Exhibiting as an Apprentice: Collaborative Exhibition-Making in a Ghanaian Sign-Painting Workshop

Abstract (English)

This presentation explores how collaborative exhibition-making can emerge from ethnographic apprenticeship and artistic co-creation in a Ghanaian sign painting workshop. Over an eight-month period in 2024, I apprenticed under a master painter and worked alongside local artisans, not only producing artworks within the workshop’s traditions but also documenting the process through photography and video. These relationships culminated in the co-creation of two exhibitions: one is in Kumasi for local audiences, my research area, and a regional city where the workshop is located. Another is in the capital city, Accra, an urban art space in collaboration with a Ghanaian art organization for global and diaspora audiences.

By inhabiting the role of apprentice rather than external curator or observer, I engaged in a process where narrative authority was negotiated and shared. Both exhibitions reflect different modes of co-authorship, audience orientation, and curatorial logic—raising questions about how participatory methods can shift power in exhibition-making. This approach resonates with what Ruth Phillips (2006) calls a “dialogic paradigm,” where exhibitions become spaces of multivocal negotiation rather than institutional imposition.

In this context, my work aligns with the broader movement to decolonize museum practices, as articulated by scholars such as Amy Lonetree (2012), who emphasizes the importance of truth-telling, community voice, and cultural sovereignty. The collaborative processes I engaged in also echo the models described in Museums and Source Communities (Peers & Brown, 2003), which advocate for long-term, reciprocal relationships between curators and source communities.

Through these case studies, I argue that the exhibition process itself—rather than its final form—can function as a decolonizing and relational method. By prioritizing co-creation, situated labor, and plural authorship, the project challenges conventional boundaries between artist, curator, researcher, and community member. It also highlights the potential of apprenticeship as a method for fostering ethical, long-term collaboration in community-centered exhibition practices.