500 Guests to Convene at Manhyia Palace for Asantehene Arts Awards
Around 500 guests will gather at the Manhyia Palace to participate in the second edition of the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Arts Awards, a scheme that celebrates excellence, innovation and contributions to contemporary art.
With the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Hon. Dzifa Gomashie, as the guest of honour, the event will be graced by about 10 ambassadors and high commissioners, as well as 15 heads of United Nations agencies and other international development organisations.
It will take place on May 13, 2026, where the King of the Asante Kingdom, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and his wife, Lady Julia, will decorate eight distinguished artists with laurels.
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.
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.
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.
Justice and Repair is also a partner to the scheme.
Story by Hajara Fuseini
Click to read more: https://opemsuo.com/author/hajara-fuseini/
