Enhancing Visual Arts and Design in Ibogun Campus, Ogun State Amidst Multi-faceted Challenges

Abstract

This is a discourse on approaches to enhancing visual arts and design on the Ibogun campus of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State. The Fine and Applied Arts (FAA) discipline is created for the production of graduates that will be technologically and creatively strengthened to solve industrial and societal problems. This cannot be attained when an institution is faced with multi-faceted challenges linked primarily to a lack of infrastructure caused by poor funding. The main problem is that the FAA Department at Ibogun Campus lacks digital art labs and standard studios to teach the course. Experiential and humanistic learning theories were chosen as the theoretical frameworks that back up this research work. The study aims to identify trends in visual arts and design within the context of Nigerian education with a view to determining solutions to problems facing Fine and Applied Arts as a course and department. By design, this is a qualitative study; thus, the library research method was employed together with observation and unstructured interviews for data gathering. On this premise, reasonable recommendations were put forward. However, while the study acknowledges the efforts of the university management, it uncovered that infrastructural problems are not only affecting FAA and Ibogun campuses; the Ibogun community as a whole is also feeling the hitch. FAA Department was created almost two decades ago but still lacks a brand name, unlike other Nigerian tertiary institutions with special (name) identities for their art schools. Consequently, the study, among other suggestions, recommended that the FAA Departments Ibogun campus be branded as ‘OOU Ibogun Art School, while government intervention through adequate funding is advised. The department also needs to concentrate more on creative technological innovations since this is the era of artificial intelligence.