The Edo Museum of West African Art (EMOWAA) has appointed a Nigerian arts Historian, Prof Chika Okeke-Agulu, as Senior Advisor, Modern and Contemporary Art. Also, a Nigerian-British
curator Aindrea Emelife as Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.
In a statement, EMOWAA’s Executive Director Phillip Ihenacho said: “One of the key challenges
for museums and heritage institutions in Africa is relevance to contemporary African society.
We need to build infrastructure and programming to celebrate the rich traditions of the past, but
also connect to the present arts scene and invest in the skills and knowledge that enable
opportunities for contemporary creatives and heritage professionals.”
The appointments of Emelife and Prof Okeke-Agulu support EMOWAA’s goal of creating a
world-class museum, research, and education complex connecting West Africa’s ancient heritage
to its thriving contemporary culture.
As EMOWAA’s Modern and Contemporary team, Prof Okeke-Agulu and Emelife will focus on
advancing the field of academic research in contemporary and modern West African
art, developing the collection strategy for EMOWAA, building the curatorial framework for the
creative district EMOWAA is developing in the heart of Benin City, and generating new, multi-
faceted narratives and interpretations of West African art and history.
Prof Okeke-Agulu is an artist, critic and art historian who specialises in indigenous, modern, and
contemporary African and African Diaspora art history and theory. He earned an MFA (Painting)
from the University of Nigeria and a PhD (Art History) from Emory University. He is also the
current Slade Professor of Fine Arts at Oxford University 2022/23.
Reacting, Okeke-Agulu said: “A project like EMOWAA is long overdue. It has become
imperative that we find a way to study, appreciate and celebrate contemporary and modern art
from the African continent, on the African continent. It is exciting to join EMOWAA and play a
part advising on how we can develop new institutional infrastructure to support advanced
knowledge and appreciation of the role of art and artists in connecting our rich cultural histories
to who and where we are today.”
Emelife, prior to joining EMOWAA, studied History of Art to post-graduate level at The Court
auld Institute of Art, London. As a curator and art historian, she has led a number of high-profile
projects with a focus on modern and contemporary art, dedicating her focus to questions around
colonial and decolonial histories in Africa, transnationalism and the politics of representation.