Ghana 1957: Art, Independence, Liberation is a collaborative exhibition, research, and digital archive project developed by a team of co-curators based at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.
Kicked off in 2018, the project will culminate with a groundbreaking, multi-venu exhibition exploring the artistic and cultural impact of Ghana’s independence, examining its influence on both Ghanaian and American artists and activists. The exhibition will premiere in Accra, Ghana in 2027 before traveling to Ann Arbor, MI for its US debut.
This project will feature the work of a multi-generational and transnational community of artists who played important, transformational roles in building a post-independence Ghana and, together, imagined liberated futures.
In 1957, Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence from its colonizers. In the following decades, Ghanaian artists engaged with each other and with newly energized publics to express their ideals for a self-determined society, experimenting with strategies for catalyzing change in and through the arts.
American artists and civil rights activists traveled to Ghana to experience and document its euphoric post-independence atmosphere, participate in building the nation’s postcolonial arts infrastructures, and contribute to dynamic debates over the future of African and American artmaking in a postcolonial world.
Throughout this project, our collective work highlights the relationships forged among American and Ghanaian artists, activists, and leaders from the 1950s–1970s, revealing how Ghanaian Independence inspired African American artists and civil rights activists, catalyzed international arts diplomacy programs in Africa, and presented opportunities for Ghanaian artists to collaborate within and beyond the young nation to articulate a post-colonial art in a world fractured by the Cold War.
We invite you to follow along and share your stories with us as we continue to develop this exciting bi-national project!
Artist, writer, curator, and educator. His multi-disciplinary, audience-implicating installations and performative “pseudo-rituals” have featured in international exhibitions, and he has co-curated exhibitions with blaxTARLINES, including ‘The GOWN must go to ‘TOWN’ (2015), ‘Cornfields in Accra’ (2016), and ‘Orderly Disorderly’ (2017). He holds a PhD in Painting and Sculpture from the College of Art and Built Environment, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), where he also lectures.
Bernard Akoi-Jackson
Senior curator at the National Museum of Ghana (NMG), exploring historical references and aesthetic manifestations within the museum’s collection to preserve and promote artistic and cultural heritage in Ghana. She has curated ‘Ghana@60 Photo Exhibition: The Road to Independence…’ (2017), ‘Exhibition of Paintings from the National Collection: 1940–1990’ (2017), and ‘A Solo Exhibition of Ato Delaquis’ (2015).
Elizabeth Asafo-Adjei
Laura De Becker is a Lecturer in the Arts of Africa at the Sainsbury Research Unit, based at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom. She was formerly the Chief Curator and the Helmut and Candis Stern Curator of African Art at the UMMA. She has worked at the National Museum of Rwanda in Butare and the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa. Exhibitions at UMMA include ‘We Write To You About Africa’, ‘Wish You Were Here’, and ‘Beyond Borders: Global Africa’, among others.
Laura De Becker
Co-founder and Administrative Director of blaxTARLINES KUMASI. He is a Senior Lecturer in the Fine Arts Department of KNUST, where he pioneered revolutionary changes in fine arts pedagogy. His research interests include post-colonial art education in Ghana and Ghanaian contemporary art practice. His teaching and practice highlight experimentation and new ways of seeing, making, and showing art.
Kwaku Boafo Kissiedu (Castro)
Assistant Curator of African Art at UMMA. She holds Ph.D. in Art History from U-M and specializes in the modern arts of northwest Africa, African-Muslim art and architecture, and collective memory in postcolonial societies. She is the editor of 'Decolonizing Islamic Art in Africa' (Intellect/University of Chicago Press, 2024) and has published research on the history of museums in Africa, and the politics and visual cultures of colonialism.
Ashley Miller
Curator and critic based in Ghana. He is a member of the blaxTARLINES coalition and Exit Frame Collective and co-organizes Kelas Bareng/Joint Class—an online experimental educational initiative between Gudskul (Indonesia), Städelschule (Germany), blaxTARLINES KUMASI, and Nordland Kunst og filmhøgskole (Norway). He was also an Artistic Advisor for the 59th Venice Biennale (2022).
Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh
Artist, poet, mathematician, and teacher and the architect of the "Emancipatory Art Teaching Project,” which transformed the fine arts curriculum of the Department of Painting and Sculpture, KNUST, in the early 2000s. He is a co-founder of blaxTARLINES KUMASI and heads its teams of collaborators on exhibition, curatorial, and writing projects.
kąrî’kạchä seid’ou
Professor Emeritus in the U-M Departments of History of Art and Afroamerican and African Studies. He is a historian of the visual cultures of Africa, particularly Ghana and Ethiopia, with over 45 years of experience working in Ghana. He served for many years as Adjunct Curator for African art at UMMA and as Interim Director. His publications include ‘Ethiopian Church Art: Painters’, ‘Patrons, Purveyors’ (2022) and ‘Ethiopia: Traditions of Creativity’ (1999).
Raymond Silverman
Art historian, independent curator, and cultural resource specialist. After earning his B.A. at the University of Science and Technology (Kumasi) and M.A. at Indiana University, he served as a curator for the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board and later joined the faculty of the College of Art and Social Sciences at KNUST. He holds a deep knowledge of Ghana’s artistic community from the early days of Independence until now.
Gilbert Amegatcher
Artist and co-director of the Foundation for Contemporary Art – Ghana. She has facilitated local and international collaborative art and educational projects focusing on art as a tool for community and public engagement. She is a member of the Exit Frame Collective in Accra and an executive member of the Ghana Culture Forum, uniting practitioners, activists, and organizations around a common vision of affirming the cultural foundations of development.
Adwoa Amoah
Artist and co-director of the Foundation for Contemporary Art – Ghana. He collaborates with the Mmofra Foundation to support youth engagement and development through the creation of kid-friendly public spaces in urban Ghana. A member of the Exit Frame Collective, he has been involved in projects seeking to diversify the field of contemporary art by enabling artists to participate in ideas and research-based practices.
Ato Annan
Architect and urban designer based in Ghana. He is a heritage and conservation advocate as well as a lover of art and art history. He received a dual Masters in Architecture and Design from U-M in 2011, and is the owner of Cinctamore, an architecture firm specializing in CNC cutting and fabrication, and works diligently to create healthier, equitable, and productive places for habitation and work through interdisciplinary collaborations.
Nana Bonsu Adja-Sai
Pilot Exhibition
Ghana 1957: Art After Independence
National Museum of Ghana
September 21, 2024 – March 29, 2025
Ghana 1957: Art After Independence was a pilot exhibition held at the National Museum of Ghana in Accra. Developed as a front-end audience research tool, it helped the curatorial team study how visitors might engage with the themes, artwork, gallery design, and audience engagement strategies envisioned for the larger Ghana 1957 bi-national exhibition. Importantly, the pilot exhibition also invited visitors to share their own knowledge and ideas with the curatorial team, helping to enrich the stories that will shape the final exhibition.
Ghana 1957 will highlight the work of more than 25 Ghanaian and American artists whose lives and careers intersected as they experimented with new arts and fought for social justice in the wake of Ghana’s Independence.
Felicia Abban
Richmond Teye Ackam
Phillip Morland Amonoo
Kwabena Ampofo-Anti II
Oku Ampofo
Kofi Antubam
Ernest V. Asihene
Herman Kofi Bailey
James Barnor
Albert Osabu Bartimeus
Willis Bell
John Biggers
Kobina Bucknor
Margaret Taylor-Burroughs
Emmanuel Owosu Dartey
El Anatsui
Ablade Glover
Ato Delaquis
Elton Fax
Tom Feelings
Charlotte Hagan
Vincent Kofi
Amon Kotei
Grace Salome Kwami
Leroy E. Mitchell
J.C. Okyere
Help Us Build the Archive
The Ghana 1957 project presents an opportunity to create a living archive of Ghana’s Independence-era arts and artists. Your contributions will play a vital role in building this important archive and will help us to shape the exhibition. Did you or your relatives interact with any of the artists listed above? Are there others who should be included in the histories we are telling? Do you own works of art relevant to the project? We would love to hear from you!
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Support
Support for Ghana 1957: Art, Independence, Liberation comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the U-M Humanities Collaboratory, and the African Heritage and Humanities Initiative (AHHI) of the U-M African Studies Center.
