Formation | 1964 |
---|---|
Founder | Margaret Feeny |
Type | Charity |
Legal status | Active |
Headquarters | 66 Great Suffolk Street, Southwark |
Location |
|
Website | www |
The Africa Centre, London was founded in 1964 at 38 King Street, Covent Garden, where over the years it held many art exhibitions, conferences, lectures, and a variety of cultural events, as well as housing a gallery, meeting halls, restaurant, bar and bookshop. [1] The Africa Centre closed its original venue in 2013, and now has a permanent home at 66 Great Suffolk Street, Southwark, south London. It is a registered charity. [2]
The Africa Centre was opened in 1964 by Kenneth Kaunda at the Grade II-listed 38 King Street. [3] [4] The building, which had been a banana warehouse in the 18th century and subsequently an auction house, [5] was "given by the Catholic Church in perpetuity to the people of Africa in 1962". [6] [7]
The idea for the centre was conceived in 1961 by Margaret Feeny, whose aim (as described by Lloyd Bradley) was "to foster non-governmental relations between newly independent African nations by bringing people together on neutral apolitical ground. It would also maintain informal cultural links between Britain and her former colonies, while offering a friendly meeting place for Africans living in London." [8]
Archbishop Desmond Tutu used to meet Thabo Mbeki at the bar, and described it as a home "to all who are Africans, and all those who have a care for the interests of the continent and its people". [4] In the words of Richard Dowden, "it became The Place for African presidents, freedom fighters, writers and artists to speak and debate. You could find everything African there, from Ghanaian food to fierce debates and fantastic parties. Sometimes all three at the same time on a Saturday night; a High Life or Congolese band playing to a crammed floor of dancers while below in the basement radicals and reactionaries sipped pepper soup and argued about evolutionary versus revolutionary change. During the week there were talks about art, African dance lessons, films and plays." [6] The Association for the Teaching of African and Caribbean Literature (ATCAL) was among the influential organisations that used the Africa Centre's facilities, holding its inaugural conference ("How to teach Caribbean and African literature in schools") there in 1979. [9]
The centre held frequent exhibitions. Five Black Women in 1983, with Sonia Boyce, Claudette Johnson, Lubaina Himid, Houria Niati and Veronica Ryan, [10] [11] was the first "widely respected" exhibition featuring black women artists. [12] A large mural by Malangatana Ngwenya that decorated the stairwell of the centre's original building in Covent Garden [13] [14] has now been installed in the Africa Centre's new premises in Southwark. [15]
The centre has had a long association with music. In 1975, Wala Danga, a Zimbabwean promoter and sound engineer, organised his first club night there. As he told Lloyd Bradley: "The Africa Centre was unique... One of the first places that people from different African countries really used to mix, because for a lot of the African students it was like a home away from home." [8] [16] In the 1970s and 1980s, political movements including the Anti-Apartheid Movement would also provide the backdrop for concerts at the centre. In October 1981, South African UK-based Angelique Rockas premiered a performance of the anti-junta, anti-fascist drama El Campo (The Camp) by Griselda Gambaro. [17] In 1983, the first clubnight was held at the centre – the "Limpopo Club", which would host artists such as Youssou N'Dour, Angélique Kidjo, and Salif Keita. [16] From 1985 to 1989, Jazzie B would bring to the centre his Soul II Soul sound system, which would acquire "legendary status". [16]
In 2005, the London Art and Artists Guide described it as a "very lively arts centre" that held classes in dance, movement, and literature, and hosted meetings in the evenings; and The Calabash, London's first African restaurant, [18] was considered "well worth a visit". [19] The bookshop sold books published only in Africa, as well as "excellent handicrafts and sculpture". [20]
In August 2012, the building at King Street was sold to a property developer. [3] [21] This was despite a concerted campaign to save the Africa Centre at its original premises, supported by Desmond Tutu, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Yinka Shonibare, Bonnie Greer, Sokari Douglas Camp and others. [7] [14] [21] [22] The centre moved to Great Suffolk Street in Southwark, [23] where it now resides permanently. [15]
In 2018, Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp was appointed as director of the Africa Centre, [24] [25] [26] holding the position until a management restructure in 2020. [27]
The Africa Centre maintains a link with Covent Garden by having an annual Summer Festival in August on the Piazza, since 2013. [28] [29]
The Africa Centre launched its refurbished new headquarters at 66 Great Suffolk Street in Southwark in June 2022. [15] [30]
Borough Market is a wholesale and retail market hall in Southwark, London, England. It is one of the largest and oldest food markets in London, with a market on the site dating back to at least the 12th century. The present buildings were built in the 1850s, and today the market mainly sells speciality foods to the general public.
