The 2024 19th ACASA Triennial Symposium on African Arts

In August, nearly 250 scholars, collectors, and enthusiasts of African art convened in Chicago for the 19th Triennial Symposium on African Arts. Over four days, the event featured over 70 conference panels centered on human-centered approaches to African arts. Topics included collaboration, diverse knowledge systems, relationship-building, inclusive thinking, and active listening. The Art Institute of Chicago hosted a remarkable keynote address by Adenike Cosgrove, founder of ÌMỌ̀ DÁRA. Cosgrove discussed how her digital platform empowers enthusiasts, scholars, and collectors of African art. Additionally, ACASA honored leaders in the field with awards for leadership, teaching pedagogy, and achievements in books, dissertations, and curatorial practices. The conference, with its varied speakers, interactive sessions, and networking opportunities, proved to be an invaluable platform for intellectual and professional development.

This Triennial would not have been possible without our hosting institutions, DePaul University and the Art Institute of Chicago, and title sponsor Schweizer Premodern. We thank Mark Dike DeLancey and Constantine Petridis for their dedicated work as hosting co-chairs. Because of Schweizer Premodern’s generosity, ACASA was able to support over 50 scholars from the African continent with travel grants.

A special thanks to the tireless efforts of the Programming Committee: Amanda M. Maples (co-chair), Paul Basu (co-chair), George Emeka Agbo, Juliana Ribeiro de Silva Bevilacqua, Zainabu Jallo, Matthew Oyedele, and Alexandra M. Thomas for their countless hours reviewing proposals, organizing panels and roundtables, and accommodating the needs of our attendees. We also thank the dedication of the Fundraising Committee, which allowed ACASA to present such a robust and successful event: Kristine Juncker (chair), Christine Mullen Kreamer, Peju Layiwola, and Alexander Bortolot. 

The Triennial marked a transitional period for the ACASA Board. We expressed our gratitude to seven outgoing board members who played crucial roles in organizing the Triennial and advancing ACASA’s future. Special thanks go to Mark DeLancey (now past president), Kristine Juncker, Amanda M. Maples (now vice-president/president-elect), Kristen Windmuller-Luna, Candace Keller, Kehinde Shobukonla, and Peju Layiwola. Under their leadership and previous ACASA board member Erica P. Jones, the Board secured a $250,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to enhance organizational capacity for scholarly exchanges, programming, and restitution efforts. Kristine Juncker, ACASA Treasurer, led the successful recruitment of Julye Williams, founder of Project 2043, to develop a DEI statement for ACASA. ACASA remains committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion as core components of our mission. We also unveiled a new logo (special thanks to Candace Keller and the Matrix team at Michigan State University), launched a biannual webinar series, and initiated several other projects to advance our goals.

We welcomed new board members: Michelle Apotsos (treasurer-elect), Allison Martino (secretary), David Doris (social media editor), Ruth Sacks (newsletter editor), Amanda M. Maples (vice-president/president-elect), and Paul Basu (transitioning from president-elect to president). We are enthusiastic about the fresh perspectives and objectives this new board brings and look forward to furthering the understanding of African and African Diaspora art and culture.

At the Triennial, the Steering Committee for the Working Group on Collaboration, Collections, and Restitution Best Practices for U.S. Museums Holding African Objects (CCRBP) presented the new Best Practices Document publicly for the first time. The panel, led by CCRBP Co-Chairs Amanda Gilvin and Erica P. Jones, attracted nearly 300 attendees from all over the country eager to learn about the creation of this pivotal document. The CCR Best Practices Document is now available on the ACASA website and is recommended for sharing with all U.S. collecting institutions. To view the impressive document and recording of the panel, please visit this link.

The Triennial concluded with Museum Day at the Art Institute of Chicago, where over 20 museum professionals shared their research in specialized fields often overlooked in conferences but crucial to presenting African art in the 21st century. Special thanks to the Museum Day Planning committee: co-chairs Kristen Windmuller-Luna and Constantine Petridis, along with Ashley Fiutko Arico and Annissa Malvoisin, for their tireless efforts to host such a diverse program. Museum Day featured contributions from Egyptologists, archaeologists, Nubiologists, conservators, research scientists, and audience evaluation specialists, offering valuable insights into their work.

