zurich until further notice and has announced changes in its spring sales schedule. 

The Met Gala: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has indefinitely postponed its biggest annual fundraiser. The event, which is one of New York’s biggest annual fashion events, was supposed to take place on May 4.

Christie’s, New York and Europe: The auction house has postponed sales scheduled for March and April. New dates have yet to be determined.

Phillips: The auction house has postponed all of its sales and events globally until May. 

Art Brussels: Originally scheduled for April 23–April 26, the fair was originally pushed back to June 25–June 28, 2020, but has now been cancelled. Next year’s edition will run from April 22–April 25, 2021.

SP–Arte, São Paulo: Originally scheduled for April 1–April 5. New dates have yet to be announced.

Affordable Art Fair, Brussels:Originally scheduled for March 20–March 22. Rescheduled for September 11–September 13.

Affordable Art Fair, New York:Originally scheduled for March 26–March 29. Rescheduled for September 24–September 27. 

Eye of the Collector, London:Originally scheduled for May 13–May 16. The inaugural fair will be staged September 8–September 11.

Dallas Art Fair: Originally scheduled for April 16–April 19. The fair has been moved to October 1–October 4.

ART COLOGNE: Originally scheduled for April 23–April 26. The fair will now be held November 19–November 22.

Paris Photo New York: Originally scheduled for April 2–April 5. New dates to be announced.

Sharjah Art Foundation’s 2020 March Meeting, UAE: Originally scheduled for March 21–March 23. The event will be postponed until further notice.

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, California: Originally scheduled for April 10–April 12 and April 17–April 19. The festival will now take place October 9–October 11 and October 16–October 18.

DRAWING NOW Art Fair, Paris: Originally scheduled for March 26–March 29. The fair has been moved to May 29 through June 1.

Berlin Gallery Weekend: Organizers have downsized the event, which is scheduled for May 1–May 3, and have moved large-scale programming to September 11–September 13, coinciding with Berlin Art Week.

The Photography Show and the Video Show, Birmingham, UK: Originally scheduled for March 14–March 17. The event will now be held September 19–September 22.

MiArt, Milan: Originally scheduled for April 17–April 19. The fair will now take place September 11–September 13, with a VIP preview day on September 10.

Málaga Film Festival: Originally scheduled for March 13–March 22. The twenty-third edition of the festival has yet to announce new dates.

Art Paris: Originally scheduled for April 2–April 5. This year’s edition, originally moved to May 28–May 31, is now cancelled, and the new dates are April 7–April 11, 2021. A digital edition of the fair will open May 28, 2020. 

Art Dubai: Originally scheduled for March 25–March 28. New dates to be announced.

Lille Art Up!, France: Originally scheduled for March 5–March 8. It will now take place June 25–June 28.

Salon del Mobile, Milan: Originally scheduled for April 21–April 26. The exhibition has been moved to June 16–June 21.

Gallery Weekend Beijing: Originally scheduled to take place from March 13–March 20, the event was rescheduled for the end of May. After VIP Days from May 22 to May 24, the event will be open to the public from May 26 to May 31.

Design Shanghai Fair: Originally scheduled for March 12–March 15. The fair will now be held May 26–May 29.

CAFAM Techne Triennial, Beijing: Originally supposed to begin on January 18, the inaugural edition has been suspended.

CANCELED EVENTS

Seattle Art Fair: Originally scheduled for July 23–July 26.

Rencontres d’Arles, France:Originally scheduled for June 29 to September 20.

Art Paris: Originally scheduled for April 2–5.

NADA Chicago: Originally scheduled for September 24–27.

American Ballet Theater, New York:The company has canceled its upcoming season at the Metropolitan Opera House. 

1-54 New York: Originally scheduled for May 8–10.

Masterpiece London: Originally scheduled for June 24–July 1.

Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Edinburgh Art Festival, and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo: All five of the Scottish city’s August festivals have been canceled. 

Metropolitan Opera House, New York: The theater has canceled the rest of its 2020 season. 

Frieze New York: The fair has canceled its ninth edition, which was originally scheduled for May 6–10. The satellite event Frieze Sculpture at Rockefeller Center will still be held, but will be moved to the summer.

Park Avenue Armory, New York: All performances of Deep Blue Sea, originally scheduled to run April 14–25, have been canceled. 

Cleveland International Film Festival: Originally scheduled for March 25–April 5. The event will be back next year.

Brooklyn Academy of Live Music, New York: All live programming has been suspended through March 29.

Lincoln Center, New York: All programming has been suspended for the month of March. 

LA Art Book Fair: Originally scheduled for April 3–April 5.

TEFAF Maastricht, the Netherlands: Originally scheduled for March 7–March 15. The fair opened as planned but called off the event on March 11 after an exhibitor tested positive for the virus.

South by Southwest, Austin, Texas: The thirty-fourth annual festival was originally scheduled for March 13–March 22.

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC: All events have been canceled through the end of March.

Yale Architecture: The school announced on March 11 that it is suspending all events and programming through at least April 5.

London Book Fair: Originally scheduled for March 10–March 12.

Salon du Livre Paris 2020: Originally scheduled for March 20–March 23.

Tucson Festival of Books, Arizona: Originally scheduled for March 14–March 15. 

Jingart, Beijing: Originally scheduled for May 21–May 24.

Art Central Hong Kong: Originally scheduled for March 18–March 22.

Art Basel Hong Kong: Originally scheduled for March 19–March 21.

FotoFocus Biennial: Originally scheduled for October 2020, the next FotoFocus will take place in October 2022.

