Noldor Residency
The art incubator’s founder chats about its inception, achievements, and exciting plans for its expansion.
Having studied at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art and completed an internship at Sulger-Buel gallery in London, dynamic multihyphenate Joseph Awuah-Darko returned to Ghana to launch the Noldor Artist Residency in November 2020. At only 24-years-old this is an impressive achievement. Joseph explains that Corona Virus was the catalyst.
“I lost my mother, sister, and aunt to Covid. Besides all the loss, the collateral beauty of the pandemic was the opportunity to take things slower and reimagine our futures. For me, it was essential to be involved in Ghana’s artistic ecology. I feel I have a built intuition to discover, understand, and nurture artistic talent. And so Noldor was born.”
Located in a former pharmaceutical factory, Noldor’s 700-square-meters of studio space allows for a peaceful utopian artist commune to exist amid Labadi’s buzzing beach-side community. On his aims for the institute, Joseph says, “I want us to be the most formidable pillar to support African contemporary and diaspora artists on the entire continent.”
He and his team are working hard to make that happen. Through fellowship and residency programmes, selected artists are nurtured and taught how to deepen their practice. They also receive valuable mentorship from senior fellows. And the unprecedented success of Noldor artists like Joshua Oheneba-Takyi proves that the formula is working.
“In an arguably hyper-conservative draconian culture like Ghana, where parents want their kids to be engineers, lawyers, doctors, etc. it’s wonderful to see artists becoming serious breadwinners and role models,” he reflects proudly. “It’s showing communities that there is a way to be empowered sustainably through art.”
On the year ahead, Joseph tells us, “I’m really excited to have Araba Opoku as our junior fellow for 2022.” Joseph describes Araba’s acrylic explorations of the excess and absence of water as, “a refreshing abstraction of the figurative portraiture movement.” Her post-fellowship exhibition will be held in Q4 of 2022.
On probing his future plans, Joseph revealed excitedly, “Artists often pledge a number of museum-quality pieces to the institution. So, soon the Noldor Residency and Fellowship will be programmes under what will formally be recognised as the Institute Museum of Ghana.”
With Joseph’s bold vision and contagious enthusiasm we have no doubt that this exciting new museum will come to life soon.
For updates, see: www.noldorresidency.com
