Nana Ofosuaa Ayim wins ‘Woman of the Year’ in Cultural Arts award

Celebrated writer, filmmaker and art historian, Nana Ofosuaa Ayim, was over the weekend honoured with the ‘Woman of the Year in Cultural Arts’ award.

The founder of the ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge was recognised on Sunday (4 August) with a  host of other women leaders for making a significant impact on Ghanaian society.

The ‘Woman of the Year’ award adds to a collection of awards won by Nana Ofosuaa Ayim in recent years.

In addition, she was named one of the Apollo ’40 under 40’; one of 50 African Trailblazers by The Africa Report; a Quartz Africa Innovator in 2017.

She also received the 2015 Art & Technology Award from LACMA, the 2016 AIR Award.

Others who were awarded include Abena Osei-Poku, the MD of Absa; Doreen Andoh of the Multimedia Group;  Shirley A. Botchway, the Foreign Affairs Minister; actress Akofa Edjeani and the artiste celebrated musician Becca.

The honourees were selected by an astute board of achievers who used clear and objective criteria in ensuring that the final list comprises the most deserving women in various fields.

Profile of Nana Ofosuaa Ayim

Nana Ofosuaa Ayim is a Writer, Filmmaker, and Art Historian who is the Founder of the ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge. She has pioneered a Pan-African Cultural Encyclopaedia, a Mobile Museums Project and curated Ghana’s first pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

She published her first novel, The God Child with Bloomsbury in 2019, and with Penguin in German in 2021.

She has made award-winning films for museums such as Tate Modern, LACMA and The New Museum. She lectures a course in History and Theory at the Architectural Association in London.

She received in 2015, the Art & Technology Award from LACMA; the 2016 AIR Award, which seeks to honour and celebrate extraordinary African artists who are committed to producing provocative, innovative and socially-engaging work; a 2018 Soros Arts Fellowship, was a 2018 Global South Visiting Fellow at Oxford University, was appointed to the Advisory Council of Oxford University’s Cultural Programme in 2020, was a Principal Investigator on the Action for Restitution to Africa programme.

She is currently an unpaid Special Advisor to the Ghanaian Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture on Museums and Cultural Heritage, overseeing plans to restructure the museums’ sector.

Her main concern is how to make museums relevant to communities throughout the country, not just to a few, and to have them become a space in which Ghanaians can see themselves reflected and have their voices heard.

She has travelled across the length and breadth of the country talking to fishermen, weavers, charcoal sellers, farmers, teachers, lawyers etc, asking them about what they would like to see and experience.

This will be seen in a film that will soon be shown on Ghanaian television. She has also brought together a committee of legal, financial and structural experts to review the current museums’ landscape and make reform proposals to create museums suitable for the Ghanaian context.

You can find the report here: www.ghanaheritagefuture.com

You can follow her activities on her website: www.nanaoforiattaayim.com, on Instagram @nanaoforiattaayim, on Twitter @OforiattaAyim, and Facebook @nanaoayim.

Source: Daily Mail GH