UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN CULTURAL HERITAGE MUSEUM is one the major projects being jointly executed and funded by the University of Ibadan (UI), Ibadan, Nigeria and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. The Cultural Heritage museum is located in the gallery inside the famous Trenchard Hall, overlooking the Tower Court of Nigeria's premier University of Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State of Nigeria.

The first attempt at establishing a museum in UI, many years back was a huge success with Doig Simmonds as curator, a decade after which the fortune of the museum began to dwindle. The University of Ibadan museum suffered a serious setback due to lack of proper maintenance of the valuable historical/cultural objects. It was apparent the university was not ready for a proper museum conservation and maintenance due to major factor of funding, although museums have always existed in relevant departments like Classics, linguistics and African languages, Geology, Archeology and Anthropology, as well as the institute of African Studies. So the artifacts were kept in the Kenneth Dike Library's archive until early 2009 when the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Olufemi Bamiro, FNSE, FAS initiated the dream of a university heritage museum by asking Dr. Aderonke Adesanya, a senior Fellow, Institute of African Studies to come up with a proposal which was later approved by the MacArthur University of Ibadan Board and funded under existing Grant. When Dr. Fanton, the immediate past President of the MacArthur foundation was on a brief visit to the University of Ibadan, later in the year, Dr. Aderonke Adesanya had the privilege of making a visual presentation of the achievements of the initial grants from the Foundation and explained to the guest on the efforts made so far to restore the cultural objects. Dr. Fanton was impressed and awarded $60, 000 life-line grant.

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