Welcoming Afuwa as 221A’s Inaugural Associate Director

February 10, 2022

221A is very pleased to announce the appointment of Afuwa to the role of Associate Director. The position as created to complement 221A’s founding leadership with a focus on strengthening the reciprocal health of the Society and the people and communities it seeks to serve.

Afuwa is an artist and dedicated non-profit cultural worker who has worked in neighbouring social service and cultural organizations Watari Counselling and Support Services, The Capilano Review Magazine, and Gallery Gachet. She is a grant writer, workshop facilitator, curator, interviewer, writer, editor, and member of federal, municipal, and grassroots‐level committees. Over the last 17 years she has worked collaboratively to identify and lower the barriers that persist in art galleries and non-profit organizations. 

Afuwa brings her own experience as an artist, a support worker, and her training in nonviolent crisis intervention, youth facilitation, and non-profit accounting. Her own artistic practice is a contemporary exploration of lineage and land relations across the Atlantic diaspora, and her sound and art installation Still Salt, Dark Stories was featured in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Vancouver Special: Disorientations and Echo, which closed January 2022.

“We are absolutely delighted to welcome Afuwa to the leadership team at 221A. Her commitment to the social sustainability of artists historically excluded from dominant culture is one that will help shape 221A’s approach to cultural leadership in Vancouver in the years to come,” said Am Johal, Board Chair of 221A.

“Afuwa’s appointment to 221A comes during a critical moment in the organization’s history, as it prepares to grow and formalize its educational and research activities and cultural space operations across the city.  Afuwa possesses financial and management acumen, while also having tacit stakeholder relationships with Indigenous, racialized, youth, and disability communities. She will be a partner to work with on a day-to-day basis, as a people leader to elevate the voices of our staff and artists we work with, and to align and achieve strategic objectives,” said Executive Director Brian McBay.

Afuwa is honoured to support the work of creativity, community, and connection alongside her teammates at 221A.