The AAL Lab Convenings, titled Contemporary Art and Archive Practices in Context, are a series of public events that bring together the African Arts Libraries Lab (AAL Lab), its Affiliates Network, and wider audiences to engage in research-sharing and dialogue on contemporary art and archival practice. Informed by the conceptual threads of Re:assemblages 2025–26—Ecotones, The Short Century, Annotations, and The Living Archive—each convening features reflections from invited speakers and the AAL Lab’s inaugural cohort alongside contributions from the broader public.

We are excited to welcome Pelumi Odubanjo, a British-Nigerian curator, writer, and researcher, to G.A.S. Lagos as our last resident in August. Based between London and Glasgow, Pelumi’s practice spans photography, multidisciplinary research, curatorial work, and ecology. Currently a PhD candidate in History of Art at the University of Glasgow and a James McCune Smith Scholar, her work engages with photographic archives, artists, and cultural artefacts to explore dialogues across global Black diasporas and geographies.

In 2024, Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation and Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F.) were awarded a $220,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art. The two-year funding supports CULTIVATION: Art, Environment & Materiality at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikiṣẹ, offering residencies for American-based artists exploring ecology, agriculture, and sustainable material practices. The first artist in residence was Dr. Ietef Vita, who joined G.A.S. in August 2025.

From June 30th to July 11th, 2025, the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikiṣẹ hosted My Story of Food: On The Farm!, a two-week creative learning programme in partnership with the Five Cowries Arts Education Initiative (FCI). Bringing together teachers and students from St. John’s Primary School Ikiṣẹ, the programme transformed their classrooms into a collaborative space where food, art, and storytelling intertwined. Guided by Titilayo Mathias of FCI, with support from St. John’s teachers, sessions explored indigenous foods, food systems, and sustainability through hands-on workshops in doodling, stitching, and paper craft. Alongside nurturing creativity, critical thinking, and tactile skills, the programme also supported teachers with co-learning and facilitation models.

Join us at G.A.S. Lagos on 29th August 2025 for Open House, a film screening and presentation that offers a closer look at G.A.S. Foundation and the residencies and programmes we host throughout the year. Led by the G.A.S. team, guests will have the opportunity to learn more about the Foundation’s mission and residency opportunities before embarking on a guided tour of the building. The tour will include visits to the G.A.S. Library and the Picton Archive, as well as the spaces where artists, researchers, and cultural practitioners live and work.

Last week, we had the pleasure of welcoming Dr Ietef Vita to G.A.S. Foundation for an immersive eight-week residency. Based in the United States, Ietef is an eco-hip-hop artist, educator, and vegan chef whose work rooted in Pan-African traditions bridges music, environmental activism, and ancestral foodways. Known professionally as DJ Cavem, his multidisciplinary practice spans painting, performance, sound, music, film, photography, textiles, and ecology. He harnesses hip-hop as a catalyst for climate justice, youth empowerment, and wellness, creating projects that range from multimedia albums and food justice curricula to international workshops fusing beat-making with soil science, herbalism, and culinary arts.

We are excited to welcome Nigerian interdisciplinary artist Olufela Omokeko for an eight-week residency at G.A.S. Foundation. His practice spans performance, installation, photography, video, and research, often engaging deeply with communities to address urgent sociocultural issues. Through his work, he explores the intersections of personal and collective experience, with recurring themes of psycho-social dynamics, mortality, food insecurity, preservation, and ecological challenges.

Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation and Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F.) have announced the 2025–26 edition of ‘Re:assemblages’, a far-reaching programme that centres African and Afro-diasporic archives as spaces of artistic inquiry, experimental scholarship and decolonial imagination. Curated by Naima Hassan, with contributions from Maryam Kazeem, Ann Marie Peña, and Jonn Gale, ‘Re:assemblages’ positions the archive not as a static storehouse of history, but as a living, evolving medium for storytelling, activism and collective transformation.

Unfolding across multiple geographies, the multi-year initiative will feature international convenings, symposia, fellowships and micro-publications, culminating in new modes of collaboration between African arts libraries, researchers, artists and publishers. At its heart lies a drive to reframe access, visibility and authorship within postcolonial knowledge production – rethinking what it means to preserve, interpret and activate African art histories today.

In 2022, after construction and delay caused in part by the Covid-19 pandemic, the local launch was held and the G.A.S. Fellowship Award, an annual initiative in collaboration with the Yinka Shonibare Foundation to support mid-career artists and curators across Africa was announced.  

Winning the award was “very affirming [and] validating… It felt like the work I was doing was recognized,” said 2024 honoree Amanda Iheme, citing the somewhat familiar experiences of artists not getting grants, awards, or residences that they apply for—especially in a climate when one’s fame and one’s artistic concerns can influence who ultimately wins out. She added that she liked that it was a local residency—she’d been wanting to participate in a program located in the place where her work is focused.

In May and June, G.A.S. Foundation welcomed a vibrant cohort of artists, writers, and scholars whose practices spanned sound, photography, literature, and visual storytelling. Over residencies and internships ranging from three to eight weeks, they immersed themselves in Lagos and beyond, engaging in research, fieldwork, community workshops, and public programmes that explored themes of memory, identity, archives, and collective imagination. Their time with G.A.S. fostered meaningful cross-cultural exchanges and culminated in events that opened up new spaces for dialogue and collaboration within the wider creative ecosystem.

On Saturday, 19th July 2025, G.A.S. Lagos hosted the screening of God Knows Best, a directorial debut of Nigerian screenwriter and filmmaker Nicole Asinugo. Presented in collaboration with the Osahon Okunbo Foundation, the event introduced audiences to a quietly powerful short film that follows Simi, a young widow in Lagos who begins driving her late husband’s danfo bus to support her family. Navigating grief, financial strain, and social judgement, God Knows Best offers a reflection on resilience, womanhood, and reclaiming one’s identity in the face of loss.

In June 2025, Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation, in partnership with the Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F.) announced the 2025–26 edition of Re:assemblages, a dynamic, multi-year programme designed to foster collaboration and experimentation across postcolonial art archives and library collections. This ambitious initiative reimagines the stewardship and activation of African and Afro-diasporic art archives, and will result in a rich constellation of international convenings, symposia, micro-publications, and a research intensive.