Nigerian artist and writer Victor Ehikhamenor launches the inaugural Black Muse Art Festival, a five-day celebration of African art, literature, culture, and community taking place from November 8–12, 2025, in Benin City, Edo State. Organised by Angels and Muse, a non-profit Ehikhamenor founded in 2018, and expanding on the momentum of the Black Muse Residence launched in 2024, the festival introduces the Black Muse Sculpture Park — a prominent artist-led sculpture park — as its centrepiece. Together, the park and festival mark a landmark cultural initiative, fostering collaboration, experimentation, and creative innovation across Nigeria, Africa, and the diaspora.

Since founding Angels and Muse, Ehikhamenor has championed platforms that empower and offer residencies to artists, curators, writers, and cultural practitioners, while nurturing dialogue across disciplines. The Black Muse Art Festival is his most ambitious philanthropic undertaking to date: a dynamic gathering of artists, writers, curators, and cultural practitioners, dedicated to positioning African art as a catalyst for conservation, memory, and collective renewal in his hometown, Benin City.

At the heart of the festival is Ehikhamenor’s long-held vision: the inauguration of the Black Muse Sculpture Park, a public space where art, community, and the environment intersect. For years, I have carried the dream of a sculpture park – an open space where art, community, and environment could exist in dialogue. With the Black Muse Art Festival, that dream comes alive in Benin City, a place steeped in history yet ever ready to welcome new visions, explains Ehikhamenor. The park and festival together embody his commitment to creating lasting cultural infrastructure, celebrating African artistic heritage, and fostering spaces for creative exchange across generations and borders.

Inspired by Wole Soyinka’s play A Dance of the Forests, the festival theme is titled Let the Forest Dance. This theme positions art and literature as a lens for conservation, community, and cultural continuity. In ancient Benin Kingdom and even now, sacred groves are revered as sanctuaries of spirit and biodiversity; today, that wisdom underscores the urgent need to protect both nature and community. The festival takes this as a call to action: imagining how artistic and literary practices can sustain memory, creativity, and collective renewal.

The Black Muse Sculpture Park will have an annual commissioned architectural pavilion named Ázágbà, an Edo word for compound, which embodies communal life. This first edition, a monumental bamboo structure is created by commissioned Architect-in-Residence, James Inedu George with an incorporation of Victor Ehikhamenor’s stained-glass art, adorning the structure in shifting light – a dialogue between tradition and innovation.

Surrounding the pavilion, the park opens with a major exhibition titled Today, Tomorrow, the Moon Will Still Be. Curated by Kenyan curator, Renee Mboya, the exhibition traces the enduring presence of sculpture in African art, from ancestral bronzes and terracottas to contemporary experimentation. Featuring Olanrewaju Tejuosho, Osaru Obaseki, Ayobami Ogungbe, Uzor Ugoala, Kelly Omodamwen, Seidougha Linus Eyimiegha (Mr. Danfo), and David Alabo, the exhibition reflects on sculpture’s histories while embracing its present possibilities.

A key partnership with the University of Benin’s Department of Fine and Applied Art and Department of Theatre Arts further bridges academia and practice, with students and faculty participating through exhibitions, performances, readings, and workshops.

Beyond these anchors, the festival program expands to include film screenings, concerts, performances, culinary explorations, workshops, and community gatherings, ensuring the Black Muse Art Festival is both a celebration of art and a reflection of shared life.

angelsandmuse.org