Gansallo has had quite a trawl. An intellectual preparation spanning Fine Art/History of Art, Architecture, Museum Education and Management has equipped him to encompass diverse pursuits ……
From being a senior management fellow at Tate Britain from 1998 to 2001, to running a well-established educational institution today, he has shown the dexterity to juggle different balls with aplomb.
Educated at the University of Greenwich Dartford, Kent in the United Kingdom. Gansallo also attended the University of Kent, Canterbury; South Bank University, London, Middlesex University, London. His professional courses undertaken include museum learning, quite an unusual pursuit for a Nigerian.
Living, studying and working in the London metropolis for just over 35 years has not turned him into an ‘Aje butter’ in his own description. At no time was he completely cut off from base. His visits back to Lagos were quite frequent. This certainly helped to alleviate the disadvantages of working in a large metropolis in the developed world.
He recalls that ‘working in London like all cities has its advantages and disadvantages like anywhere in the world. However life can be very difficult for many who have to work just to survive and take on very menial jobs not befitting of their qualifications or experience. That is because there are a lot of barriers one could face if one do not understand the fabric of the culture and all its fears and worries. Abroad there is no family or friend you can easily turn to for financial support for a long period of time before you find a fairly decent job. Life can be very difficult and harsh at times especially if you consider the place a strange land. However in somewhere like London, the history of their art, architecture, writers and knowledge is celebrated everywhere and the city is enamoured with some of the most fascinating museums, galleries and universities in the world.
My family and children are still abroad. Once they are a bit older I will encourage them to visit home, Nigeria more often. I am grateful to the almighty that I have been able to take care of my children since they were born’.
The experience abroad was quite fulfilling. In the period his intellectual curiosity propelled him into working with some of the world’s most renowned learning institutions and educational organisations.
He is the director and founder of A2 MC Ade Akodu Memorial College. He has Degrees in Fine Art/History of Art, Architecture and Museum Education and Management. He has worked with some of the world’s most renowned learning institutions and educational organisations. He was Senior Management Fellow 1998 – 2001 at Tate Britain London and Education and Interpretation Consultant; National and International Programmes at Tate Britain and Tate Modern in London, 2001 – 2003. He has worked with learning institutions in Tokyo, Japan such as the Mori Tower and Think Zone. The Watari Museum and with the late Japanese Architect Kisho Kurokawa and Japanese architects Kengo Kuma and Jun Aioki to name a few. He is the founder and director of the highly successful Young Graduates YGMG Education Programme (YGMG), from 2005 to present working with 11 National Educational Museums and over 50 secondary schools and 20 universities in London and Europe. He worked with and had his office at the British Museum for five years 2006 – 2010 and also had his office at the Natural History Museum London 2010 – 2014. His new office is being prepared. He has taught and lectured in three continents.
If much of his adult life has been woven around education with a big E it’s understandable. The commitment is not just intellectual, there is also an emotional aspect entailed. Both parents were school proprietors. His mother still enchantingly spritely and agile at 76 founded the A2 MC Ade Nursery and Primary School Akodu Memorial. It was a very far-sighted thing to do.
Located in the middle class hub of Surulere, Lagos, his mother built the building of A2 MC in 1971 and the school became fully functional and approved as Ade Akodu Memorial Nursery and Primary School in 1973. The institution continues to enjoy a superb locational advantage. It is located in a squeaky clean quiet street in Surulere. Much as in healthy body and healthy mind.
Prior to the institutions take-off his mother had started the Day by Day Nursery School in 1967 when she came back home from Kent, England with her two young children in tow. Gansallo’s sister, Adedoyin Owolawi is also very much involved. A lawyer, she runs the Day by Day Montessori school which is derived from their mother’s initial pioneering Day by Day Nursery School. Her effort has culminated in a very professionally run Montessori school from nursery to primary.
The school, ‘Ade Akodu’ is named after his late maternal grandfather, Adebisi Akodu, a popular bon vivant who was endearingly referred to as ‘Allah Dey.’ Like the grandson, he was a man of many parts. Renowned for his activities as a councillor and horse owner, his horses won many races and were awarded many championship trophies. His own father, David Sekoni Oladipo Gansallo who died in April 2012, was also a brilliant educationist who was also a Naturalist and Conservationist. He had a vast knowledge of seeds, plants, flowers, birds and animals which could have passed him off as a highly qualified botanist.
He was also a school proprietor. This is why he and his sister frequently make self-depreciating jokes that they were born and grew up in a school and fed the education milk. To state the obvious, education runs in their veins. Which is why the motto of his AZMC school is Education Beyond Education.
Defining moments
The Renaissance man pin points the defining moments in his life. “There have been numerous defining moments in my life; however two come to mind. First, when I walked from the University of Fine Arts and its History into the University of Architecture. I had just completed my first degree in June and then enrolled in another university to study architecture in September of the same year. My lecturers thought I was either mad or a tortured genius. It was another five years of discovery.
The second was when I frequently travelled to Japan to organise a major conference for the Tate Britain in 2000 and 2001. I met with brilliant Japanese architects, artists, writers, curators and educationists. I was very interested in the Japanese culture and how they have rebuilt their nation, image and culture. It was there I wrote ‘Celebration and Contradiction’ and discovered new skills to aid my chosen professions.”
What he does now with his sister and a far from tired mother keeping a beady eye, he finds very fulfilling. A2MC has inserted some unique educational points. A key example is the institution’s multifunctional classroom. The concept involves placing learning and thinking technology behind the placement and arrangement of the institution’s classrooms tables and chairs. Another innovation is the encouragement of ‘transferable thinking’ between and among subjects.
An example is the ‘Mathematics of the English language’ and ‘The language of Mathematics’ which encompasses an underlying structure to both subjects. They are also working on the proper knowledge of both subjects. They are also working on the proper ‘Analysis of Colours and their components to aid the understanding of Chemistry.’ Constant research and experimentation in order to give their students not just information but actual knowledge and understanding has kept Gansallo’s natural intellectual curiosity very much alive.