Relevance of Informal Arts Education on Formal Visual Arts Education in Southeast Nigeria

The existence of informal arts education Centers has raised a lot of controversy in arts education and practice in Nigeria. Often people do not regard the products of these informal arts Centers as artists. They regard them as artisans even though most of them are being trained by formal artists and are being imbibed by their artistic traditions. It is, therefore, pertinent to investigate these informal arts Centers and assess their existence and their influence on formal arts Centers. This study was, therefore, designed to explore the assessment of informal arts education and its influence on formal art education in southeast Nigeria. The research questions were on the: educational relevance of informal arts education on formal art education, the influence of arts education on formal art education and on whether informal and formal art education can co-exist. I used a questionnaire to elicit information from the respondents. The findings revealed that the existence of informal arts education is relevant to formal art education, informal arts education influences formal art education and informal arts education can co-exist with formal art education. The paper recommended that the Ministries of Education should encourage and ensure that the formal art schools and informal arts Centers co-exist.