Peju Layiwola, PhD, is an artist, scholar, and curator whose work examines the intersections of history, cultural memory, and contemporary artistic practice. Formerly Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, she currently serves as the Mellon Curatorial Fellow at the Stanley Museum of Art at the University of Iowa. Layiwola is also the founder of WY Art, which provides mentorship, training, and exhibition opportunities for women and young artists in Nigeria, along with the more recent offshoot, Master Art Classes. Through her artistic practice, scholarship, and institution-building initiatives, she has helped cultivate platforms for dialogue around African art histories and their contemporary resonances. As a member of the Board of Directors of Third Space Art Foundation, Layiwola contributes her experience bridging artistic practice, scholarship, and mentorship, helping to cultivate spaces that support emerging voices and foster meaningful exchange across generations.

Moyo Okediji, PhD, is an artist, scholar, and cultural historian whose work has significantly shaped global understandings of African and African diaspora arts. He serves as Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin, where his research and teaching engage the histories, philosophies, and contemporary interpretations of African visual cultures. A leading voice in international conversations on African and diaspora visual cultures and the cross-cultural dialogues that shape their interpretation, Okediji has long advocated for intellectual exchange across geographic and cultural boundaries. He is the founder and director of the Akodi Orisa Art Sanctuary in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, as well as the University of African Art, initiatives dedicated to sustaining African artistic knowledge systems and cultivating spaces for collaborative creativity. As a member of the Board of Directors of Third Space Art Foundation, he brings a deep commitment to advancing critical dialogue and expanding the intellectual frameworks through which African and diaspora arts are understood.

Janine A. Sytsma is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where she examines contemporary art of Global Africa. She is currently completing two manuscripts: The Decolonial Project: Contemporary Art at the Ife Art School and The Politics of (In)visibility: Africa at the Venice Biennale. Her writing on these and related topics has appeared in edited volumes and exhibition catalogues, as well as in journals such as African Arts, Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture, and TOJA: The OYASAF Journal of Art. Her research has been supported by numerous fellowships, including a Venetian Research Program Fellowship from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, a Cambridge Research Fellowship at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, a CIC–Smithsonian Institution Fellowship at the National Museum of African Art, a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, and an Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation Fellowship, among others. She holds an MA in Art History from the University of Denver and a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Before joining the University of Arkansas, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Washington and Lee University and also taught at the University of Colorado Denver and Colorado State University, Fort Collins.

Odile Tevie is the co-founder and director of Nubuke Foundation, a visual arts and cultural institution, based in Accra and Wa in Ghana. In the early 2000’s Odile set up and ran the Black Swan gallery in London introducing Ghanaian, Togolese and Nigerian artists into the diaspora.  Under Odile’s vision and drive, Nubuke Foundation, set up in 2006, has become an internationally acknowledged arts institution whose robust and engaging programming calendar has been seminal in supporting the career of many of the mid-career Ghanaian artists and promising ones like Na Chainkua Reindorf, Isaac Opoku ana Gideon Appah. Nubuke Foundation has become a creative community hub in the city of Accra, where informal learning programmes, talks, exhibitions, drama, spoken word etc. In Wa, the Foundation focuses on promoting strip weaving artisans and textile and fibre-based arts practice. She is a graduate of University of Ghana BA(Hons) Computer Science, Mathematics. As a member of the Board of Directors of Third Space Art Foundation, Tevie brings extensive experience in cultural leadership and institution building, helping to guide initiatives that connect artists, communities, and cultural organizations across regions.