The ACASA Awards Ceremony honored an unprecedented number of scholars and researchers in the field. The celebration lasted late into the night with a fantastic dance party, great music, and even better company. ACASA honored two distinguished scholars in the field with the ACASA Leadership Award: Robin Poynor and Anitra Nettleton.

Suzanne Blier shared these words for Robin Poynor:
“We are honored to present this year’s co-winner of the ACASA Lifetime Achievement Award to Robin Poynor, Professor Emeritus in the School of Art & Art History, University of Florida, Gainesville. He exemplifies excellence in scholarship, curatorial practice, mentorship, and leadership in the field. Robin began his Ph.D. in 1967 under Roy Sieber (Indiana University), following a BFA in sculpture at the San Francisco Art Institute. Robin’s scholarship has been broad reaching. He co-edited the textbook A History of Art in Africa (2008, 20010, 2024). he has also maintained close ties with the Owo Yoruba community in Nigeria with whom he did extensive field research, addressing questions as varied as Egungun masks (1978), Textiles (1980), and Ako second burial figures (1987) in various African Arts articles, as well as an overview article on the field in the 50th anniversary issue ofAfrican Arts (2017).

A mentor to multiple Ph.D. and MA students in an array of disciplines. Robin also has been active in museum and curatorial work. These contributions include Nigerian Sculpture Bridges to Power (Birmingham Museum – 1984), African Art at the Harn Museum (2001) as well as From Ogun’s Forge- Metal Art for the Orisha: The Sculptures of Yaw Owusu Shangofemi and Vassa Niemark (Thomas Center Gallery, Gainesville FL – 2007). His 2013 exhibit and catalogue, Kongo across the Waters (and catalogue 2013) brought together scholarly expertise. Robin’s Africa in Florida: 500 Years of African Presence in the Sunshine State (2014) addressed Africa local history. ACASA has benefitted greatly from Robin’s efforts. An ACASA member since its inception in 1982, he served on the governance committee from 2001 to 2006 then as President from 2002-2004. In 2007 in part through his efforts the 14th Triennial Symposium was held in Gainesville. As a teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend, Robin’s generosity and collegiality has been boundless.”

Marla Berns shared these words for Anitra Nettleton:
“We are honored to present the 2024 ACASA Leadership Award to art historian Anitra Nettleton, Professor Emerita at the University of Witswatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she received all of her academic degrees and then taught from 1970 to her retirement in 2015. Her 1985 PhD dissertation was on “The Figurative Wood Carving of the Shona and Venda,” making her one of the first South African scholars to disseminate knowledge about the historical arts of southern Africa.

Her distinguished record of accomplishments makes Professor Nettleton highly deserving of this award. She has been a leader and innovator over the fifty-plus-year arc of her career. She was responsible for broadening the study of art history at Wits to include the arts of Africa with an emphasis on regional southern African arts. Notably, she spent thirty-six years building the Standard Bank African Art Collection, which became the foundation of the new Wits Art Museum. She dedicated twenty years to spearheading the Museum’s realization.

Nettleton’s work epitomizes what ACASA seeks in recipients of the Leadership Award: highly effective teaching and mentorship ( she supervised 15 Masters and 9 PhDs); holding key administrative appointments (including Head of Art History and Academic Head of the Wits Museum); groundbreaking research (she received a B3 rating) and extensive international publishing (on regional modernism, wood sculpture, and beadwork, among other topics); curating and consulting on exhibitions and collections; service on editorial boards for key journals in the field; collaborative work with colleagues worldwide; and more. Nettleton has been an ACASA member since 1986 and was elected to the ACASA Board in 2017.”

Special thanks to all awards committee volunteers for the dedication set forth to honor such an esteemed group of winners. Awards Committee volunteers include Shannen Hill, John Monroe, Jean Borgatti, Erica P. Jones, Fiona Seigenthaler, Ndubuisi Ezeluombna, Azu Nwagbogu, Kehinde Shobukonla, Ashley Stewart, Cynthia Becker, Tenley Bick, Antawan Byrd, Henry Drewal, David Doris, Candace Keller, Guilia Paoletti, Marla Berns, Suzanne Blier, Mary Jo Arnoldi, Christa Clarke, and Roslyn Walker. The complete list of winners can be found below. 

