About
Living Object Foundation
Living Object Foundation is a nonprofit founded in 2024. It is dedicated to transforming museum practices across Africa by promoting inclusive, culturally relevant exhibition design and community engagement. The Foundation aims to bridge traditional cultural practices and contemporary museum standards to create meaningful, accessible experiences. Through research, capacity-building initiatives, and workshops, Living Object is committed to empower museum practitioners to rethink narratives, address colonial legacies, and integrate indigenous knowledge systems. By promoting a deeper appreciation of African heritage, our goal is to develop strategies to design museums that truly reflect and resonate with diverse African communities.
Who
Seun Oduwole
Co-Founder and Director
Seun is an architect and designer with 22 years of experience spanning across 3 continents, delivering ground breaking cultural, commercial, retail and immersive design projects.
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He is a fellow of the directors forum at the Yale Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage and an associate at the Institute of Creative Repair, a research & advocacy think tank developing practices for more regenerative cultural ecosystems in Africa and the global south.
Seun is passionate about educating young designers through initiatives like the African Alliance for New Design, lectures at the University of Lagos and Central St. Martins, London. Seun joined Living Object in 2023 as a co-founder, with the aim of developing and promoting experiential design with a focus on the interrogation and production of culturally immersive spaces
Seun believes the purpose of architecture is to improve the quality of our built environment through a thoughtful approach to design, creation of immersive user experiences, using architecture as a vehicle for social responsibility and urban regeneration. He has been featured in, The Guardian, CNN Avante Garde, CNN Style, Architectural Digest, Arch Daily, The Economist, Architectural Digest, Architecture of Sub-saharan Africa and Made by Design: a Netflix documentary showcasing key creatives leading the charge on the African continent.
Seun is an unrepentant motorcyclist, guitar player, rower and golfer. Other less interesting hobbies include collecting quirky watches and straps.
Contact Details
Philip Hughes
Co-Founder and Director
Philip has over 30 years of professional experience as a design director and project manager, with an abundance of experience in leading complex projects. He has worked in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, taking projects from inception to completion and opening.
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Philip trained first as a furniture designer and maker at the Royal College of Art in London before becoming an exhibition designer and planner. His passion is the use of natural materials to make artfully designed exhibitions. He looks to create poise and grace in all that he designs, and to create designs that awaken the senses.
He briefly taught architecture and interior design courses at the University of Portsmouth and the University of the Creative Arts 2005–8 on both postgraduate and undergraduate programmes. He remains active in design education as External Examiner. He is currently a student mentor at the Royal College of Art in London.
Since 2008, he has worked at the experience design and planning consultancy Ralph Appelbaum Associates, becoming a Director in 2018. In 2023, Philip set up Living Object with Seun Oduwole with the mission of furthering the design of experience into new fields. Philip has written extensively about the power of design to educate and entertain audiences. His books, Exhibition Design published by Laurence King and Storytelling Exhibitions published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts are required reading on undergraduate and postgraduate design courses.
Philip’s home, known as the Living Object House, was opened in September 2022 to the public for London’s annual celebration of architecture and design, Open House London. The Living Object House features a collection of Philip’s ceramics and work by prominent contemporary ceramicists.
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Iheanyi Onwuegbucha
Curator and Project Coordinator
Iheanyi Onwuegbucha is an art historian and independent curator with a particular interest in the art of Africa and the African diaspora. He is currently Assistant Professor in African and Caribbean Modern and Contemporary Art.
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His PhD dissertation research focused on the Nsukka School. He is also co-investigator of Museumverse, a project funded by the Humanities Council of Princeton University that connects art and cultural institutions with emerging digital and virtual technologies. He was the curator and acting Artistic Director of the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos. He was also the guest curator for the inaugural exhibitions of the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, and consulting art curator for the John Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History, Lagos. He was a 2016 Chevening Scholar at the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds, earning an M.A. in Art Gallery and Museum Studies. He also received an M.A. in Art History from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and an M.A. in Art History, Criticism and Conservation from Princeton University. Some of his recent curatorial projects include Kindred Spirits: A Gathering of the Aka Circle of Artists; Samuel Fosso: Affirmative Acts at the Princeton University Art Museum (With Chika Okeke-Agulu and others); Samuel Fosso: The Man with a Thousand Faces at the Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm (with Clothilde Morette and Clara Stratmann); Diaspora at Home at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos and Kadist, Paris (with Sophie Potelon).
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