Take a fresh look at your lifestyle.

Biodun Omolayo: A passion for the young at art

Biodun Omolayo is an artist with a difference. Unlike many of his contemporaries whose clientele is adult-oriented, his passion is strictly to make artists of kids. He spoke with YEMISI OLUSINA on his peculiar choice, the pains and gains of the project.

For Biodun Omolayo, a former banker, there is always something new depending on the way you want to do it. That exactly was what prompted him to jettison his lucrative banking career for the arts many years ago.

As a child, his dream was to communicate via the art but that met a brick wall when his parents kicked vehemently against the idea. “Until, recently, you will agree with me that the dream of every parent is to have a child or children who studied medicine, engineering or law. Other courses might just be manageable but definitely not in the line of the arts. Fine arts or whatever it is known by was simply an abomination. So, for me, then, it was like a condition of a pregnant woman whose delivery date was long due and wasn’t privileged to fall into labour,” he recalled.

READ ALSO:Has Oride pushed Gokada out of the market?

After his secondary education, he was only left with an option; to study commerce and communication sciences, the courses offered him at The Polytechnic Ibadan. Reluctantly, he took the offer and graduated still with good grades. Said he: “this was not the courses of my choice but I had to take it up and come out in flying colours because l believe that whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.”

Strangely, he got a banking job despite the course he read and became the envy of many of his friends. He subsequently worked with two others and rose to a commendable level. But while many would have thought he was enjoying himself, Omolayo remained unfulfilled. “From all indications, I made a success of the banking job as I rose with speed to the position of a branch manager, but honestly, all through those periods, my heart was somewhere else – the arts,” he said.

After some years of vain effort to adapt to his current situation, Omolayo saw the expediency to follow his passion. He sought after professionalism and took a daring step. He applied and was admitted into the Yaba Technical College, Yaba, Lagos. There, he got his Ordinary National Diploma (OND) in General Arts and later a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Graphic design. “Right from the time I made up my mind to go to study this course; I began enjoying some unusual peace within me. I knew quite well that my decision was right,” he said.

“But why venture into a despised and less profitable career?” asked some of his friends then. Omolayo, however, differed with the opinion that the business of arts was not financially rewarding. “For me, the arts profession is not less-thriving in any way because there are lots of opportunities in the world of arts. It evolves every day and can be made benefitting depending on the way one sees and handles it. Those who despise it are simply ignorant of the many advantages that are embedded in it and that is why they look down on artists. Artists are very intelligent which explains why they could come up with those creativities we see at the galleries and everywhere,” he said defiantly.

In his bid to prove this point, therefore, he opted for a new dimension in the art, which is to discover children with a heart for the art and named the project, Young at Art. Meanwhile, he pointed out that the project is not purposed to lure children from their chosen career but to make them better for it. According to him, the idea is to discover, bring out the artistry crave and help them build it up at a time that is most convenient for them. “The purpose of bringing these children together is not only to train them in the art but to bring out the creativity trait in them and help them make use of this in their chosen professions. Again, I believe it is better to catch them while they are still very young because, at this stage, their hearts are teachable,” he said.

Although the idea appears laudable, it ignores the fact that it would require a lot more to disabuse the minds of potential students from the already established notion of the general public about the art and the artists.

READ ALSO:Trouble brews at Arsenal over tactics

Nevertheless, Omolayo remained unperturbed. For Him, patronage has been good, both on the kids’ side and the facilitators, which invariably showed an impression on the former’s wrong impression of the society in general. “A lot of parents have been bought over by the essence of arts to humanity and that is evident in the number of parents, who have allowed their children to be part of the programme. Some years ago, when we first started, we had only three children but currently, we have over 2,000 of them as beneficiaries. This has been very impressive and we look forward to more in the future,” he noted.

Despite the favourable responses, Omolayo is not unaware of the task ahead. Already, it is offering an array of incentives to the potential young at art. One of such is the lessons on communicable skill to enable them to flow among themselves, a rich library for creative writing and performing arts. Besides, the kids are exposed to celebrities in the world of children like Helen Ajayi Prest, Jimi Solanke, Chief Nike Okundaye and many others. They are also taken out on artistic trips constantly for creative expertise.

Asked if Biodun Omolayo would maintain the standards he has set, he said with enthusiasm: “The world hasn’t seen anything yet. We see service as life and enjoy what we are doing. We place value on the arts and we shall continue to train children in the arts in the line of the standard we set.

Comments
Loading...