“Solving/Resolving”: On the Role of Women in Building Ghana’s Contemporary Art Ecosystem

This article explores the critical role of women in establishing the infrastructure that has allowed Ghana’s art scene to flourish into an art ecosystem. Using Ghana as a case study, this article will examine why new models of art markets and scenes are necessary for considering global contemporary art. It will also put forward some preliminary tenets to define such an ecosystem, compelled by the need to expand our art histories to recognize institution builders. By suggesting that art historians must work toward a rigorous and specific definition of ecosystem, this article makes space to acknowledge the work of Ghanaian women in the 1990s and early 2000s as undergirding the scene’s explosive rise in the 2010s and into the 2020s. It argues that the extant infrastructure they built was necessary for Ghana to become a sustainable art ecosystem and, thus, that the work of women has been integral, if less visible, to the scene’s success.