The Art Director of Life In My City Arts Festival (LIMCAF), Ayo Adewunmi, says the grand finale of this year’s event will showcase 100 artworks of various compositions.

Mr Adewunmi said this on Tuesday at a news briefing to mark the beginning of the festival scheduled to hold between October 13 and October 29 in Enugu.

He said that the yearly event, with the theme: “Paradox of muted echoes,” has helped to promote budding art talents, and had been used to empower at least 1,500 young artists across the country.

The art director said that the exhibition “will be gorgeous, considering the quality of art entries and support received from MTN, Ford Foundation and some individuals”.

He said that the overall winner of the festival would receive half-a-million naira, while the best in painting/mixed media/drawing, sculpture/installation art and ceramics work would each get a quarter-of-a-million naira.

Other prizes include a quarter-of-a-million naira for the best in graphics/digital art, photography/video and textile art/fashion.

According to him, there are consolation prizes as well as endowment prizes from individuals and family, ranging from N200,000 to N100,000.

“LIMCAF is the biggest youth art event in Nigeria, featuring visual art competition, festival lectures, school children’s and art teacher’ workshops and multimedia workshops,” he said.

Mr Adewunmi said that for over 15 years, the festival had helped to sustain a pan-Nigeria art competition that offered young people an avenue to showcase and commercialise their productions.

“It further provides an opportunity for them to interact with the larger art communities, nationally and internationally,” he said.

He further said that the event had involved young people in a national interactive visual art fiesta in various centres across the country.

“This has enabled them to meaningfully express themselves in the state of their lived environment through their art,” Mr Adewunmi said.

The Executive Director of LIMCAF, Kevin Ejiofor, said that there were three stages in the selection process for the event.

Mr Ejiofor said that the first stage involved online election by a national jury of works that are suitable for regional exhibition in eight regions in the country.

He also said that the second stage had to do with the physical exhibition of selected entries in the region and the last stage included the grand finale exhibition of the top 100 artworks.

“At this stage, the national jury will assemble in Enugu to review and rank the top 100 and decide the various awards,” he said.

Mr Ejiofor, a former Director-General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, said the grand finale would open on October 22, at the IMT International Conference Centre, Enugu.

(NAN)