Accra-based art gallery centre, Gallery 1957, has opened applications to all female artists for the ‘Yaa Asantewaa Art Price’.
The ‘Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize’ is the first-ever dedicated award for female African artists living and working in Africa. The award seeks to increase the visibility of African female artists on the international art scene.
It will award 7,000 dollars, alongside an artist residency and exhibition at Gallery 1957 in 2021, to the winner. A second and third prize of 3,500 dollars and 2,500 dollars will be offered to two runners up. Named after the Ghanaian queen, the prize launches to coincide with the gallery’s fifth-anniversary celebrations and is open to all female and self-identifying female artists based in Ghana or belonging to the Ghanaian diaspora.
MEET THE JUDGES
The adjudicators of the prize include the British writer and columnist Afua Hirsch, who was formerly based in Accra whilst serving as the Guardian’s West Africa correspondent. Also, Ghanaian figurative painter Amoako Boafo, the art collector Charlotte Newman, who works as the head of Amazon Web Services, Zoe Whitley, the director of the Chisenhale Gallery in London, Touria El Glaoui, the founder of the African art fair 1-54, and Ibrahim Mahama, founder of the nation’s Savannah Center for Contemporary Art. That notwithstanding, the jury is completed by the Lebanese businessman Marwan Zakhem, the founder and director of Gallery 1957.
Speaking in an interview, Afua Hirsch praises Ghana’s richly diverse and collaborative arts scene saying: “Ghana has a remarkable history of artistic genius, but there is still so much to do to centre Ghanaian creatives and their work so that their contribution is recognized and their future supported”.
Meanwhile, applications for The Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize closes on 31 May 2021, with a winner announced in August 2021.
ABOUT GALLERY 1957
Having opened in 2016 on 6 March, and taking its name from the year Ghana first gained independence, Gallery 1957 is Accra’s first internationally-operating contemporary art gallery. Today, the gallery’s roster includes some of the most internationally-recognized artists from the African continent. Based on the ground floor of Accra’s five-star Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City complex, Gallery 1957 was initially founded by Zakhem to display his own collection of contemporary art.
The Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize is inspired by a recognition on behalf of Zakhem and his team that Ghanaian female artists are often restricted from being able to dedicate themselves to their practice in the way their male counterparts can, partly because Ghana remains a culture driven by patriarchy.
“We hope to offer a way in which to address the lack of existing support for women and women-identifying artists in the country and its diaspora. Beyond the financial support, the goal is to give participating shortlisted artists a platform for their work, and exposure worldwide”.
