The Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art (YSMA), Pan-Atlantic University, has hosted its first Residency under TheMuseumsLab Fellowship, bringing together cultural professionals from the United Kingdom and Uganda for a week of professional exchange and engagement with Nigeria’s museum and creative ecosystem.

The residency, held from September 13 to 19, 2026, marked a significant step in YSMA’s growing international engagement following the museum’s admission earlier this year into TheMuseumsLab Partner Museums Network, which currently connects 66 museums and cultural institutions across 21 African and European countries.

The residency featured Jessica Juckes, British Art Network Manager at Tate, United Kingdom, and Jim Joel Nyakaana, a Ugandan artist, photographer, curator and researcher associated with Page 4 Cinema Archive.

Established as Nigeria’s leading university art museum, YSMA was voted Museum Opening of the Year by Apollo Magazine in 2020. The museum is committed to preserving and showcasing Nigeria’s artistic heritage through its extensive collection spanning centuries, while providing exhibitions, educational programmes and activities designed to enrich the country’s cultural landscape.

TheMuseumsLab is an African-European joint-learning programme for emerging leaders in museums, heritage and cultural institutions. Its 2026 Fellowship, themed “Building Futures from Memory: Museums and Memorial Sites as Agents,” brings together 50 Fellows from 31 African and European countries and combines learning modules with professional residencies at partner museums.

At YSMA, the residency was structured around the professional interests of the two Fellows while exposing them to the museum, Pan-Atlantic University and the wider Lagos cultural environment.

Their programme included guided engagement with the YSMA collection, discussions with the museum’s Director and Curator, meetings with university leadership, interactions with Pan-Atlantic University students, an artist studio visit and engagements with cultural organisations and practitioners.

The Fellows also facilitated a workshop for undergraduate students, examining photography, digital storytelling, editorial practice, exhibitions and public installations.

The session provided an opportunity for extensive interaction between the visiting professionals and students, with the Fellows commending the depth and thoughtfulness of the questions and contributions from participants.

For Nyakaana, the residency highlighted the possibilities created by situating an art museum within a university environment.

“What has stood out for me is the way YSMA sits within a university environment and how that creates possibilities for the Museum to engage directly with learning, research and students,” he said.

He said his experience had also prompted him to consider the museum’s collection beyond its function as a body of objects.

“I have also been thinking about the collection not simply as a body of objects, but as a space through which different stories, memories and questions can be encountered,” he said.

According to Nyakaana, his interactions with the museum team and students had provided material for reflection on his own work around archives, photography and memory.

For Juckes, the residency provided an opportunity to examine relationships between museums, art organisations, artists and audiences from a different institutional and geographical perspective.

“One of the things I have found particularly valuable about the Residency is the opportunity to understand YSMA not only through its collection, but through the people and relationships around it,” she said.

She said engagements with museum staff, students, artists and cultural organisations had expanded the experience beyond a conventional museum visit.

“The exchange has encouraged me to think about how museums can create spaces for learning, professional connection and dialogue, and about the different ways these possibilities can be shaped by local context,” Juckes said.

The programme also took the Fellows beyond the museum, providing opportunities to engage with artists, galleries, artist-support organisations and other cultural institutions within the Lagos creative ecosystem.

The engagements were designed to deepen their understanding of Nigeria’s cultural landscape while creating opportunities for knowledge exchange between African and European museum professionals.

Solomon Nkwagu, Head of Corporate Communication and Visitors’ Services at YSMA and Lead Facilitator of the residency, said hosting the programme allowed the museum to place its practices within a broader international conversation.

“For us at YSMA, hosting our first TheMuseumsLab Residency is about much more than receiving two international Fellows. It is an opportunity to open up our institution, our collection, our practices and our ideas to new perspectives, while also creating a platform for our own team, students and partners to participate in a meaningful exchange,” Nkwagu said.

He said the museum wanted the Fellows to experience YSMA as a living institution that goes beyond collecting and exhibiting art to teaching, engaging, questioning and building relationships.

“The most rewarding aspect has been seeing the exchange move in both directions,” he added.

According to him, the Fellows brought questions and perspectives shaped by their professional experiences, while their interaction with students demonstrated the value of creating spaces where knowledge can move between practitioners, institutions and young people.

“This is precisely the kind of professional and intellectual exchange we hoped the Residency would create,” Nkwagu said.

The residency forms part of TheMuseumsLab’s broader effort to strengthen professional networks and collaboration between museums and cultural institutions across Africa and Europe.

The Partner Museums Network describes its tandem residencies as intensive periods during which Fellows and host institutions share approaches, test ideas, and challenge and inspire one another.

For YSMA, the completion of its first TheMuseumsLab residency represents another stage in the museum’s development as a platform for learning, professional exchange, cultural dialogue and public engagement.

It also reinforces the museum’s commitment to connecting the Pan-Atlantic University community with international practitioners and contemporary conversations in the museum, art and wider cultural sectors.

The inaugural YSMA TheMuseumsLab Residency concluded on September 19, 2026.