How A Public Art Gallery Created A Sense of Collective Ownership in Lagos

According to the Lagos State Parks and Garden Agency (LASPARK), there are over 327 parks in Lagos State and we at Made Culture wanted to find out how they are currently being utilized. In 2018, Made Culture was 1 of 6 organizations to win a grant to produce a public space art installation in Lagos State as part of the Watershed’s Creative Producers International Initiative which we titled ‘Meet At the Square’.

For Meet At the Square, we wanted to explore this idea of an African Village square which by day is traditionally known as a space for social interaction and trade; and at night, comes alive as a hub that creates a nexus between play, storytelling, and artistic display. We knew that whatever we created has to be interwoven with how a community comes together because of their attachment to a particular place.

Lagos Island was a perfect location for our idea as it is a diverse but closely-knit community which showcases the story of modern Lagos; its rich culture, heritage and architecture. We located the installation at Mini Campos Square - a public and open space which has always and still acts as an informal meeting place where members of the community hold regular communal meetings and events.

From the unset, we knew that we would have to work with the community to design what this installation was going to become. Working with urban planning students from the University of Lagos, we asked people in the community including business owners, students, schools, non-governmental and government organizations to discuss, challenge and reimagine their thinking around the use of public spaces in Lagos City. Following an in-depth co-design process, we then invited Nifemi Bello of nmbello Studio to respond to our findings, and he came up with the idea to work with artists Taiwo Abisoye to design a public art gallery using recyclable and sustainable material to build the installation. As he said:

“We looked to the environment to influence our design and material choice. We spent time observing residence around the square and its use as a prayer and community meeting ground. The idea was to design a space that would be functional and inspire all ages; creating a gallery space for the children and playground for the adults."

For the installation, we asked people to paint, write or draw their response to the question “What Does Community Mean To You?” and then install it in the gallery. This was integral to inspiring a sense of ownership between members of the community who felt the gallery was for them and by them. What we found was that there is indeed a relationship between people and place which creates a great sense of values, aspiration and attachment.

It is our hope to make Meet At the Square a travelling installation and share our learnings with city authorities as a toolkit for placemaking in public spaces in Lagos.