PROF. PEJU LAYIWOLA APPOINTED HEAD, DEPARTMENT OF CREATIVE ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS

Peju Layiwola, Professor of Art and Art History has been appointed Head, Department of Creative Arts, University of Lagos for the next three years. She served as Ag. Head of the Department from 2013-2015.

Layiwola has published widely on the visual culture of Nigeria and Africa. She has carved a niche for herself in the creative arts industry as a distinguished female artist who combines an active studio practice with research.

She comes from a strong tradition of art making, taking advantage of her dual heritage of Yoruba and Edo. Her mother, Princess Elizabeth Olowu, daughter of Oba Akenzua II, King of Benin, became renowned as the first female to cast bronze in Nigeria.

Layiwola works in a variety of media focusing on both personal and communal histories as it relates to Benin. Her most celebrated projects, Benin1897.com:Art and the Restitution Question (2010) and Whose Centenary? 2015 dwell on aspects of the historical implications on authenticity and ownership of Nigerian Art.

BA (Metal Design) from University of Benin in 1988, and an MA and Ph.D. Visual Arts from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

She studied at both Universities of Benin and Ibadan with a BA (Metal Design) from University of Benin in 1988, and an MA and Ph.D. Visual Arts (Arts History) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. With a long list of local and international exhibitions, her most recent group show, Boundary Objects/Objectas Fontera, opened in Dresden, Germany 2015 and closed in Madrid Spain 2016.

She has served as visiting lecturer to University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University, Tougaloo College and Millsap College, Jackson, Missisippi and University of Wisconsin, Madison, College. She is a recipient of several awards and nominee for several international programs; US Nominee for the International Visitors leadership program on cultural preservation, Partner; US State Department Hilary Clinton SmARTpower project, (2012), and 2017 Goethe grant recipient as Resident artist, Art Academy (Kunstakademie), Düsseldorf, Germany.

Layiwola’s tenure with the University of Lagos has brought strong improvements to the curriculum and program with the establishment of a University of Lagos Arts and Craft Centre, a 4.5 million Naira Grant from OYASAF for organizing Art training workshops for over 600 participants in the Department of Creative Arts and supervised the most iconic mural in the University of Lagos by African American artist, Brett Cook.

Layiwola is a constant mentor to her students; she leads by example maintaining an active international lecture and exhibition schedule while teaching courses in both theory and practice. In addition, Layiwola’s teachings extend beyond the walls of the academy.

Women and Youth Art Foundation begun by Layiwola is an NGO that offers community workshops in vocational training on diverse artistic media. Presently her organization has produced nearly a dozen instructional videos that have been widely distributed at a count of over 300,000 copies into the hands of young artists.

We wish her a fruitful tenure.


By: Dr. Jimga Jimoh Ganiyu