The Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art (YSMA) of the Pan-Atlantic University, has emerged winner of the “Museum Opening of the Year” awarded by Apollo magazine of The Spectator Group, UK.
According to apollo-magazine.com, the other shortlisted museums were: Aberdeen Art Gallery (Reopened November 2019), The Box, Plymouth (Opened September 2020), British Galleries, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Reopened March 2020). Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister und Skulpturensammlung bis 1800, Dresden (Reopened February 2020), KBR Museum, Brussels (Opened September 2020).
The museum, the magazine added, is two hours’ drive east of Lagos, and opened last year as the latest of a wave of privately funded institutions across Africa that in the past five years have transformed the museum sector on the continent.
Prince Yemisi Shyllon – the country’s foremost art collector – donated $1.7m towards its establishment and 15 years of maintenance, along with 1,000 works from his collection.