Gallery · Kempinski Hotel, Ridge
Gallery 1957
The gallery that brought Ghanaian contemporary art to international attention, named after the year of independence.
Look for: The shows of younger Ghanaian painters.
Free
Go further, look closer.
Cities · Africa · 5°33′N 0°12′W
Accra
A small, fast-growing art scene with its own idea of sculpture: coffins shaped like fish, cars and onions.
Best monthsNovember–March, and August for Chale Wote
Art calendarChale Wote Street Art Festival (August, Jamestown)
This guide3 essentials · 5 places off-piste
Essentials
Foundation · East Legon
Nubuke Foundation
An arts foundation in a garden compound, with exhibitions, an archive of Ghanaian modernism and studios.
Look for: The garden and the archive.
Free
Gallery · Labadi
Artists Alliance Gallery
Three floors of Ghanaian art and design founded by the sculptor Ablade Glover, facing the sea.
Look for: Glover's own palette-knife crowds.
Free
Off the list
Off-Piste in Accra
Rooms, ruins and curiosities: the city's other museum.
Workshop · Teshie
Fantasy coffins, Teshie
Ga carpenters, starting with Seth Kane Kwei in the 1950s, carve coffins in the shape of what the dead loved or did: a fish, a Mercedes, a Bible, an onion. The workshops still work.
Visit the Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop.
Neighbourhood · Old Accra
Jamestown
The old fishing quarter around the lighthouse, with colonial forts and murals left by the Chale Wote festival.
Climb the lighthouse.
Monument · Downtown
Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park
The mausoleum of Ghana's first president, on the spot where he declared independence in 1957.
The bronze statue whose head was knocked off after the 1966 coup, set beside it.
Architecture · Victoriaborg
National Theatre
A white theatre of 1992 built by Chinese engineers, shaped like sails or a ship. Home to the national dance company and symphony orchestra.
Look from the Liberia Road side.
Monument · Osu
Black Star Square
The parade ground built for independence in 1961, one of the largest squares in the world, with the Black Star Gate and the Independence Arch.
Go at sunset, when it is almost empty.
Nearby
Tamale
Ibrahim Mahama's Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art and Red Clay studios, a short flight north.
Cape Coast
Cape Coast Castle, about three hours west.
If you have one day
Nkrumah Memorial Park → Jamestown and the lighthouse → lunch → Artists Alliance Gallery → Teshie workshops.