UNITS OF THE ICS COMPLEX
The Institute of Cultural Studies is made up of five principal units, namely The Martin Aworinlewo Odeyemi Museum of Antiquities and Contemporary African Art, the Art Gallery, The Wole Soyinka Museum, the Adebayo Faleti Library and Documentation Centre and the Administrative Secretariat.
MARTIN AWORINLEWO ODEYEMI MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES AND CONTEMPORARY
The Martin Aworinlewo Odeyemi Museum of Antiquities and Contemporary Arts is an integral unit of the Institute whose structure and contents was donated in 2005 by Chief John Agboola Odeyemi, the Obasewa of Ife in memory of his beloved parents. The Museum houses rare and relevant objects of Yoruba antiquity and contemporary arts which are displayed in a controlled environment. The objects are predominantly from a well- tended storage supervised by the Department of Fine and Applied Arts and they are rotated at intervals to ensure visitor interest and theme relevance. The Museum ensures the display of both Contemporary African Art and Antiquities to justify its name “Museum of Antiquities and Contemporary African Art”.
Among the collection of the museum are: A giant sized Ogoni mask, some traditional Gelede masks and a full Gelede masquerade regalia, among many others. There are also complete Egungun masquerade regalia, aged costumes and head dresses. The Museum is endowed with the rich collection of art and antiquities from decades of work by the founding fathers and researchers of the preceding Institute of African Studies carefully preserved over time. The Museum is open to the public from Monday to Friday between 9.00am and 5.00pm.
The ICS Gallery of Art
The ICS Art Gallery is a purposively designed gallery space within the Institute. It is designed as an airy, medium and double-volume space to accommodate art exhibitions according to global artistic best practices. Over the years, the ICS Art Gallery has played host to renowned Nigerian Contemporary visual artists who were and are engaged as Art-Fellows or Artistes-in-Residence over a specified period. The Gallery holds in its collection products of such short artistic residences curated by different Fellows of the Institute. This rich collection of African art is on periodic displayed at the Institute, such that at every moment, there is an exhibition on display in the gallery. Some of the major artists whose works have been on display include leading African artists like Abayomi Barber, Seyi Ogunjobi. The Ulli Beier collection, comprising 50 original pictures taken by the Austrian Yorubaphile in the 1950s are on semi-permanent display at the ICS Gallery. The space in the ICS Gallery is further put to valuable use by visiting artistes and musician who use it as momentary stage for musical rehearsals and beauty pageantry shows.