Gus Casely-Hayford

Augustus Lavinus Casely-Hayford (born 1964) is a British curator, cultural historian, broadcaster and lecturer with ancestral Ghanaian roots in the Casely-Hayford family, a cadet branch of the Cape Coast royal dynasty. He is presently the Director of V&A East and was formerly the Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in June 2018 for his services to Arts and Culture. and Professor of Practice at SOAS in 2021. He was commissioned to present a second TV series of ''Tate Walks'' for Sky Arts in 2017 featuring David Bailey, Helena Bonham Carter, Billy Connolly, Robert Lindsay, Jeremy Paxman and Harriet Walter. Casely-Hayford was awarded the Leader of the Year for Arts and Media by the Black British Business Awards 2017. He delivered a TED talk in August 2017. He has been awarded a Cultural Fellowship at King's College, London, and a Fellowship at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

In 2010, as part of the Wonderful Africa Season, he presented '' Lost Kingdoms of Africa'', four 60-minute television programmes for BBC Two and BBC Four; in 2014, the series was broadcast by the French-speaking TV channel Histoire. He was commissioned to present a second series in February 2012. He wrote the book ''Lost Kingdoms of Africa'' in 2012, published by Bantam Press. He presented a study of William Hogarth and the 18th century for the television series ''The Genius of British Art'', on Channel 4, in 2010 and hosted ''The Culture Show'' for BBC 2 in 2012. In 2016 Casely-Hayford presented the television series ''Tate Walks'' for Sky Arts. He is also the author of a book on Timbuktu, published in 2018 by Ladybird/Penguin. In 2022, he hosted a reboot of the long-running archeological television show ''Time Team''.

Early life

Born in London, England, into the prominent Ghanaian Casely-Hayford family, a cadet branch of the royal dynasty of the Cape Coast, Gus Casely-Hayford attended Clayesmore School in Dorset from 1978 to 1980, and went on to gain a PhD in African History from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London University. His doctoral thesis was titled "A genealogical history of Cape Coast stool families".

Career

He is the former executive director of Arts Strategy for Arts Council England. He was previously Director of inIVA (Institute of International Visual Art), a London-based arts organisation with a particular emphasis on international practice, which collaborates with partner venues throughout the UK and worldwide. Prior to this he was the Director of Africa 05, the largest African arts season ever hosted in Britain, involving throughout 2005 more than 150 cultural organisations, including the BBC,"Arts Council England Makes Two Key leadership Appointments"
Arts Council England, 5 December 2006. the aim of which Casely-Hayford said was to create "sustainable change in the way the art world – and the public – thinks about Africa. ...We don't want this just to be about one year."

He also led the British Museum's diversity programme. He has advised the United Nations and the Canada Council, Council for Culture of the Dutch and Norwegian Arts Councils, and was commissioned to develop the future audience vision for the Tate family of galleries. In 2012 he was a Jury member of the National Open Art Competition and the National Portrait Gallery's BP Portrait Award. In 2013 he was the Chair of the Caine Prize judges. He was chair of the advisory panel for the 2015 British Library exhibition '' West Africa: Word, Symbol, Song'' and co-authored the accompanying book of the same title.

He has presented an award-winning South Bank show on African art, produced a documentary on Chris Ofili for Channel 4 and presented several series on African culture for BBC World Service. He has presented ''Brit Art – Where to Now?'' for BBC Four. He was a commissioner of arts for the Greater London Authority.

He lectures on world art at Sotheby's, Goldsmiths College and the University of Westminster, and is a consultant for organisations such as the United Nations, the Arts Council and the BBC
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