{"id":235905,"date":"2025-07-03T23:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T23:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/235905\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T23:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T23:01:12","slug":"nigerias-museum-of-west-african-art-announces-public-opening-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/235905\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria’s Museum of West African Art Announces Public Opening Date"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Museum of West African Art, based in Benin City, Nigeria<\/a>, announced Thursday that it will officially open its campus to the public on Nov. 11.<\/p>\n

\n\tFirst announced<\/a> in 2020, the MOWAA<\/a> campus is planned as a 15-acre complex housing a research and education institute (the MOWAA Institute), a contemporary art exhibition space (the Rainforest Gallery), a boutique hotel (the Art Guesthouse), and a performance space (the Artisans\u2019 Hall), among other facilities. The full campus is projected to be completed by 2028, but this fall, visitors will get their first look at MOWAA.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Two<\/p>\n

\n\tIn November, the Institute will open to the public alongside its inaugural exhibition, \u201cNigeria Imaginary Homecoming,\u201d which will be spread across multiple buildings on the campus. Curated by Aindrea Emelife, an art historian and curator of modern and contemporary art at MOWAA, the show is something of a redux of Nigeria\u2019s well-recieved pavilion<\/a> at the 2024 Venice Biennale, which Emelife also curated. Four new artists\u2014Kelani Abass, Modupeola Fadugba, Ngozi-Omeje Ezema, and Isaac Emokpae\u2014will join the original lineup. The exhibition will run through Apr. 26, 2026.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA view of the entrance of the new Museum of West African Art in Benin City, Nigeria.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto Tolulope Sanus\/Courtesy MOWAA<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Institute features 48,000 square feet of facilities for archaeological research, conservation, art storage, and public programs. MOWAA is planning a series of exhibition tours, talks, workshops, and neighborhood activations to celebrate the opening.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe launch will be preceded by a two-day slate of preview events\u2014including a colloquium exploring \u201ccultural, political, and artistic imaginaries across Nigeria, Africa, and its global diaspora,\u201d guided exhibition tours, and a city-wide program of talks and workshops. Ongoing public programming, from film screenings to workshops and gallery tours, is scheduled through February 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement, Institute director Ore Disu called MOWAA \u201cnot just a museum\u201d but an institution centered on transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGlobally, museums are increasingly being asked to justify their existence, whether it\u2019s by way of funding cuts, restitution or falling visitor numbers,\u201d Disu said. \u201cWhat\u2019s important for us at MOWAA is to be truly embedded in building contextually relevant practices, regenerating African cites and scholarship, and using art as a catalyst for real impact \u2026 We started this work five years ago at our inception, and we are proud to continue to show that Africa can provide new ways of thinking and doing as we open our doors this November.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe grand opening comes one year<\/a> after the institution held \u201cMuseum in the Making,\u201d a two-day \u201chard-hat opening\u201d for media and 250 invited guests accompanied by a slate of workshops and a tour through archaeological excavations on-site. (The campus is located atop the ruins of ancient Benin City, whose surviving walls, moats, and gates were excavated and incorporated <\/a>into the new structures.)<\/p>\n

\n\tLast year, Emelife told ARTnews in a feature on MOWAA that the team views the institution \u201cas a blueprint, a convening point, and the center of outreach that helps grow and sustain museum infrastructure throughout West Africa, working with the living culture of Nigeria\u2014our artisans, our local regional museums\u2014and forging meaningful relationships and partnerships with museums in the West and globally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs part of the opening, MOWAA also announced the establishment of an Artist Council to ensure that the museum\u2019s programming \u201cremains artist led,\u201d according to a press release. Among the major names on the council are Yinka Shonibare, Michael Armitage, Victor Ehikhamenor, Nengi Omuku, Odun Orimolade, and Kaloki Nyamai. Members will serve two-year terms, offering mentorship in education and residency programs and advising on exhibitions and research projects. Each was chosen, the institution said, with an eye toward their connections with other arts organizations across the continent.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe impact of art institutions in Africa will depend upon our ability to work with other organizations across the continent. With this in mind, I look forward to developing the relationship between [Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute] and MOWAA as we grow our community between Kenya and Nigeria and broaden the reach of art on the continent,\u201d Armitage said in a statement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Museum of West African Art, based in Benin City, Nigeria, announced Thursday that it will officially open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,77,92174,3007,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-235905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-mowaa","13":"tag-nigeria","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114791794917670771","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}