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2024 ACASA Award Winners:

Arnold Rubin Outstanding Publication Award

Single author winners:
Jennifer Bajorek for Unfixed: Photography and Decolonial Imagination in West Africa (Duke 2020)
Delinda Collier for Media Primitivism: Technological Art in Africa (Duke 2020)
Barbara Frank for Griot Potters of the Folona: The History of an African Ceramic Tradition (Indiana 2021)
Matthew Rarey for Insignificant Things: Amulets and the Art of Survival in the Early Black Atlantic (Duke 2023)

Multi-author winners:
Bongi Dhlomo and Pfunzo Sidogi for Mihloti Ya Ntasako: Journeys with the Bongi Dhlomo Collection (Javett Art Centre, U of Pretoria 2022)
Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu for El Anatsui: The Reinvention of Sculpture (Damiani 2022)
Perrin Lathrop (ed) for African Modernism in America (Fisk & Yale 2022)
José de Silva Horta, Carlos Almeida, and Peter Mark (eds) for African Ivories in the Atlantic World, 1400-1900 (Centro de História da Universidade de Lisboa 2021)

Single author honorable mention (in no particular order):
Christa Clarke for The Activist Collector: Lida Clanton Broner’s 1938 Journey from Newark to South Africa (Newark Museum & Rutgers 2022)
Jordan Fenton for Masquerade and Money in Urban Nigeria: The Case of Calabar (U of Rochester 2022)
Ferdinand de Jong for Decolonizing Heritage: Time to Repair in Senegal (Cambridge 2022)
Okechukwu Nwafor for Aso Ebi: Dress, Fashion, Visual Culture, and Urban Cosmopolitanism in West Africa (Michigan 2021)

Multi-author honorable mention (in no particular order):
Bennetta Jules-Rosette & J.R. Osborn for African Art Reframed: Reflections and Dialogues on Museum Culture (Illinois 2021)
Contanstijn Petridis (ed) for The Language of Beauty in African Art (AIC & Yale 2022)
Allen Roberts, Marla Berns, Tom Joyce, Henry J. Drewal, William Dewey, and Candace Goucher (eds) for Striking Iron: The Art of the African Blacksmith (Fowler Museum UCLA 2019)
Ray Silverman and Neal Sobania for Ethiopian Church Art: Painters, Patrons, and Purveyors (Tsehai 2022)

ACASA Award for Curatorial Excellence

Africa-Based Exhibition Winner:
Bernard Akoi-Jackson for Simply Iconic! Vintage Images off the Beaten Path at The Heritage Photo Lab in Accra

Large-Scale Exhibition Winner:
Paul Basu for [Re]Entanglements: Colonial Collections in Decolonial Times at Museum of Archeology and Anthropology at Cambridge University

Small-Scale Exhibition Winner:
Laura de Becker for Wish You Were Here: African Art and Restitution at University of Michigan Museum of Art

Shortlisted (in no particular order):
Andrea Gyorody and Matthew Francis Rarey for Afterlives of the Black Atlantic at Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College
Kevin D. Dumouchelle for Heroes: Principles of African Greatness at National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian
Rachel Kabukala for Radical Revisionists: Contemporary African Artists Confronting Past & Present at Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University
Tameka Ellington and Joseph L. Underwood for Textures: the history and art of Black hair at Kent State University Museum
Sandrine Colard for Congoville at Middelheim Museum, Antwerp
David M. Riep for Shattering Perspectives: A Teaching Collection of African Ceramics at Gregory Allicar Museum of Art at Colorado State University

ACASA Award for Teaching Excellence

Distinguished Teaching Award Winner:
Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi, Emory University

Early/Mid-Career Teaching Award Winner:
Genevieve Hill-Thomas, Ringling College of Art and Design

Roy Sieber Dissertation Award

Winner:
Rebecca Wolff for “Experience and Memory: The Nigerian Civil War (1967–70) and Its Effect on Nigerian Contemporary Art”

Honorable Mention:
Greer Odile Valley for “Legacies and Afterlives of Dutch Colonialism: Told and Imagined Accounts of South African Colonial Histories in Contemporary Exhibition Practice”

ACASA Leadership Award
Robin Poynor
Anitra Nettleton