Scholarship in the Arts 

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Forward:

This book is a multi-disciplinary publication with rich documentation(s) emanating from well researched scholarly essays from within and outside Nigeria. The authors’ essays with visuals will be appreciated nationally and internationally, with its rich content, complimenting illustrations and showcasing scholarship in the Arts. These have covered the Visual Arts and liberal Arts.

In thirteen (13) chapters, considering the background of the authors, this book has a rich harvest of a compendium of knowledge discussing “Scholarship in the Arts”, drawn from a wide pool of the Humanities globally. It is therefore a clear and encouraging fact that scholarship in the Arts is creating a thought provoking awareness. This is sure a book with an insight for the present day synergy between the visual and liberal Arts. 

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Author:

Antonia Okogwu, Ph.D.

Amina Ayodeji-Ogudiran, Ph. D. Scholar

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Editors:

Prof. Best Achigbo

Prof. Chinedu Chukueggu

Prof. Nelson Edewor

Prof. Bridget Nwanze

Dr. Ndubuisi Ezeluonba

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Editor’s Note Twelve Scholars and Thirteen Essays on Scholarship in the Arts

          Often times one sets out on a journey without a clear picture of the destination, in other words it is an exploratory journey.  Scholarship in the Arts could be likened to this kind of journey. As the entries came, I realized that one can confidently divide the essays into categories. This volume of work is structured into four categories, Art applied to life, Art and Waste studies, Art and Design and lastly Art and Niger Delta Studies. Within this scholarship in the Arts and the four structures, the first section that dealt with art applied to life parades essays such as Art and narration: understand the role of narrator of a narrative research authored by Amina Ayodeji-Ogundiran while Piwura Christopher approached art through psychology and Huang Changbin took entirely a different level by introducing himself in hanzi which is   Chinese character writing. Obineche rounded this section with the substance and the structure of the New Testament part of the Bible.

 

          Narration and Storytelling is not the concern of  Piwuna Christopher Godson as a medical doctor. He engaged art through Psychiatry a rare area of therapy as art is being applied to life. Huang Changbin ‘laoshi’ introduced another dimension to art applied to living by introducing himself in hanzi the character in Chinese language and I can proudly say to him “xie xie nin laoshi” which means thank you my teacher for this introduction in a world that is not English or African. The new world that the world can no longer ignore. Obineche John engaged the religious aspect of life which concerns The New Testament Substance and Structural Properties of the Bible pointing out the religiosity of the African. Okogwu Antonia and Emafidon Evans engaged the quantum waste in the environment and its configuration in Art. Wastes of flip-flops, metals and fabrics were properly harnessed in Art pointing to the fact that there is more to waste than see it as menace. Nature and History will be kind to both for their sensitivity to the Eco- system of our environment which is a burning issue in a contemporaneous society that is gabbling with industrial waste in the environment.

 

          Art and Design area of Scholarship in the Arts is dominated by Okoli, Umoh, Onyemachi and Arafiena. Okoli and Umoh explained the fundamentals of Ceramics and Raku firing as engaged in tourism in Nigeria, Onyemechi head-on engaged the gains and challenges in Graphic Design in Nigeria while Daphine Arafiena wrote reports on her engagement in skill acquisition in Asaba Indigenes and Diaspora Initiative (AHDDI).

 

          Ajiginni’s essay is on dressing culture in the Niger Delta, in the Niger Delta the dress culture is very loud and large right from Ondo to Port Harcourt and Calabar, Akwa Ibom and other areas. Hopefully one will not only have Chinese characters from China, soon we will have Urhobo Ibiebe as Onekpe delved into Onobrakpeya’s Ideographs.

 

          Be it in Art applied to living or studies in waste or the design elements in Art to the Niger Delta Art, “Scholarship in the Art” has immensely contributed to the body of knowledge in the Arts. It couldn’t have come at a better time than now where there is scarcity of books on Arts in Nigeria

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Okogwu Antonia PhD.