EMOWAA's Boss Says Artists Will Get New Technology To Support Their Work

The Art and cultural professionals in Nigeria would get infrastructural boost to support their creative works when EMOWAA becomes fully functional. Phillip Ihenacho, Executive Chairman, Edo Museum Of West Africa Art (EMOWAA) Trust has disclosed this while speaking with journalists in a media parley recently in Lagos.

He said that when the state-of-the-art pavilion that will house a materials and digital lab, archaeology and research centre is completed, it would boost and support the creatives in Nigeria and across Africa.

The EMOWAA Trust, the not-for-profit foundation behind the EMOWAA Pavilion and Museum, was established in 2019 to support the preservation of West African arts, culture, and heritage.

While explaining to journalists the focus of the EMOWAA’s projects, Ihenacho said that the focus will be on creating an ecosystem for research education and career opportunities for young creatives and professionals in cultural heritage management.

He said, “we are a country with a great culture and creativity but we don’t have infrastructure to support the creative sector. It’s about showcasing and supporting creatives and heritage management professionals that are involved in the culture and creative sector.

“It is beyond a museum project, it’s about creating infrastructure, support for the sector and to create opportunities in the creative industry. It’s about creating necessary infrastructure that the whole museum and cultural institutions across west Africa can rely on.”

Ihenacho added that the pavilion which will be completed before the end of 2024 will house a research centre, providing space for learning and exchange and archival space for works of art from West Africa and diaspora of both contemporary and heritage.

“It will be a space that will help catalyze the art and culture ecosystem by providing infrastructure for capacity building, training, digitization of works and growing a pipeline of future artists and archaeologist

“EMOWAA will also serve as a facilitator and platform supporting and maintaining part of a planned cultural district in the heart of Benin City. When completed, it will also serve as a physical space for exhibiting and studying west african art from antiquity to modern, and contemporary, “ he stated.

He noted that the creative district will collaborate with and boost the success of all existing and planned cultural institutions in Benin city including the future Royal Benin museum and the existing NCMM museum by facilitating a thriving creative hub and tourism destination in Edo state.

Ihenacho also announced the recent appointment of Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu, Nigerian art historian and Professor of African and African Diaspora Art and Director of the Program of African Studies at Princeton University and Slade Professor of Fine Arts at Oxford University, as Senior Advisor to EMOWAA Trust and Nigerian-British curator Aindrea Emelife as the new Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.