Arts and cultural administration of Patigi regatta festival in Nigeria.

Abstract

The study of arts and culture has gained prominence in academia, thereby resulting in the establishment os cultural studies, visual and performing arts, and creative and dramatic arts departments in higher institutions across the world, Scholars have researched and explored various areas of arts and culture including cultural festivals. The administration of Patigi regatta festival, to our knowledge, has not been adequately researched. This paper, therefore, examines the management of the artistic and cultural programme of Patigi regatta festival. This paper adopts interview instruments and descriptive methods. The paper also adopts Henry Fayol’s administrative theory (1916) to further foreground the identified management procedures in Patigi regatta festival. This study also proposes Patigi Regatta Festival (PRF) Model as a new model for the management of traditional African festivals. It was revealed in this paper that Patigi regatta serves as a unifying factor in the cultural emancipation and peaceful existence of the Nupe nation in Kwara, Niger and Kogi states of Nigeria. Lack of adequate finance and absence of corporate sponsorship, accommodation problem and bad road are major impediments to the effective cultural management, survival and continuity of Patigi regatta festival. This paper recommends that funding and provision of infrastructure and corporate sponsorship are paramount to the survival of Patigi regatta festival. The creation of mini regatta by the committee annually and the staging of the big event every four years can reduce the cost of staging and for the regatta not to go into oblivion, It is, therefore, concluded that Patigi regatta is a mega event which can bring international reputation and promote cultural exchange for Nigeria if adequate governmental and corporate attention is paid to its promotion.