Turning Igun Street to a well Structured and Organized Art exhibition and Collection Village

By  Ogbeide Ifaluyi-isibor

The Igun Street is one of the world Heritage sites located in Benin city and its popular for being the domicile of wood carvers,bronze casters and for General art merchandise.in the last decade,the popularity of igun street and of course the Patronage of Benin art work from that location has dropped Significantly for a myriad of reasons.

In Mombasa,the port city on the Coast of Kenya and the Second largest city after Nairobi,there are over 15 Contemporary art exhibition/collection villages or Galleries where all the wood carvers and art makers in Mombassa engage in their trades and display their merchandise for the world to Patronize.The art makers don't sell their works directly to customers,but only label their works with individual codes and upon completion,everyone displays his art at the gallery.

When buyers come around,they visit the exhibition/collection hall,purchase whatever they will,make payments to one cashier and if they are foreigners buying a lot of art work,it is delivered to them via DHL to their respective countries within 4 days.

They have taken advantage of technology to increase their base and market share as customers could shop for art work online and have it delivered to any part of the world.

Imagine if we transform Igun Street to some sort of an art exhibition/collection village where the traders are exposed to and adopt the Mombasa model and have our rich art work sold to the world from Benin City,we can even be more innovative and improve on what the Kenyans have done.We have a richer heritage,we have a more excellent history,we vibrant and active work force.We can have this scattered all over the 3 Senatorial districts in Edo State,Local government councils could take up and adopt this initiative.

We would be creating hundreds of more jobs,Government would be raking in millions of Naira from taxation,and we would be opening Edo State to a new window of opportunities.it doesn't take rocket science to think outside the box....