The question of who is “properly trained” often reflects power structures more than artistic depth. Degrees remain shorthand for credibility in many art markets, yet African art history shows that innovation has emerged from both formal academies and informal networks.
Lead photo: https://eyesofalagosboy.com/2025/12/17/from-exhibition-to-streetscape-the-lasting-impact-of-creative-collaboration/
Picture this:
AN artist’s CV lists a respected university, international residencies, and curated exhibitions. Another artist’s biography reads simply: ‘self-taught’. Both show at the same fair. Both command attention. The question lingers in quieter conversations near the booth: who is properly trained?
In many African art circles, that distinction still carries weight. Degrees signal discipline and theory; apprenticeships suggest instinct and proximity to community. But the continent’s art history complicates any easy hierarchy. Formal academies and informal studio cultures have long developed side by side—sometimes in tension, often in dialogue.
Formal Schools: Inherited structures, rewritten agendas
Modern art schools across Africa grew from colonial education systems. Institutions such as Yaba College of Technology, Makerere University, the École des Arts in Dakar, and the Michaelis School of Fine Art adopted European academic models centered on life drawing, perspective, and Western art history.
But these schools were never static copies. At Ahmadu Bello University, the Zaria Art Society challenged strict naturalism in the late 1950s, proposing “Natural Synthesis”—a merging of academic training with indigenous aesthetics. In Senegal, Senghor’s cultural vision shaped the École des Arts into a space where modernism aligned with Négritude.
From early on, formal schools were sites of adaptation. They offered credentials and research infrastructure, but they also became arenas where artists redefined what modern African art could be.
Workshop and Collective: The Counter-Classroom
Alongside universities, workshop models developed their own authority. The Oshogbo workshops of the 1960s encouraged intuitive experimentation outside academic constraints. In South Africa, the Market Photo Workshop expanded access to photographic training in the late apartheid and post-apartheid years. Nairobi’s Kuona Artists Collective continues to provide studio space, mentorship, and peer critique without granting degrees.
These spaces prioritise practice and exchange over accreditation. Learning happens through doing—through proximity to other artists rather than formal assessment. They may lack institutional stability, but they often provide entry points for those excluded by cost, geography, or bureaucracy.
Access, Class, and Geography
Art education is shaped by economics. Tuition fees, urban location, and language requirements determine who can enter formal institutions. Many major academies are concentrated in capital cities, requiring relocation and sustained financial support.
Informal pathways, such as apprenticeships, studio mentorships, and community workshops, can be more accessible. They allow artists to learn within local contexts, often without formal enrolment.
Yet access does not equal equality. Informal systems may lack research resources, archival depth, or institutional recognition. The barriers shift, but they do not disappear.
What Training Actually Shapes
Formal education often sharpens critical vocabulary. Students learn to situate their work historically, articulate conceptual frameworks, and engage curatorial discourse. Structured critique reinforces technical discipline.
Collectives and workshop environments tend to cultivate adaptability. Artists experiment more freely, respond directly to social realities, and build confidence through peer exchange.
The difference lies less in talent than in orientation toward institutional literacy or community responsiveness, toward theory or material intuition.
Rethinking Legitimacy
The question of who is “properly trained” often reflects power structures more than artistic depth. Degrees remain shorthand for credibility in many art markets, yet African art history shows that innovation has emerged from both formal academies and informal networks.
Training, ultimately, is less about the presence of a certificate and more about the seriousness of engagement. Whether in a lecture hall or a shared studio, what matters is rigour, curiosity, and sustained practice.
* https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQfCDQjqMQTtXJlrXwJQZqpBNWP
Further reading:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14729679.2022.2054838#abstract
