2026 Asantehene Art Awards Set For Today
The second edition of the Asantehene Osei Tutu II Art Awards is scheduled to take place today, May 13 at the Manhyia Palace, where eight distinguished artists will be recognised.
Around 500 guests, including about 10 ambassadors and high commissioners, as well as 15 heads of United Nations agencies and other international development organisations, are expected to convene at the event.
The event will have the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Hon. Dzifa Gomashie, as the guest of honour.
Addressing the press ahead of the event, the Director of the Manhyia Palace Museum, Ivor Agyeman-Dua, said the laureates have defined art for the current generation of creative artists.
He said their selection was merit-based, with recommendations from a jury that independently assessed their works.
He noted that the laureates include three non-Ghanaians due to the internationalisation of the programme.
The artists to be honoured are the founder of the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, Red Clay, and Nkrumah Volini in Tamale, Ibrahim Mahama; installation artist and painter based in New York, Yaw Owusu; painter Victor Butler; and painter Larry Otoo.
The rest are portrait artist Afia Prempeh; the first contemporary artist from Seychelles, Leon Radegonde; African Curator at the British Museum, Julie Hudson; and curator Osei Bonsu.
About Scheme
The award scheme was conceived by the Monarch of the Asante Kingdom in partnership with UNESCO as a ten-year project to recognise industrial leaders in the country and to inspire a new generation of practitioners, including those in the digital arts.
The visionary idea was constituted as part of efforts to sustain contemporary Ghanaian art, which had recently been at the mercy of European, American, and Middle Eastern markets.
Maiden Edition
The maiden edition, dubbed “Our Old Masters,” held on May 23, 2025, was dedicated to Emeritus Professors of painting and sculpture, public artists, and gallerists who have been members of the avant-garde, second-generation pioneers.
The artists were the founders of the Artists Alliance Gallery in Accra and former Dean of the College of Art at the Kumasi Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Professor Ablade Glover; the last Dean of the College before it was renamed the College of Art and Built Environment, Professor Ato Delaquis; as well as the metallurgical artist and one of Time Magazine’s 2023 100 Most Influential People, who was also a former Professor and Head of the Fine and Applied Arts Department at the University of Nsukka in Nigeria, El Anatsui.
The others were the innovator and sculptor Francis Kwatei Nee-Owoo of Touch of Bronze; the gallerist Frances Ademola of The Loom; the folklore princess, painter, collector, and author Peggy Appiah; the public artist Kwame Akoto in Kumasi; founder of the Sirigu Women Organisation for Pottery and Art in the Upper East, Melanie Kasise; and the Manhyia Palace royal artist, Nana Amponsah Dwumfuor of Nsoase and the Ghanatta College of Art and Design in Accra.
Story by Hajara Fuseni
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