TRIBUTE TO LATE PROFESSOR OLUSEGUN OYELEKE
ADEWOYE
On behalf of Bruce Onobrakpeya Foundation (BOF) and participants of the
Harmattan Workshop Series, I write to extend our condolences for the sudden transition to glory of one of
our patrons, Professor Olusegun Oyeleke Adewoye.
I met Professor Adewoye for the first time at
the Harmattan Workshop Art Gallery in Victoria Island, Lagos. The occasion was the opening of an art
exhibition of paintings by Mufu Onifade to which he was invited as the guest of
honour. That meeting brought us close,
and over the years I came to know him as a great art lover, art collector, art
patron, a scholar, a teacher, a builder of minds and an astute administrator.
Professor Adewoye visited my studio several
times to acquire art works for his collection which already included the
paintings of our great Ben Enwonwu . On one
of such visits, I took a chance and asked him to help with the sponsorship of
an edition of the Harmattan Workshop at Agbarha-otor Delta State. This he did as the Director General and Chief
Executive of NASENI (National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure), and we were able once more to
bring together artists, both experienced and beginners from Nigeria, West
Africa and abroad to learn skills and share ideas in the informal art education
set up. By that act, as a Professor of
materials science engineering he recognized the interrelationship between the
visual art and science as well as their synergy in industrial, economic and
social development of our dear nation. He
sets example which others have since followed.
With his death, I hope that the plan to build
a befitting place for his art collection in Ilesha will still materialize.
May his soul rest in the bosom of the Lord,
Amen.
Bruce Onobrakpeya
Papa Ajao
Lagos.
5th June 2015.
