The Manhyia Palace Museum jointly with the UNESCO Representative in Ghana will bestow the inaugural Asantehene Art Awards to ten distinguished artists in Kumasi on May 23, 2025.

It is the beginning of a ten-year project to recognise industrial leaders in the country and to inspire a new generation of practitioners including in the digital arts.

The 2025 Inaugural Artist Laureates which is dubbed, ‘Our Old Masters,’ are being so honoured for their lifetime influence of African art practice and history.

Recognised internationally, they are the painters: founder of the Artists Alliance Gallery in Accra and former Dean of the College of Art at the Kumasi Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Professor Ablade Glover; the last Dean of the College before it was re-named College of Art and Built Environment, Professor Ato Delaquis as well as the metallurgy artist and one of Time magazine’s 2023 100 Mostly Influential People who was also a former Professor and Head of Fine and Applied Arts Department of the University of Nsukka in Nigeria, El Anatsui.

The others are the innovator and sculptor, 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, founder of the Sirigu Women Organisation for Pottery and Art, Melanie Kassie, the Manhyia Palace royal artist, Nana Amponsah Dwumfuor of Nsoase and the Ghanatta College of Art and Design in Accra.

The Manhyia Palace Museum jointly with the UNESCO Representative in Ghana will bestow the inaugural Asantehene Art Awards to ten distinguished artists in Kumasi on May 23, 2025.

It is the beginning of a ten-year project to recognise industrial leaders in the country and to inspire a new generation of practitioners including in the digital arts.

The 2025 Inaugural Artist Laureates which is dubbed, ‘Our Old Masters,’ are being so honoured for their lifetime influence of African art practice and history.

Recognised internationally, they are the painters: founder of the Artists Alliance Gallery in Accra and former Dean of the College of Art at the Kumasi Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Professor Ablade Glover; the last Dean of the College before it was re-named College of Art and Built Environment, Professor Ato Delaquis as well as the metallurgy artist and one of Time magazine’s 2023 100 Mostly Influential People who was also a former Professor and Head of Fine and Applied Arts Department of the University of Nsukka in Nigeria, El Anatsui.

The others are the innovator and sculptor, 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, founder of the Sirigu Women Organisation for Pottery and Art, Melanie Kassie, the Manhyia Palace royal artist, Nana Amponsah Dwumfuor of Nsoase and the Ghanatta College of Art and Design in Accra.