Convent
Garden is a well known public arena, a district in the UK. Year in, year out
this Mecca of some sort is a potpourri of creativity and cultural out-pouring
in theatre, Opera houses, art galleries, cinemas, shops and all manner of
cultural activities including street performances. In the middle ages, the
current square was a vegetable and floral field known as the convent garden: it
supplied food to the monks of the nearby convent of St. Peter.
The
old market which government of the day contemplated on demolishing for some
private estate development was later to be transformed into a remarkable
shopping and leisure centre due to mass public protest in the early nineteen
seventies. And so an erstwhile abandoned public space was converted to become
the tourist haven it is today for the United Kingdom.
In (Lagos) Nigeria however, a good and successful
example of how this idea could be harnessed is in the present use of the old Federal
Prisons structures at central Lagos, which the Lagos State government has in
recent years rehabilitated and turned into a fun, recreational and
entertainment centre called Freedom Park.
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| Freedom Park |
Freedom
Park is erected directly on the site of the colonial prison where prominent
Nigerians had their jail terms during the colonial era. The park, which is now
a peaceful place for individual and collective contemplation and interaction,
is open to the public on a daily basis. It is fast becoming an important centre
of various artistic and cultural as well as recreational activities situated in
the heart of Lagos. Within the complex the park stages from time to time art
exhibitions, drama presentations among other activities, hence the facilities
in this park include an art gallery, an amphi-theatre, shops, a museum complex,
etc.
And
today also in Lagos, by the sheer forthrightness and farsightedness of the
German cultural centre, the Goethe
Institut which had always nursed the hunger to bring about this kind of
transformation especially for the art community, is already matching thoughts
with action. And so through the able leadership of Marc-André Schmachtel, the
current director, the Institute in Lagos is already taking steps towards reviving
the vacant Printing Press building and transforming it into a vibrant art
space.
Before
now, the ‘abandoned’ old Federal Government Press on Broad Street since the
inception of this laudable ‘experiment’ has hosted series of events, courtesy –
the Goethe Institut, such as photographic exhibitions, installations, and then ‘The
Pop-Up Theatre’. The Pop-Up Theatre which is also an experiment geared towards
taking the National Theatre to the people, in that it could be enabled to
spring up anywhere instead of the traditional fixated national venue which has
seen in recent years a drastic reduction in attendance and, or patronage and
consequent enjoyment of these exhilarating live performances.
