The Kwara State has revealed that the Institute of Contemporary African Art & Film (ICAAF) is 60 percent complete and scheduled to launch in Nigeria in spring 2022.
ICAAF is a purpose-built museum for visual and cinematic arts in Ilorin, featuring post-production studios, a film screening room and lecture hall, and co-working spaces.
The museum will house art galleries for curated exhibitions, as well as a café, sculpture garden, and bookshop selling books about art, culture, film and architecture.
Purpose-built museum in Ilorin
Billed as Nigeria’s first visual art institution of international significance, ICAAF was founded under the advisory of Dolly Kola-Balogun, creative director at Retro Africa, an art gallery in Abuja.
“ICAAF is set to position Ilorin as a cultural capital in Northern Nigeria and strengthen the linkages between the North and the South through cultural transmission,” Kola-Balogun said.
“By solidifying Ilorin’s post as a creative hub, ICAAF will attract greater tourism and investment opportunities. With more robust funding, Ilorin has the potential to cultivate industries as Lagos has done for the film industry in the south.”
ICAAF will celebrate and promote Nigerian creativity, also offering community-based outreach programmes, promotional activities, and strategic partnerships with educational and cultural institutions in Nigeria and abroad.
Celebrating Nigerian creativity
Designed by Studio Contra, an architecture firm based in Lagos, the ICAAF project is led by Olayinka Dosekun-Adjei, Studio Contra’s creative director.
“In designing this building we were striving to find a new expression for African architecture that feels contemporary and in dialogue both with the immediate context and the international arena,” Dosekun-Adjei said.
“In doing so we hope we can create an iconic new destination for visual art in Nigeria and the wider region,” Dosekun-Adjei added.
Meanwhile, the German, Nigerian and British governments are building a hub of museums in Edo State to showcase returned Benin Bronzes. The Edo Museum for West African Art (EMOWAA) is under construction in Benin City.
Images: ICAAF
