Black Rock Senegal came out of a direct need to engage Africa in a much more personal way. I discovered Dakar on a layover in 1997, back when Air Afrique was the sole provider of flights from the west to Nigeria. It was my first visit to Africa and I was immediately enraptured by Senegalese language, food, art, culture, and tradition.
After years of exploring the continent’s many cultures and countries I had a personal desire to create a workspace in West Africa. As an Artist who works in the west I desired a space of renewal to explore new ideas and to create work outside of a western context—to create work within the context of my own lineage. Black Rock stands as the direct answer to my desire to have an uncontested relationship with Africa, the filling in of a large void that I share with many African Americans. With this project I wanted to explore my own personal relationship with Africa while inviting artists to do the same and to galvanize the growing artistic and creative energies that exist in Africa in an increasing measure with the addition of diverse, international, creative possibility.
– Kehinde Wiley, 2019
Named for the volcanic rocks that blanket its shoreline, Black Rock is a multidisciplinary artist-in-residence program founded by renowned artist Kehinde Wiley in 2019. The residency brings together international artists to live and work in Dakar, Senegal for 1-3 month stays. The Black Rock compound design was conceived by Senegalese architect Abib Djenne with interior collaboration between Wiley, Fatiya Djenne, and Aissa Dione. The complex includes a residence and studio space for Wiley along with three single-occupancy residency apartments with adjacent studio spaces. Our mission is to support new artistic creation through collaborative exchange and to incite change in the global discourse about what Africa means today.
The Black Rock Senegal compound includes Kehinde Wiley’s personal studio and living space as well as three single-occupancy residency apartments with adjacent studio spaces for resident artists. The compound has been designed to include maximum flexibility to move between common areas and private ones.
Private Spaces for Residents
Residents are offered room, board, and individual studio space.
The single-occupancy apartments are each three floors, including a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, and two bathrooms.
The kitchens are furnished with basic cookwares. Black Rock offers access to grocery provisions provided on a weekly basis for residents who prefer to prepare their own meals in their apartments. Black Rock offers three meals a day to residents, which are able to be served to residents in their apartments or at the main dining table.
The individual art studios are designed to accommodate different artistic mediums, each furnished with tables, light fixtures, and storage space. Black Rock provides staff assistance and a modest stipend for artists to use for obtaining materials necessary to their practice while they are in Dakar.
Common Areas
Black Rock includes a number of indoor and outdoor spaces that are shared between the main house and the residency quarters. These areas include the main dining table, the library, the gym, the sauna, the swimming pool, and the interior gardens.
