Lagos — National Gallery of Art (NGA)'s General, Ab-dullahi Sabo, has pledged the gallery's commitment to transforming the visual arts sub-sector into a more viable income earner for Africa.

At a media briefing held yesterday in Lagos, Muku said this year's edition of the African Regional Summit and Exhibition on Visual Arts (ARESUVA) would be used as both platform and springboard for the "renewed effort towards economic development in the region."

Also at the briefing were Chairman, NGA Governing Board, Peter Ezeh, President, Art Galleries Owners Association of Nigeria, Chief Frank Okonta and President, Society of Nigerian Artists, Uwa Usen.

ARESUVA 2009, which holds from November 19 to 21, at the International Conference Centre in Abuja, he promised, would also "provide the ground and artistic milieu for art collectors, culture enthusiasts, visual arts practitioners, art historians and scholars, art connoisseurs and aficionados and tourists from all over the world to converge in Abuja, once again, to chart the way forward for African economies, using the visual arts as a viable tool for change."

He reiterated the aims and objectives of the summit, which are "to identify and highlight effective programmes that can be nurtured, institutionalised and promoted as models of partnerships among African countries, the organised private sector, international agencies, NGOs and the international business community." adding that the event would attract both artists and scholars in Africa and the Diaspora.