By JOAN ODAFE

The National Gallery of Art (NGA) has embarked on strategic reforms, including the restoration, archiving, cataloguing and digitisation of the National Art Collection.

The Director-General of NGA, Mr Ahmed Sodangi, at a news conference on Monday in Lagos, said it was aimed at enhancing access to and preserve Nigeria?s artistic heritage.

Sodangi said the reforms, which were based on four focus pillars, included reviewing its enabling Act, and implementing internal reforms, such as rebranding the National Gallery.

Others are: driving the National Art Renaissance Programme to catalogue and digitally achieve artworks valued at billions of Naira.

The director-general noted that as custodians of the National Collection, members of staff of NGA would require continuous training to be abreast of global best practices.

?The Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism, and the Creative Economy is more or less a new ministry but the creative industry and creative economy has been blossoming.

?It has had so much success, with very little interaction with the government.

?So as government, we have to look at ourselves, and see how we can come up and not take control.

?But see how we can partner with the private sector, and the creatives that have built this undeniable industry to where it is today,? he said.

Sodangi noted that the National Collection was in storage in different states across Nigeria due to the lack of a national gallery.

?These artworks are meant to be displayed, and are meant to be seen by the general public.

?To give spotlight to the National Collection, we?ve looked at the number of artworks we have, and the works that need serious and urgent attention, and what to do.

?And the only way we do that is to catalogue, have a digital database of the National Collection; that will be a starting point of what we hope to achieve,? he said.

He said the process of the ongoing National Art Renaissance would ensure cataloging, restoration, and valuation of the National Collection.

According to Sodangi, through collaborations with the Goethe-Institut Nigeria and the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), the artworks are currently being assessed, digitally documented, and conservation work carried out in them.

The Director, Goethe-Institut Nigeria, Dr Nadine Siegert, said there were hundreds of masterpieces in the collection the world needed to see.

Siegert expressed happiness in the smoothness of the collaboration and the progress the project was making.

?I think we have already inventoried about 900 or so works.

?We have photographed about, I think, 400 works,? she said.

Siegert disclosed that two artworks, would be professionally restored, and ready to be showcased both locally and globally in July.

Also, the Associate Conservator of MOWAA, Yetunde Odediran, said the museum?s main focus was to ensure that the artworks were stabilised and brought to a level where they are able to be exhibited and displayed.

Odediran also said MOWAA would carry out trainings to ensure that the staff of the gallery had the skills of handling artworks without damage, particularly when moving them from one point to another.

So, we share that knowledge, making sure that they have the right tools, the appropriate procedures, so that they?re able to carry out the project successfully,? she said. (NAN)

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