"I am ready to participate in LIMCAF 2020" _ Onwe Kingsley Ndubuisi

Onwe Kingsley Ndubuisi

The organizers of the annual Life in my city Art Festival has again rolled out drum for this year's edition of the festival tagged "Vision 2020: So far so what". Already entries for the art exhibition has already been concluded amidst the Corona pandemic ravaging the world. However, artist Onwe Kingsley Ndubuisi is not relenting in participating in this year's edition of the festival. The Enugu-born artist participated in the 2019 edition, albeit his works did not make it into the Grand Finale stage. This year, he is targeting to make it into the Grand Finale as he planned to exhibit two works titled 'A long way to go' and 'It still abound' respectively. The former is a Mixed media art while the later is a Mixed media painting.

The theme for this year’s competition, Vision 2020: So far, So what? is a metaphor for a projected dream, and subsequent hopes and impediments that characterize the social, economic and political conditions of lived environment over time.
The theme is not just silent probing of yesteryear's but also an exploration of the divergence between dream and reality, and between illusion and realism.
Artists will be required to visually interrogate the specific theme – Vision 2020:So far, So What? using any artistic medium, technique(s) and quality finish. 

Do you know you can visit British Museum from your Home?

Brass head of an Ooni (king) of Ife, Nigeria 1300s – early 1400s, currently on display inside the British Museum. Pic: c/o The British Museum.

In the growing virtual age of visual culture, museum-visit to view over two million years of human history is possible. Such viewing has been made easy by The British Museum, which is one of the oldest facilities in the business of documenting history.

Your visit starts from what has been described as Virtual Museum tours using Google Street View. Rated as the world’s largest indoor space on Google Street View, The British Museum offers virtual visit to more than 60 galleries.

"See highlights like the Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery or discover gems like the beautiful textiles in the Sainsbury African Galleries," said the museum management in a statement. "Whether it's a virtual visit or a curator's corner, there are plenty of ways to keep exploring the British Museum while we're closed."

A brass head of an Ooni of Ife, (circa)1300s-early 1400s is listed among the five favourites of visitors to The British Museum.
The provenance says the object is a modelled brass head of man wearing an elegant headdress, once painted bright red.
It should be recalled that the work was among a number of brass heads found at a construction site in Ife, in the 1930s. "This one was bought by the editor of the Nigerian Daily Times, who took it to Britain; the rest remained in Nigeria (with copies now in the British Museum)," a statement attached to the piece stressed parts of the provenance already known."It goes without saying that these extraordinary works of art must have played an important part in Ife culture."

Perhaps one of the most controversial cultural objects in history, the Ife brass had critics of the west dismissed the fact that it was created by Africans. "So reluctant were they to believe that the people of Ife, 600 years ago, were ‘capable’ of making something of this quality, that they invented all kinds of tall tales (like they had with the ‘Benin Bronzes’) about them being made by Europeans," British Museum noted. "This head, in other words, has been a powerful challenge to common assumptions about cultural hierarchy, pulling the wool from the eyes of Western complacency about its own ‘artistic superiority’."


Other artefacts listed among favourites include three corners loaf of bread, Egypt, 2000 BC; Michelangelo's Adam, circa 1511; bronze Head of the Roman Emperor Augustus, The Meroe Head, 27-25 BC; and a badge depicting Mary Anning, dated 1995.
The virtual visit include going behind the scenes with the Museum Podcast. The podcast generates presenters Sushma Jansari and Hugo Chapman who  take virtual visitors to also meet scientists, curators, authors and artists.

"You can explore our extensive Prints and Drawings collection to see Old Masters such as Dürer and Michelangelo or see new and exciting contemporary pieces. Dive into the incredible Oceania collection and uncover a vast array of objects from Australia, New Guinea and the many islands dotted across the South Pacific Ocean."
Established in1759, The British Museum has vast collection, most of which are acquired controversially, from across the world.

Museums set to collect Covid-19 objects, others

As the world races towards securing vaccine for the vicious coronavirus disease, some museums are also looking ahead.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture at Smithsonian, Washington D.C, is launching collection project for covid-19.The National Museum of American History and the Anacostia Community Museum are the two others in the project, disclosed Alexandra Lord, the chair of the American History Museum’s medicine and science division.

Specifically, for a start, the collection, according to Lord is taking off wiith test kits and ventilators. “But obviously those are objects we will not collect until the pandemic has really wound down. We don’t want to put pressure on supplies," WAMU in its
report quoted Lord.

Lord, according to the report helped launch the museum’s COVID-19 task force in March to put together a list of all the types of objects they want to collect.  One of her main interests is face masks, both industrial and homemade. “They tell stories,” she said.

 She noted that many people throw away objects that museums would be interested in, even during a pandemic.

Directors and Founders of African Art fairs converge for the future

Touria El Glaoui. Pic: Internet c/o Apollo magazine.

A forum for post covid-19 contemporary art in Africa holds tomorrow, Wednesday as the first of weekly series of online panel discussions. Specifically, the forum focuses on the future of contemporary African art fairs in a post Covid-19 art world.

Announced as participants are Art Fairs Founders & Directors such as Tokini Peterside, ART X Lagos; Victoria Mann, AKAA; and Mandla Sibeko, FNB Art Joburg. They will be in discussion with Touria El Glaoui, founder of 1-54 Contemporary African art.

Organnised by 1-54, the online discussion is scheduled for 13:00 NYC / 18:00 UK + Nigeria / 19:00 France + South Africa / 20:00 Kenya.
It's of note that some of the scheduled art fairs for 2020 are already threatened, canceled or postponed due to the covid-19 pandemic. The emergence of art fairs in Africa and the diaspora, focusing on the continent's creative contents, have been on the rise in the past five years.