Black Muse Art Festival 2025
Following its foundational edition in 2024 themed “The Opening”, Angels and Muse is proud to present the inaugural edition of the Black Muse Art Festival, expanding into a five-day multidisciplinary programme across visual art, literature and culture.
This year’s edition takes place in Benin City, Edo State, from November 8–12, 2025, under the theme “Let the Forest Dance.” The festival borrows its rhythm and inspiration from Wole Soyinka’s iconic play A Dance of the Forests. In reimagining this classic title, the Black Muse Art Festival positions art as a transformative lens to reflect on urgent contemporary questions of conservation and community—values deeply rooted in the traditions of the ancient Benin Kingdom and resonant in indigenous systems across Africa. Through exhibitions, performances, conversations, and communal gatherings, Black Muse Art Festival celebrates the enduring role of art in preserving memory, shaping cultural narratives, and imagining sustainable futures.
Theme:
Let the forest dance
The inaugural theme reflects both a poetic metaphor and a cultural reawakening. In ancient Benin, sacred groves were revered as spiritual sanctuaries and ecological treasures, shielded from exploitation and destruction. These practices underscore a wisdom that resonates with our present-day urgencies: the need to protect biodiversity and re-centre communal ethos in an age where technological and economic expedience threatens both. By invoking Let the Forest Dance, the festival creates space for reflection and imagination: How can art help us listen to the voices of our environment? How might community—ancient and contemporary—become a living resource for preservation, creativity, and renewal?
Black Muse Sculpture Park Launch
Black Muse Sculpture Park Opening
The major highlight of the festival is the public unveiling of the Black Muse Sculpture Park, a landmark cultural site designed to become a hub for public art, conversation, and gathering. On the warm afternoon of November 9, 2025, as soft clouds drifted gently against the blue sky, festival goers congregated at the grounds of the Black Muse Sculpture Park, where the works of the exhibiting artists, alongside two loaned sculptures from the University of Benin, bejewelled the lush grass of the park. Our event partner Knorr set up a resplendent “Jollof Fest” booth, from which they dispensed tasty meals.
Ázágbà Pavilion
Featured in the Black Muse Sculpture Park includes a bamboo pavilion, called Ázágbà, which is an Esan word for compound. This space is a striking architectural centerpiece designed by our commissioned Architect-in-Residence, James Inedu George. The pavilion also features stained-glass windows by Victor Ehikhamenor, infusing a play of light and colour into the pavilion.
Sculpture Exhibition
Curated by Kenyan independent curator Renee Mboya, and under the tentative title “Today, Tomorrow, The Moon Will Still Be”, the exhibition interrogates and asks the question, What is sculpture? while exploring materiality in contemporary practice. Featured artists include: Olanrewaju Tejuosho, Osaru Obaseki, Ayobami Ogungbe, Uzor Ugoala, Kelly Omodamwen, Seidougha Linus Eyimiegha (Mr. Danfo) and David Alabo.
Black Muse Patron’s Art Prize
The inaugural Black Muse Patron’s Art Prize for Sculpture provided professional recognition for sculptural practice, with a jury comprising Peju Oshin, Kemi Ilesanmi, Aude Mgba, Kola Aina and Qudus Onikeku. Supported by the Osahon Okunbo Foundation, the prize created an additional platform for visibility and recognition of contemporary sculptural practice.
The Àkòròlé Residency
The festival will inaugurate the Àkòròlé Residency, a program dedicated to mid-career and established art practitioners. Àkòròlé is an Esan expression meaning to plant, gather, and eat, is both prayer and promise—a blessing of harvest, nourishment, and communal sharing. Each November, four art practitioners across different art practices and disciplines will be hosted at the Àkòròlé House to foster knowledge exchange amongst residents, deepen their practices, engage with local contexts, and contribute to global conversations in contemporary art.
Academic and Professional Collaborations
In partnership with the Department of Fine and Applied Art and the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Benin, the festival also seeks to bridge the educational and professional art ecosystems. Programs will include conversations and panel discussions, plays, readings and live performances, student-led presentations, collaborative screenings and workshops. This partnership affirms the festival’s role as both a site of intergenerational exchange and a bridge between practice and pedagogy.
Multidisciplinary Program
Beyond its key highlights, the Black Muse Art Festival offers a dynamic range of activities designed to engage diverse audiences:
Film Screenings
Contemporary African cinema and archival rediscoveries.
Concerts & Performances
Music, dance, and cross-disciplinary collaborations.
Food Tastings & Presentations
Exploring food as memory, archive, and communal practice.
Workshops & Masterclasses
Hands-on sessions for young and emerging artists, curators, and cultural
practitioners.Community Gatherings
Spaces for dialogue, exchange, and shared celebration.
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