The Oyo State Government said on Tuesday that it would collaborate with the Oshodi Arts Gallery from Lagos to organise the maiden edition of the annual exhibition of crowns, tagged, ‘Arts of Crown’ in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
This disclosure was made, on Tuesday, during the presentation of the proposal for the festival to the Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism in the state, Dr. Wasiu Olatubosun, in his office, by the Chief Executive Officer of Oshodi Arts Gallery, Dr. Seyi Oshodi.
The festival, which is expected to showcase no fewer than 500 crowns from different towns across the South-West, is targeted at promoting the significance of crowns and honour the traditional rulers in the zone.
Oshodi said, “Arts of Throne is an annual festival to honour, celebrate and promote paramount Yoruba kings, their ancient thrones and their kingdoms with colourful array of life visual and creative arts, trado-modern carnival, tourism, heritage arts exhibition and open-air life visual arts for the whole world to see and appreciate.
“We want to promote the arts and culture of our people in Yoruba land, light up our tourist sites, generate employment for the youths in the arts and tourism sector while we also generate revenue for the host state.
“The project will comprise carnival floats, visual arts and exhibition, tour and sightseeing, stage performances, gala night among others and all these will involve the people of the state and foreign tourists.”
The Commissioner said the cultural value of the event would change the narrative on the Yoruba history as the importance of each crown worn by Yoruba kings would be made known to members of the public.
Olatunbosun, who said Ibadan, being the political capital of the Yoruba kingdom was well positioned for the event, stressed that necessary support would be given towards its success.
