Welcome To Our Department
HOD’S WELCOME ADDRESS
It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Department of Fine and Applied Arts at Obafemi Awolowo University—the “Home of Creative Intellectuals.” We are an academic community distinguished by intellectual rigour, cultural depth, and creative innovation.
Our history is rooted in the establishment of the Institute of African Studies in 1962. From this pioneering centre of African-centred scholarship, the autonomous Department of Fine Arts (now Fine and Applied Arts) emerged in 1975. A defining moment came in 1989 when we were repositioned within the Faculty of Environmental Design and Management, strengthening our engagement with design thinking and applied creativity—a feature that remains unique within the Nigerian university system.
Our institutional identity rests on the integration of studio practice and critical scholarship as mutually reinforcing modes of knowledge production. We train intellectually grounded and technically skilled artists who are culturally conscious, socially responsive and globally conversant. Rooted in the influential tradition often associated with the Ife Art School, we uphold a legacy of innovation and deep engagement with African visual traditions in dialogue with global art histories.
Our objectives are clear and forward-looking. We cultivate high-level technical competence alongside theoretical depth in art history, aesthetics and curatorial studies. We promote interdisciplinary collaboration across architecture, technology and the humanities. We encourage the integration of indigenous craft knowledge with contemporary technologies to strengthen creative industries and cultural sustainability. Above all, we prepare graduates for leadership- as artists, educators, curators, entrepreneurs and scholars equipped for professional distinction.
Our philosophy affirms that visual arts education is central to human advancement. Art, in our view, is not merely expressive; it is transformative. It mediates memory and innovation, heritage and technology, individual creativity and social responsibility. We therefore emphasize creative intelligence, ethical engagement, and adaptability in a rapidly changing world.
To prospective students, scholars and partners across Nigeria and beyond, we extend a warm invitation. Join a department where tradition meets experimentation, where theory strengthens practice, and where art serves as a strategic tool for cultural vitality and sustainable development.
We are creative intellectuals, and we look forward to welcoming you.
Professor Michael Olusegun Fajuyigbe, PhD.
Head of Department & Professor of Art and African Art Studies
