One of Prof. karî’kachä seid’ou’s most revealing observations is that he considers himself “exiled from the North Atlantic.”

It is a witty phrase, but it also captures a career built on an unusual conviction: that world-changing ideas do not need to leave Africa to matter.

That philosophy has now earned the Dean of KNUST’s Faculty of Art the 2026 Prince Claus Impact Award, recognising more than two decades of reshaping how art is taught, created and understood.

Rewriting who gets to define art

Rather than placing painting or sculpture at the top of an artistic hierarchy, seid’ou’s Emancipatory Art Teaching Project encouraged students to experiment across disciplines and collaborate across generations.

The initiative grew beyond the classroom into exhibitions, research projects and creative communities that challenged inherited ideas about who has the authority to define art.

Its influence transformed KNUST’s fine-art curriculum, producing artists, curators, scholars and educators who now shape Ghana’s contemporary art scene and contribute to wider conversations about decolonial practice across Africa.

A Ghanaian vision with global reach

His impact has drawn attention from publications including African Arts, ArtReview, The New York Times, The Guardian and the Financial Times.

The community-driven collective blaxTARLINES, which he co-founded, has appeared on ArtReview’s Power 100 list for four consecutive years.

As the Prince Claus Fund marks 30 years of celebrating changemakers, seid’ou’s recognition highlights something larger than an individual achievement.

It affirms that some of the world’s most influential cultural ideas are being imagined, debated and refined from Kumasi—and that Ghana’s classrooms can be as transformative as any global museum.

Every memorable art gallery begins with someone who believes a painting deserves more than a wall—it deserves an audience.

In Accra, that belief has shaped Berj Art Gallery into one of Ghana’s enduring champions of West African art.

Founded in 1996 by collector Joyce Quarshie, Berj emerged at a time when many Ghanaian artists were still searching for spaces that could connect their work with wider audiences.

More than three decades later, Quarshie’s commitment has grown into a gallery that celebrates both established masters and emerging voices under one roof.

A Living Story of West African Art

Walking through Berj feels less like entering a showroom and more like stepping into a conversation across generations.

Bold paintings share space with finely carved wooden sculptures, bronze works catch the light from different angles, and photographs add contemporary perspectives to centuries-old artistic traditions.

The gallery’s strength lies in that balance. Acclaimed painters stand alongside rising talents, creating a rare opportunity for visitors to see Ghana’s artistic evolution unfolding in real time.

It is a reminder that culture is not frozen in history; it continues to grow with every new brushstroke and every fresh creative voice.

More Than a Gallery

For international visitors exploring Accra, Berj offers something deeper than a sightseeing stop. It opens a window into Ghana’s creative identity, where craftsmanship, storytelling and heritage intersect.

As the gallery continues hosting exhibitions that bring together local and international artistic influences, it reinforces a simple but powerful truth: preserving culture is not only about protecting the past.

It is about creating spaces where the next generation of artists can imagine—and exhibit—the future.

A family photograph resting on a shelf may look like decoration. A half-finished piece of woven cloth may seem incomplete. A living room may simply be a place to sit.

At Nubuke Foundation in Accra, however, these familiar things are being asked to tell deeper stories.

Weight of the Ordinary, a group exhibition featuring Josiah Tsibu Manu, Priscilla Agbeti, Blanche Boni-Mississo, King David Osabutey (Kakalicka) and Sena Burgundy Appau, turns its attention to the overlooked details of daily life—and finds history hiding there.

Manu’s domestic interiors are particularly evocative. Furniture, photographs and household details become unofficial archives, recalling how Ghanaian homes often carry memories that never enter formal histories.

In Agbeti’s unfinished woven works, meanwhile, labour refuses to disappear behind polished craftsmanship.

The incomplete becomes deliberate, leaving viewers to consider the economic and social histories carried by textiles.

Elsewhere, Boni-Mississo examines how spaces determine who can move freely and who is kept at the margins. Kakalicka draws on Akan cosmology through his Ɔhɔhoɔ, or stranger, connecting questions of displacement and belonging with indigenous ideas.

Appau’s monumental blue figures turn inward, contemplating the uncertainty and possibility of becoming.

Together, the artists suggest that the everyday is not neutral. It is where memory is stored, identities are formed and social boundaries are experienced.

For audiences in Ghana and abroad, the exhibition offers an invitation to look again at what familiarity can conceal. Sometimes, the objects closest to us have the most to say.