Modern Art Oxford is an art gallery established in 1965 in Oxford, England. From 1965 to 2002, it was called The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford.
Events from the year 1954 in art.
Malangatana Valente Ngwenya was a Mozambican painter and poet. He frequently exhibited work under his first name alone, as Malangatana. He died on 5 January 2011 in Matosinhos, Portugal.
Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, is a British dance artist, who was chief executive of The Place (2007–16) and director of the Africa Centre, London (2018–20).
The Government Art Collection (GAC) is the collection of artworks owned by the UK government and administered by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The GAC's artworks are used to decorate major government buildings in the UK and around the world, and to promote British art, culture and history. The GAC now holds over 14,000 works of art in a variety of media, including around 2,500 oil paintings, but also sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, textiles and video works, mainly created by British artists or artist with a strong connection to the UK, from the sixteenth century to the present day. Works are displayed in several hundred locations, including Downing Street, ministerial offices and reception areas in Whitehall, regional government offices in the UK, and diplomatic posts outside the UK.
Lubaina Himid is a British artist and curator. She is a professor of contemporary art at the University of Central Lancashire. Her art focuses on themes of cultural history and reclaiming identities.
Maud Sulter was a Scottish contemporary fine artist, photographer, writer, educator, feminist, cultural historian, and curator of Ghanaian heritage. She began her career as a writer and poet, becoming a visual artist not long afterwards. By the end of 1985 she had shown her artwork in three exhibitions and her first collection of poetry had been published. Sulter was known for her collaborations with other Black feminist scholars and activists, capturing the lives of Black people in Europe. She was a champion of the African-American sculptor Edmonia Lewis, and was fascinated by the Haitian-born French performer Jeanne Duval.
Sutapa Biswas is a British Indian conceptual artist, who works across a range of media including painting, drawing, film and time-based media.
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Claudette Elaine Johnson is a British visual artist. She is known for her large-scale drawings of Black women and her involvement with the BLK Art Group, of which she was a founder member. She was described by Modern Art Oxford as "one of the most accomplished figurative artists working in Britain today".
Transmission Gallery is an artist-run space in Glasgow. It was established in 1983 by graduates of Glasgow School of Art. It primarily shows the work of young early career artists and is run by a changing voluntary committee of six people. Among the artists who have served on its committee are Douglas Gordon, Claire Barclay, Roderick Buchanan, Christine Borland, Jacqueline Donachie, Martin Boyce, Simon Starling, Lucy Skaer, Adam Benmakhlouf, Alberta Whittle, Ashanti Sharda Harris and Katherine Ka Yi Liu 廖加怡.
Five Black Women was an exhibition at the Africa Centre, London, featuring the work of British artists Sonia Boyce, Lubaina Himid, Claudette Johnson, Houria Niati and Veronica Ryan held in 1983. The exhibition was organised by Himid, the first of several "widely respected" exhibitions she organised featuring Black women artists.
Margaret Mary Feeny was the founder and first director of London's Africa Centre charity, from 1963 to 1978.
The Other Story was an exhibition held from 29 November 1989 to 4 February 1990 at the Hayward Gallery in London. The exhibition brought together the art of "Asian, African and Caribbean artists in post war Britain", as indicated in the original title. It is celebrated as a landmark initiative for reflecting on the colonial legacy of Britain and for establishing the work of overlooked artists of African, Caribbean, and Asian ancestry. Curated by artist, writer, and editor Rasheed Araeen, The Other Story was a response to the "racism, inequality, and ignorance of other cultures" that was pervasive in the late-Thatcher Britain in the late 1980s. The legacy of the exhibition is significant in the museum field, as many of the artists are currently part of Tate's collections. The exhibition received more than 24,000 visitors and a version of the exhibition travelled to Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 10 March to 22 April 1990; and Manchester City Art Gallery and Cornerhouse, 5 May to 10 June 1990.
Brenda Patricia Agard was a Black-British photographer, artist, poet and storyteller who was most active in the 1980s, when she participated in some of the first art exhibitions organized by Black-British artists in the United Kingdom. Agard's work focused on creating "affirming images centred on the resilience of the Black woman," according to art historian Eddie Chambers.
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