Most times in Nigeria the Government organizes everything
art and culture related and it is for this reason that having a private organization take it up is impressive. International Institute for Creative Development, IICD, is an
organization that started in 2009 with no building, no portfolio and no briefcase to its name, in the founder’s words. It moved to 4 Oguda Close,
off Lake Chad crescent, Maitama in October 2013.
IICD's mission is to train, promote and present both artists and all kinds of creative persons for worldwide visibility. Its vision is to develop and
ensure the Nigerian cultural community effectively meets the global demand for
art and creativity along with its application for the development of humanity.
IICD receives emails from interested persons who want to
showcase and exhibit in their center. It looks at the date proposed by the
person and proposed duration of exhibition, then decides whether or not the center will be available
and if it is, the number of days the exhibition can go on for. Subsequently, cost evaluation and renovation is carried out to make sure the work comes out perfectly for
viewing. IICD has a social media platform for promoting and creating awareness via its facebook page such that if the interested person has a target audience, the IICD can help in reaching out to them through that platform. It also organizes press conferences by media
houses for the person exhibiting.
I visited the center on the opening day of LIVING MY
TIME ZONE exhibition by a Norwegian artist, Vigdis Holen. She is a professor at
the Ostfold University College, Norway. Her projects are based on research and
experiments of over thirty years in the interrelated fields of art, design,
media-architecture and the realm of living things. Holen works on art
exhibitions involving all continents.
Her works are of pictures she took starting from the North Pole.
She did this using an art projector which shows the world from the top, and now
her stop is at Lagos, hoping to continue down south to Cape Town and then
go all the way round to Alaska. The first time she came to Nigeria was in 2011. That trip was about networking and getting all necessary contacts. The second
trip was to put up her work, and now this is her fifth time here.
The Norweigan ambassador, HE Mr Rolf Ree, was present and so was the
director of Culture and Tourism along with reporters from media houses and art lovers as well. There was fine wine, delicious finger food and good music for the guests
to enjoy.