IFAN Museum of African Arts

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IFAN Museum of African Arts
Established	1938
Location	Place Soweto, Plateau, Dakar, Senegal
Type	Art, Culture
Public transit access	Busses: n°8, 7, 12, 13, 9, 6, 5, 15, 16, 23, 5. Direction "Cap Manuel"
Website	http://ifan.ucad.sn/

Coordinates: 14°39′48″N 17°26′17″W / 14.663307, -17.438065

The Musée de l'Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire or IFAN Museum of African Arts in Dakar, Senegal is one of the oldest art museums in West Africa. It was promoted by Léopold Senghor, the country's first President. In December 2007, its official title was changed to The Théodore Monod African Art Museum ("Musée Théodore Monod d’Art africain"), after the French naturalist Théodore André Monod, former director of IFAN.^[1] Previously its official name had been "Le Musée d’Art africain de l’Institut fondamental d’Afrique noire Cheikh Anta Diop IFAN/CAD".

The museum is part of the Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN) institute, founded 1936 under the Popular Front government in France. When IFAN was transferred to Cheikh Anta Diop University in 1960, the building at Place Soweto near the National Assembly of Senegal was converted into a museum. It is today one of the most prestigious centers for the study of African culture, and part of the Cheikh Anta Diop University. As the main cultural research center of the colonies of French West Africa, it contains important collections from across Francophone Africa.

The museum is one of the regular venues used in the Dakar Biennale exhibition, showing art by contemporary African and diaspora artists.^[2][3]

[edit] References

1. ^ Le musée de l’IFAN change de dénomination, ausenegal.com.
2. ^ Assembling Africa — Dak'art 96 biennial art festival, various artists, various venues, Dakar, Senegal, in Art in America, May 1997 accessed at [1] March 2, 2007
3. ^ Dak'Art 2006: positions and perspectives, in African Arts, Winter 2006 accessed at [2] March 2, 2007
   DAK’ART 2006 - Yacouba Konaté, Commissaire général de la Biennale de l’art africain contemporain : « L’art numérique n’est pas décalé, mais le public a le droit d’être un peu surpris », Babacar DIOP : Le Quotidien, 5 May 2006.

• Lonely Planet guide to IFAN Museum.
• IFAN Museum: Travel section, The New York Times.
• Symbols of Triumph: IFAN and the Colonial Museum Complex in French West Africa (1938-1960), Museum Anthropology, Summer 2002, Vol. 25, No. 2: pp. 50-60.
• The Dakar Biennale exihbit.