Osogbo: The Art Heart of Nigeria

Osogbo in its heyday, was the flourishing centre of the Osogbo School of Art, a movement which started in the 1960s. It has attracted and produced many internationally acclaimed artists. We visited two prominent art galleries. The first was a two-storey belonging to Nike Davies. It had a dazzling collection of paintings, sculptures, woodworks, clothes, bronze work which were obviously prized for the the expat's budget! It mirrored the vibrancy and ethnicity of Nike's house cum gallery in Lagos. The second one we visited was the home cum gallery of Chief Jimoh Buraimoh, the inventor of the bead paintings! One of the paintings we all fell in love with was priced at Naira 500,000! It took us a while to convince them that we were volunteers with little money! Luckily for us the Chief was home and we had a nice chat with him about his works and life in Osogbo. We were actually also staying in his hotel. The home visit got us an invitation to a special program that evening in the honour of a Osogbo American who is developing a Osogbo village in Florida. We witnessed a pulsating dance and music performance by a local group that performs at the Osun Festival.