The World Reimagined

A native Californian with Bajan and Yoruba roots, Ashley is known for promoting the representation of those not in the room and creating conversations that generate action towards equity. She is the Global Head of Research at Adjaye Associates, an award-winning international architectural firm committed to community engagement through civic projects. She holds a BA in Philosophy and Visual Art from Stanford University, an MBA from INSEAD, and a MSc from the Gender Institute at London School of Economics. Currently, Ashley sits on the Africa Futures Institute Board of Trustees, The Prince’s Trust International Africa Advisory Board, and the Institute of Imagination Board of Trustees. She lives between Accra, London and New York City with her family.

Chris Ofili was born in Manchester, England, in 1968, and currently lives and works in Trinidad. He received his BA in Fine Art from the Chelsea School of Art in 1991 and his MA in Fine Art from the Royal College of Art in 1993. Solo exhibitions of his work have been presented internationally, including recent shows at the National Gallery, London (2017); the New Museum, New York (2014), travelling to Aspen Art Museum (2015); The Arts Club of Chicago (2010); Tate Britain, London (2010 and 2005); kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2006), The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2005), and Serpentine Gallery, London (1998). He represented Britain in the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003 and won the Turner Prize in 1998. His works are held in the permanent collections of a number of museums, including the British Museum, London; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; MoMA, New York; Tate, London; the V&A, London; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

Matthew J. Smith is Professor of History and Director of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery. Previously he taught at the University of the West Indies, Mona in Jamaica where he was Professor of Caribbean History. His research is pan-Caribbean with special interest in Haiti and Jamaica. Among his publications is Liberty, Fraternity, Exile: Haiti and Jamaica After Emancipation (2014) and Red and Black in Haiti: Radicalism, Conflict and Political Change, 1934-1957 (2009). He is also director of a 2018 documentary film The Past is Not Our Future: Walter Rodney’s Student Years.

Renée Mussai is a curator, writer and scholar with a special interest in African and diasporic lens-based visual arts practices. She is Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial & Collection at Autograph, London, an arts charity advocating for rights, representation and social justice through photography and film, where she has worked for almost two decades: organising exhibitions in Europe, Africa and America, commissioning a diverse constituency of international artists, developing a range of artistic programmes including publications and curating Autograph’s unique collection of photography. Mussai lectures regularly on photography, visual culture, and curatorial activism, and her writing has appeared in numerous artist monographs and anthologies including by TATE, Aperture, NkA, and other journals and publications. Her recent publications and exhibitions include Lina Iris Viktor: Some Are Born to Endless Night—Dark Matter (2019/20), Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama—Hail the Dark Lioness (2017 – present); Phoebe Boswell: The Space Between Things (2018/19); and Black Chronicles IV (2018). Initiated by Zanele Muholi, she has co-curated the collaborative Women’s Mobile Museum (Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, 2018). In addition to her curatorial practice, Mussai is Research Associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre, University of Johannesburg; Associate Lecturer at University of the Arts London; and since 2009, regular guest curator and former Fellow at the Hutchins Centre for African & African American Research at Harvard University. She is also a part-time PhD candidate in History of Art at University College London where she is currently completing her doctoral thesis on nineteenth century ‘raced’ portrait photography and contemporary curatorial care, based on the critically acclaimed The Missing Chapter – Black Chronicles archive research programmes she has led between 2014 – 2018 (publication forthcoming 2021/22). She serves on a number of committees including The Royal Photographic Society and Fast Forward: Women in Photography.

Dr. Zoé Whitley is Director of London’s non-profit Chisenhale Gallery. Zoé curated Frieze London’s 2020 special exhibition Possessions and co-curated Elijah Pierce’s America at the Barnes Foundation. She curated the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2019) and co-curated the award-winning Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power. She writes widely on contemporary artists and 20th century designers, including children’s books on Frank Bowling and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. She serves on the Arts Council Collection committee, on the boards of Creative Access, Decolonising Arts Institute and the London Mayor’s Commission on Diversity in the Public Realm.