From the President

Greetings from the President, Arts Council of the African Studies Association. The Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) convened its 14th Triennial in April 2007 at the University of Florida Gainesville and it was very successful. My tenure dates from this event and I am now working with many esteemed colleagues and fellow ACASA members to chart a map for the organization’s advancement in the next couple of years. I am very honored to lead ACASA and hope that the organization continues to grow in its programs and advocacy on behalf of African arts and visual cultures. I want to thank the Past-President Kate Ezra and her able committee members for their selfless service and welcome our new board members and members of various committees. We hope to focus on revamping ACASA’s programs and creating a forum for initiating important discussions on the state of African arts and visual culture scholarship in general.

Organization and Membership
ACASA is now twenty-five years old and in that time has grown into a respectable organization. As the study of African arts and visual cultures expand globally, we expect to see a continued pattern of growth as we expand our drive for new members from the USA, Africa, Europe, and Asia. We plan to expand collaborative affiliations with relevant organizations in these regions as a way of increasing the global footprint of ACASA. We are proud to state that almost 50% of our members are based in Africa and receive free membership as a result of ACASA’s program of fostering greater educational interaction between our USA and African members. ACASA sponsors a number of African scholars to our Triennial meetings and also distributes publications to libraries of African Universities free of charge.

ACASA Triennial: Africa 2010
ACASA is pleased to announce plans to hold its 15th Triennial Conference in Africa in 2010. At the last board/general meeting at ASA 2007, the members present voted to hold the 2010 ACASA Triennial in Dakar, Senegal. The upcoming Triennial provides ACASA with a chance for improved collaboration and dialogue with our colleagues in Africa. We expect to receive the collaboration of significant institutions in the USA and also secure some institutional support for raising the funds necessary to actualize the ACASA-Africa 2010 Triennial proposal. We will post new information on the progress of these plans to our website periodically. ACASA promotes expansion of knowledge-based resources for global education about African and is a powerful advocate of using cultural education to improve the economic conditions of African peoples. By promoting educational outreach and the expansion of educational content on arts and visual culture, ACASA contributes to the intellectual and cultural development of Africa as well as the viability of scholarship by all those who conduct research on African arts and visual cultures. We look forward to increasing our programs in the next three years as we work diligently towards a groundbreaking and successful Triennial in Africa in 2010. Thanks to the entire membership for electing me to the Presidency of ACASA. I look forward to serving the organization to the full extent of my abilities.