The ARAK Collection announces the recipients of the 2026 Curatorial and Writing Fellowship Programme

The ARAK Collection announces the recipients of the 2026 Curatorial and Writing Fellowship Programme

Aleesha Suleman as a recipient of the 2026 Curatorial Fellowship.

Suleman is a Kenyan-Indian cultural practitioner, writer, and curator from Kenya, Mombasa, based in Qatar,Doha. Her research-driven practice explores questions of identity, memory, and place through postcolonial, class, and subaltern frameworks, with a particular focus on East Africa, the Indian Ocean, and global diasporic formations. Working across exhibition-making, writing, and community-led enquiry, she examines how historical power structures continue to shape visual culture and modes of cultural production.

She currently works as an Exhibitions Project Manager at the Museum of Islamic Art under Qatar Museums, where she has contributed to major exhibitions including presentations of works by Ara Güler and installations by Yayoi Kusama.

Suleman holds an MA in Museum and Gallery Practice (Distinction) from University College London, and a BS in Foreign Service (Honours) from Georgetown University.

For the ARAK Collection Fellowship, Suleman will develop a curatorial project focused on the Tingatinga school.

Innocent Ekejiuba as a recipient of the 2026 Art Writing and Publishing Fellowship.

Ekejiuba is a Nigerian cultural researcher based in the U.S.A. Currently a Visiting Professor of Arts and Cultural Management at Pratt Institute’s Creative Enterprise Leadership International Graduate Program,  in Washington, D.C. He is currently pursuing a PhD at Howard University, where his research examines the structural challenges facing African art and cultural ecosystems, with a focus on indigenous knowledge systems as critical frameworks for engagement and renewal.

He holds degrees from Obafemi Awolowo University and Pratt Institute, and has undertaken advanced study at institutions and programmes including the Salzburg Summer Academy, RAW Material Company (RAW Académie), Independent Curators International, the Lagos Biennial, and MACAAL.

For the ARAK Collection Fellowship, Ekejiuba will develop a research-led project that engages the curatorial legacies of Okwui Enwezor, Bisi Silva, and Koyo Kouoh to generate new dialogues between their methodologies and artists within the ARAK Collection.

Keamogetse Mosienyane as a recipient of the 2026 Curatorial Fellowship.

Mosienyane is a Motswana interdisciplinary researcher, cultural worker, and curator from Botswana. Her practice engages questions of space, temporality, and structure, examining how spatial imaginaries are formed and negotiated across different scales and contexts. With academic grounding at the African Centre for Cities and in Historical Studies at the University of the Western Cape, she brings a research-led approach to contemporary curatorial practice.

Her recent institutional experience includes the curatorial internship programme at the Canadian Centre for Architecture and the 2025 fellowship programme at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. She is also a contributor to the Botswana-based collective Banana Club, where she supports curatorial research and public programming.

For the ARAK Collection Fellowship, Mosienyane will develop a curatorial project that examines how land is configured, inhabited, and contested across African contexts, foregrounding spatial practices as sites of memory, power, and lived experience.

Billy Fowo as a recipient of the 2026 Curatorial Fellowship.

Fowo is a Cameroonian curator and writer based in Berlin, Germany, with research interests spanning the sonic, linguistics, and literature. He is a graduate of de Appel Curatorial Programme (2023) and currently works with SAVVY Contemporary – The Laboratory of Form-Ideas.

He has contributed to major international platforms, with texts published in catalogues and publications including the São Paulo Biennial (36th edition), Sharjah Biennial 15, Kunstforum International, and Mousse Magazine. He has also served on the Selection Committee for the Future Generation Art Prize 2023/24 and as a juror for Encontros da Imagem 2025.

For the ARAK Collection Fellowship, Fowo will develop a curatorial project that examines abstraction and form-making practices across African and diasporic contexts, challenging inherited distinctions between art and craft, tradition and contemporaneity.

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