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.

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.

In June 2025, Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation, in partnership with the Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F.), launched The Short Century Intensive, a fellowship designed to support artistic and scholarly inquiry into the cultural and political histories of the mid-to-late 20th century.  As part of the second chapter of Re:assemblages, a dynamic, multi-year programme designed to foster collaboration and experimentation across postcolonial art archives and library collections, the intensive is anchored by Okwui Enwezor’s seminal 2001-2002 exhibition The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945–1994, which examined the intersections of art and politics during a period of intense struggle and transformation across Africa. Taking this archive as a provocation, the intensive asks: what forms of relation, refusal, and repair remain possible in the afterlives of this compressed century?

On July 24th, 2025, G.A.S. Lagos hosted Internship Presentation, an evening of reflection led by Nina Gilbert and Savannah Woodson, two interns who joined G.A.S. Foundation through a partnership with Spelman College and the Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective (AUC Collective). The event marked the conclusion of their internship, offering a glimpse into their evolving curatorial and artistic interests shaped by their experiences in Lagos.

We are pleased to partner with Gallery TPW and the National Gallery of Canada on a public talk with artist Liz Johnson Artur, taking place on August 5th, 2025. The event marks the first activation of Contemporary Art and Archive Practices (CAAP), an international series of public convenings led by Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation and Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F.). Focused on the boarders of contemporary art and archival practice, CAAP unfolds as part of 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.

The 20th century can be read as a formative ecotonal space—an unsettled, generative borderland where networks fractured and reformed, collaborations ignited, and tensions gave way to new modes of relation. Within this compressed terrain, distinct ecologies of African and Afro-diasporic thought and practice took shape, producing postcolonial libraries and archives that carried with them emergent aesthetic and epistemic registers—unfinished, insurgent, and alive with possibility.  

We are delighted to invite you to join the Yinka Shonibare Foundation’s Lagos Patron Tour 2025—a truly exceptional opportunity to experience the vibrant cultural landscape of Lagos through an exclusive, curated journey that brings together art, dialogue, and global connection

West Africa’s emerging GLAM sector (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) is forging new pathways for preserving, producing, and reinterpreting African heritage and contemporary knowledge. Lagos, as a leading cultural capital, is at the heart of this momentum.

Yinka Shonibare Foundation’s Re:assemblages Symposium and Lagos Tour serve as a new platform for institutional dialogue, co-creation, and collaboration, advancing the future of West African cultural infrastructure. Delegates gain privileged access to Lagos’s layered artistic and archival ecosystems, engaging directly with the people, places, and practices shaping African arts and memory institutions.

Participation is a high-impact institutional investment in capacity-building, international collaboration, and knowledge exchange. Delegates are expected to return with actionable insights and strategic outcomes, extending the value of their experience through internal dissemination and long-term institutional application.

The 20th century can be read as a formative ecotonal space—an unsettled, generative borderland where networks fractured and reformed, collaborations ignited, and tensions gave way to new modes of relation. Within this compressed terrain, distinct ecologies of African and Afro-diasporic thought and practice took shape, producing postcolonial libraries and archives that carried with them emergent aesthetic and epistemic registers—unfinished, insurgent, and alive with possibility.