Ballot Archive

29 Aug 2024

Candidate Details

Candidate Name

Augustus (Gus) Casely-Hayford

Academic degrees, honours etc.

PhD SOAS; Fellow, Cultural Institute, King’s College London; Visiting Fellow, Jesus College, Cambridge OBE 2018

Profession or occupation

Museum director, historian, curator and broadcaster

Grounds for election

Dr Gus Casely-Hayford OBE is an extensively published historian of the art of Africa and experienced curator and broadcaster. He is director of V&A East (opening in 2025) and was previously director of the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian. Casely-Hayford completed his PhD in African History in 1992 and worked as a freelance lecturer and writer before being appointed to the British Museum as Curator and Diversity Coordinator. He then led the large-scale Africa 05 Festival as Director. Following a fellowship with Clore Leadship, he became Director of the Institute of International Visual Arts in 2005 and appointed as first Executive Director of Arts for Arts Council England in 2007. From 2008 to 2015 he was principally employed writing and presenting two series of ‘Lost Kingdoms of Africa’ for BBC 2 and BBC 4, together with an accompanying book published by Bantam Press, 2012. Casely-Hayford has served as a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery and the National Trust.

Signatories

The following Fellows have signed this Blue Paper