Director of Alliance Francaise, Enugu Mr. Gerald Chouin laying the foundation stone of the uli monument hut at the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria Nsukka, during the workshop.	Starting Construction

The next stage of the project – an interactive workshop for selected students in the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka  –  is one of the ways of turning uli in new directions. The workshop, which was formally opened at Nsukka on February 17, 2005, has been described by many as the very beginning of a second rebirth of uli for which the art department at Nsukka has been known for several decades. The workshop consists in the construction and decoration of a hut by the participating students as homage to uli. The foundation stone of the hut was laid by Mr Gerard Chouin (Director, Alliance Francaise), assisted by Mr. Harry van Putten (Principal Consultant, PSU Project Consultants) with many artists, art historians, and students in attendance.

The contribution of the Nsukka-trained artists to the history of modern art in Nigeria remains matchless. But we believe that the present state of affairs in Nigeria and other parts of the continent makes extra demands on individuals and creative people. If our history as a people must make positive advancements, as should our rich cultural heritage, conventions and some prevailing traditions must be revisited and re-interrogated for the generation of new ideas, which can provide us the road map to new horizons. Thus the uli art, though it has survived and succeeded in the ivory tower and in the narrow circles of high in the last thirty years, needs to assume new expressions if it must become useful to more people in our time as it was in time past.

Views of the finished uli monument commissioned by Pendulum Centre for Culture and Development, in the Fine and Applied Arts Department, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.