ASE Arts
To Discover and Spotlight Africa’s Authentic Culture, History and Art.
Who We Are
ASE Arts is a subsidiary of the prolific African School of Economics (ASE) collective, and our focus is on promoting Africa's authentic art, history and culture through scholarly inquiry. This supports African historians and practitioners in African arts and culture, and by showcasing our rich African heritage to a global audience. We are invested in uncovering the more obscure elements of the continent's diverse cultures and vast history, as well as exhibiting the more commonly known ones, and thereby rendering Africa in the most positive light to the rest of the world, and to ourselves.
African History
Crucially, ASE Arts promotes the presentation of authentic versions of Africa's history to the world. We do this through academic research, helmed by the Institute of African Studies (IAS) at ASE, into uncertain or unknown elements of vital indigenous history.
For instance, IAS contributed essential research findings to the highly acclaimed Hollywood movie: The Woman King, and similarly, plans to collaborate with film industries across the world to tell the correct versions of our stories.
We will also produce documentaries around African history, and we will do this in collaboration with African governments, development agencies and donor organizations; and we plan to build the ASE Library of African Art (text, audio recordings, film) at the ASE Abuja campus in 2023/24.
African Theater & Film
Having achieved a successful partnership with Hollywood for the movie: The Woman King, we intend to forge an alliance between Hollywood and Nollywood, to promote African stories and history. We have already commenced conversations with frontline representatives of both film industries towards this end, with very promising outcomes.
ASE Arts will support, partake in and lead the production of movies in both industries and in collaborations between them, that push positive narratives of and for Africa.
We will also produce theater features that will run regularly at our different country locations, as well as support African theater by funding the practitioners, providing them with historical information for their content, and publicizing their work.
African Dance, Poetry & Performance Art
In the coming months, we will host regular gatherings of writers, spoken word poets, and performance artists at our ASE Abuja facility for showcasing craft and networking.
We aim to be an exhibition hub and rendezvous for the highest levels of these art forms across Africa, through our various country locations.
Furthermore, we will support practitioners here with endowments and mentoring access, providing them with authentic historical and cultural details to inspire their work.
ASE Gallery
Salim Abdulrazaq
© 2023
Aisha Aliyu-Bima
Arts Curator
Aisha Aliyu-Bima is an independent curator, photographer, researcher and archivist with keen interest in Northern Nigerian Social anthropology.
Be a part of African culture and art
By donating to organisations that protect and promote African art, you are helping to ensure that this important aspect of the continent's history is not lost.
You are also supporting the artists who create these works, and ensuring that their talent is recognised and celebrated. African art is vibrant, exciting and full of life - by supporting it, you are helping to keep it alive for future generations.