‘Towards nation building: Excavating Bassey Andah’s framework for Arts & Science administration in Africa’ (4)

If arts administration is the art  and science of planning, staffing, motivating, controlling and directing human and material resources  in the arts industry  in order to attain the predetermined objectives of having a full house, guaranteeing satisfaction and maximising profit; if Andah believes that the horizons of our cultural expression need to be expanded and extended; if Bassey Andah’s Framework for arts administration, harps on how to attract a critical mass of the population to be part of the prevailing culture at a given time, then there is need to explore some paradigms or approaches through which a good percentage of the population can attendants  presentations, visit the museums and arts exhibitions. It must be recalled that Bassey Andah is concerned with endogenous and exogenous, cultures and how to integrate both cultures and engage people to participate in the sharing of arts activities, otherwise our arts become irrelevant, unattractive-museum art which will eventually die and has been noted earlier, a nation without a lively, vibrant culture is a dead one. Indeed the arts must propel people and be an elixir, a panacea to peoples’ access to their culture Andah is concerned with how to maintain and sustain the peoples’ culture expression so it does not die or is emasculated by foreign cultures.

The problem of audience engineering is one of the disturbing issues in arts administration for without sufficient audience to participate in the sharing of the cultural presentations and expression the real culture of the people will die. We shall examine six theories which can help realize Bassey Andah’s dreams of ensuring that the peoples’ culture is shared by a critical mass of the population.

Derived from seismology (The science of earthquakes).the Seismic theory of arts/events publicity, stipulates that tremendous vibrations in the atmosphere and rough disturbances in normal human communication channels, are indispensible in the effective sensitisation of people about a particular artistic event being organised in their interest.  In line with this, it is believed that an aggressive and sustained publicity from 9 epicenters will be needed to disturb and vibrate the environment to the point of luring audiences to attend and patronise the art event being organised in their interest.

Sensitisation of publicity techniques in this context, entail the mobilisation of a reasonable mix of communication media “almost to a disturbing realm” (Nwamuo, 46). Such special and impactful mobilisation of the media of mass communication will include

a.Radio – TV publicity which includes advertorials, advocacy and public service announcements.

b.                Billboards, posters, banners, handbills.

c. Newspapers, magazines for audiences who have a preference for the print medium.

d.                Use of the social media to attract the today’s many media users of these forms or channels for information and entertainment. The social media are prolific tools for publicity.

e.Direct mail publicity which involves the sending of such informative artifacts as calendars, brochures, folders, letters and invitations to arts patrons from a current mail order/correspondence file.

f.  A novelty publicity which may include open-air displays, floats, carnivals, short dance sketches, robots, t-shirts, caps and bags. Such displays should be modest and draw the attention of audiences to the fact that something in their interest is in preparation.

a.A tie-in publicity with a business organization like a bank, shopping complex among others in which the art event is advertised.

This is a participatory approach which lies principally on the “instigated” advocacy made by well selected patrons. Such an advocacy is made in various ways and through various media of communication. The paradigm is in effect based on the participation of patrons who, being influential arts authorities and representing society’s conventional values of culture have the psychological power to mould public opining in favour of the arts event being organized. The Patron’s paradigm therefore, encourages arts/events managers, to contact such patrons who are practitioners in the Metropolis as well as money bags and financial guru’s in the society, to publicize the event through different and complementary forms of advocacy. The participation of these patrons enables arts managers to bring money, power, influence and authority together to advocates and publicize the event.

This involves the mobilisation of a homogenous group of experts organized in a committee with a duty to monitor and confirm that the aims and objectives of the art event or organization are maintained. Such an expertise is aimed at sustaining audience interest. In the process, the committee systematically appraises current practices in the management of a specific art event and proposes revolutionary strategies for implementing the programme. The over-riding belief is that a reinvigorated and reengineered programme will attract more people to the event. The model is also hinged on the assumption that audience reduced patronage of an event, is mostly provoked by poor packaging and poor implementation of the arts programme (Nwamuo, 49).

This is another prolific paradigm of audience engineering. It recommends the use of evangelism by Pentecostal or the orthodox churches as a publicity strategy. It hinges on the belief that the mobilisation of the tool may lead to rapid dissemination of messages on the art event or programme with amazing result. This is in accordance with the fact that Pentecostalism particularly in Nigeria, is a carrier of a pluralistic and modernizing culture which probably is the most dynamic force in the dissemination of public culture.

We are conscious of the other existing paradigm of audience engineering which include:

This is a top-down-line approach through which policy makers such as the Head of Department, arts administrator and the business manager in arts organizations, hand down decisions on how best arts publicists should carry out the business of audience development and management of artistic events in the organization. While this is good in the sense that it respects the experiences of those in authority, it denies the organization the benefit of the experiences of field workers or publicist who through their audience research, know how best to woo audiences to artistic events.

This model contrasts with the administrative model. It believes that the publicity manager and director who conduct surveys and are more conversant with the result of such surveys, the opinions of arts patrons, are better placed to propose new methods and techniques for mobilising audiences. They expect the administration in the organisation to accept their suggestion. There is merit in the argument that the real operators of the publicity unit, the crew including the house managers, can contribute ideas towards galvanising audiences to an artistic event.

This model believes that the Head of Department or unit who is unsure of his ideas and afraid of staff opposition to such ideas appoints a small group to develop a proposal for audience development when this is done, he goes ahead to implement the proposal. The model is good as it represents the opinion of the slice of the staff population, a representative opinion of staff members in arts organizations. The model is capable of producing workable and effective methods of engineering audiences towards patronising the arts (Nwamuo 34- 36).

There are reasons to believe that if this paradigm is employed will attract greater or larger segments of the population to patronize and participate in arts and cultural activities which help the people function effectively in the cultural expression they know best.

African countries including Nigeria, have conceived several strategies geared towards nation-building. These strategies have yielded patchy fruits and observers have called on African governments to re-strategises. In the case of Nigeria, critics believe that a fleet of challenges continue to hinder affective nation-building. The challenges include: ethno-religious crisis, corruption, bad governance, the Nigerian factor, poverty and unemployment among others. This presentation has argued that both arts and science administration can be instrumental in nation-building efforts. Using Bassey Andah’s framework for arts administration in Africa, the presentation believes that the framework if employed, has the potential to bring in, a critical mass of the population together to share and celebrate their culture so it does not become a museum art which is irrelevant, neglected and which will die. Arts administration has the potential to develop the arts and culture sector which is an important factor in socio-cultural development. The socialising agency of arts and culture programmes, can nurture nation -building core values. Such nurturing can be made possible through the effective organisation of such cultural events as dramas, festivals, carnivals, museum visitations, national art workshops, and arts exhibitions and others, which can help bring Nigeria together and indirectly foster understanding and peace.

Similarly, public museums, art galleries and theatrical events can be equipped and funded so they can function and motivate the populace to embrace their past and heritage, with much enthusiasm. It is believed that effective arts administration can facilitate job creation and reduce the prevalence of poverty in Nigeria. The Nollywood phenomenon, the Nigerian hip-hop industry, the seasonal festivals and carnivals organized in specific places in the country, suggest that arts administration can be an economic source which indirectly contributes to poverty reduction, the building of the country’s image and the greatness of the country. Additionally, arts and culture administration can help in the creation of an enabling environment for science and technology to fully contribute to the advancement of the country. We should not abandon our cultural heritage in march towards nation-building.