Lagos museum allows visitors to touch artifacts in interactive new gallery

Nigeria's National Museum in Lagos is breaking with tradition by allowing visitors to interact directly with some of its most precious artifacts. One gallery has been remodeled to encourage a more hands-on experience, reversing the typical ban on touching exhibits and permitting unrestricted photography.

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You can touch them gently.

Curator Nkechi Adedeji explained that the goal is to engage younger audiences and the growing community of "content creators." Visitors can now gently touch items such as two large, engraved 16th-century elephant tusks, while Afrobeats music plays softly in the background. This tactile approach aims to create a more immersive and memorable encounter with Nigerian history.

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Everything was intentional in terms of how the space should be experienced, in terms of the colors, how the space leads you.

Tinuke Odunfa, the interior designer for the gallery, described the space as intentionally modernized, using colors and spatial flow to guide the visitor's experience. The gallery houses extensive collections, including 5th-century terracotta artifacts from the Nok people. Exhibits are arranged chronologically, with brief explanatory notes.

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They come here, do content and before you know it, it is all over the place.

Since the renovated gallery opened in April, it has seen an increase in visitors, particularly schoolchildren and young adults. The museum's Instagram-ready spaces are proving popular, with many visitors sharing pictures and videos online. The gallery also features three empty display cases with a sign reading "British museum, how far??", a pointed message advocating for the repatriation of Nigerian artifacts held in foreign institutions.

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Youths are coming in droves now.