…as the school marks 35yr anniversary with art festival

St Francis Catholic Secondary School, Idimu, Lagos State celebrated its annual art festival held on June 20, 2026 at the school auditorium, showcasing a kaleidoscope of creative display of arts that defines what the school stands for.

The event held under the theme: “Jesuit Art Festival” is in celebration of St. Francis Catholic Secondary School’s 35th anniversary since inception and in commemoration of Society of Jesus (Jesuit) academic goals in humanities and art.

The event featured variety of shows that include visual arts exhibition, a well curated works done in painting, drawings, textile designs, ceramics and craft works by the students and staff of the School.

Other activities include creative dance by solo performance, poetic rendition by Ojo Annabel and Akindele Ayanfe and spoken word performance by Bro Vincent. Sequel to that, was a classical symphony Orchestra by the school band. This was also followed by dance drama performed by invited guest student artistes from Holy Child College, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Meanwhile the main attraction of the festival was the theatrical ‘Broadway’ performance by the School’s drama club featuring the famous work by Ola Rotimi titled: “The Gods are not to Blame.” The drama highlighted among other things, the ills of the society.

Students who featured in the drama showcased classic display of vocal prowess and stage dexterity. The costumes were very colorful depicting every sense of the drama’s plot and showing the Ijebu rural setting in Yoruba land as created by Ola Rotimi in his published work.

Speaking with the school Administrator, Reverend Father Francis Koshoffa SJ., he disclosed that nurturing talents is one of the school’s main goals.

“I am a Jesuit Priest and the Administrator of St Francis Catholic Secondary School, Idimu, Lagos. The programme is an annual creative art show called Jesuit Art Festival done every year to celebrate the dimensions of art: dance, drama, visual art and music. It’s not only academic we do at Jesuit schools. We also have time to engage in other curriculum that allows students to express themselves. We do this to nurture and produce talents.

Speaking further, he said: “Looking at the varieties of activities we have today, creativity takes precedent. In the art exhibition we had today, there are textile designs done in local tie and dye, Aso Oke weaving, ceramics and paintings on display. After the art exhibition, we moved on to music. A symphony Orchestra was performed by the school band. And lastly, there was drama performances.

“The whole idea is to bring to focus other dimensions of academic the school engage on. We have qualified staff who help to nurture the students to perform creatively beyond normal academic courses.

“On the art exhibition, we allowed the students to think out of the box and explore freedom of expression. One of the art on display titled, “Nigeria Today,” is line drawings and cartoons that reflected that vision. It defines the state of the nation today as the students see it.

“Jesuit school is unique in terms of quality and moral based education. It has been in existence for over 400 years and presence across the globe. The school accommodates all faith and doesn’t discriminate in its new intakes

“Our formation is holistic. It is built around spirit, body and soul, to transform our students into better persons in the society. We also train our students to confirm with our goals which translates to compassion, commitment, competence and conscientiousness,” Rev Fr. koshoffa noted.

Explaining the magic behind the amazing performance, the School drama club coordinator, Mrs. Mercy Omozusi disclosed that putting up such a massive show was not easy considering that it was performed by young and upcoming student artistes.

“The drama came as a result of days and months of hard work, commitment and dedication by the students and staff members.

“It amounts to concerted efforts by the performers because most of them were drawn from science and other subject courses not related to art with few from art that make up the drama club. We groomed and encouraged them to put in their best regardless of their line of subject study.

“Another interesting thing is that majority of the participants are not from Yoruba speaking States. The greater number of them are Igbo speaking student including Edo and other tribes who had to work hard to catch up with the storyline, as the play was set in the Ijebu tribe of Yoruba land. It was really difficult assembling the non Yoruba speakers to perform such a drama act of the Yoruba culture. The costumes to match every episode was also a huge task but we were able to overcome.

“The play in retrospect reflects the current situation in the country. It touched on the issues of leadership challenges, communal crisis, insecurity and other societal crisis,” she said.

According to her, the drama focus is a wake up call to the government and everyone to think deep and search for a solution to our numerous problems in the country.

“The drama also is to sensitise us to appreciate one another as a country despite our multiple ethnic and cultural differences, and to see Nigeria attain growth and peaceful coexistence among tribes,” said Mrs. Omozusi.

In the same vein, the School Head of Art department, Mrs. Alero Osegeh while explaining the theme of the art exhibition mentioned that it is in line with the celebration of St Francis School 35th anniversary.

“As we celebrate St Francis, we also want to put in perspective who we are as Africans and our identity as a people. We created works of art that reflected the current issues around the country. One of the numerous themes on display was “Nigeria today.”

She explained how students was able to described in their own mind how the view Nigeria society today through their works. According to her, there are so much insecurity in land, leadership challenges and moral issues that are hampering the country’s potential growth and peace.

“The drawings under that theme explained leadership issues, encouraging people to obtain their PVC cards as the election approaches, to enable them elect a credible leader,” she said.

She also noted that the drawings were specially rendered to create awareness about the current insecurity challenges that put the lives of school children in danger.