Zeitz MOCAA Grows Its Global Council Ahead of a Landmark Decade

As institutions go, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa occupies a position that is singular and still, nearly a decade in, quietly astonishing. Housed in the converted grain silos of the V&A Waterfront, with its dramatic Thomas Heatherwick architecture and its commitment to presenting, promoting, and preserving cutting-edge contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, it has grown from a bold civic vision into one of the most important art institutions on the continent. Now, as it approaches its tenth anniversary in 2027, that vision is gaining new momentum.

On 30 April 2026, Zeitz MOCAA announced the appointment of two new members to its Global Council: Lidija Khachatourian, based between Italy and the UAE, and Suzanne McFayden Smith, based between Jamaica and the United States. The announcement also elevated founding Global Council member Michèle Sandoz to a new role as Senior Strategic Advisor: Global Patronage — a transition that signals both gratitude for what has been built and seriousness of purpose about what lies ahead.

The Global Council is an international, artist-centric network of artists, curators, philanthropists, and business leaders. As a non-voting group, its 27 members serve as vital advocates for the museum internationally, participating in global activities and contributing financially to the museum's programmes and operations. Their role is one of access, influence, and conviction — of carrying the museum's mission into networks and geographies it could not otherwise easily reach.

Lidija Khachatourian: Mapping the African Art Ecosystem

Lidija Khachatourian brings to the Global Council a career spent building the infrastructure through which contemporary African art reaches the world. Of Serbian-Armenian descent, born in Serbia and raised in Switzerland, she moved to Dubai in 2008 — a move that proved transformative. It was from there that her passion for contemporary African art began to flourish through extensive travel across Sub-Saharan Africa, developing a curatorial sensibility that is at once rigorous and deeply personal.

She is the Founder and Director of AKKA (A Kostic Khachatourian Art) Project, a platform dedicated to promoting contemporary African art across global markets. In 2019, her curatorial expertise was formally recognised when she was appointed curator of the National Pavilion of Mozambique at the 58th Venice Biennale — one of the most prominent platforms in the international art calendar. She also founded Art and About Africa, a digital platform that maps the contemporary African art ecosystem, connecting practitioners, galleries, and art spaces across geographies.

Her approach to artist support is both practical and philosophically grounded: she continues to work with artists in ways that expand their artistic vocabulary while remaining true to their vision. It is an ethos that aligns closely with Zeitz MOCAA's own — an institution that has always insisted that the complexity and diversity of African contemporary art deserves to be encountered on its own terms.

Suzanne McFayden Smith: Collection, Philanthropy, and Representation

Suzanne McFayden Smith joins the Global Council from a position of considerable influence across the art world and beyond. Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, she holds a BA in French Literature from Cornell University and an MFA in Writing from Mills College — a background that has shaped a practice in which collecting, writing, and philanthropy are deeply interconnected.

As one of the few independent female collectors in the art world, her collection reflects her multifaceted identity, centring artists and narratives that resonate with her lived experience and commitment to representation. She serves on the boards of the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas, Austin, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, and contributes to Pratt Institute's DEIA Committee. Her philanthropic work focuses on expanding access and opportunity for women and children globally, with a particular emphasis on addressing food insecurity.

Her commitment to representation and access in both the art world and the broader humanitarian context makes her a natural fit for an institution whose founding premise is precisely that — that African contemporary art and the artists who make it deserve the full platform, resources, and institutional support that have historically been directed elsewhere.

Michèle Sandoz: Founding Advocate, New Role

Michèle Sandoz's elevation to Senior Strategic Advisor: Global Patronage is a recognition of both her history with the institution and her exceptional breadth of expertise. Zurich-based, she is the founder of artmatters, an independent advisory practice working internationally across Europe, Asia, and Africa at the intersection of contemporary art, patronage, and cultural governance. Her senior leadership roles across the international art world include a formative period at Art Basel, where she shaped global patron engagement and strategy.

As a founding member of the Global Council, Sandoz has been part of Zeitz MOCAA's story from the beginning. In her new capacity, she works across the museum's leadership and advancement functions, providing strategic guidance to the Council and contributing to the institution's broader patronage and international positioning. It is a role that requires the particular kind of fluency — in art, in institutional culture, in the complex social architecture of global philanthropy — that she has spent a career developing.

A Council of 27, a Mission of One

The two new appointments bring the Global Council to 27 members — a diverse and distinguished cohort that includes Founding Global Council Members Acha Leke (Chair), Bame Pule, Julie Mehretu, Michèle Sandoz, Pulane Tshabalala Kingston, Samallie Kiyingi, Wangechi Mutu, and Yinka Shonibare CBE RA. Together they represent an international network of artists, curators, art philanthropists, and businesspeople dedicated to studying and showcasing artistic and intellectual excellence from Africa and its diaspora.

What that network enables is not merely advocacy in the abstract but a genuine extension of the museum's reach — into boardrooms, biennales, auction houses, and collector networks that might otherwise remain at a remove from the work being made and shown in Cape Town and across the continent.

Looking to 2027 and Beyond

As Zeitz MOCAA approaches its tenth anniversary, the significance of these appointments becomes fully legible. What began, as the museum itself describes it, as "a bold vision for a Pan-African and Pan-Diasporic institution has evolved into a world-class platform supported by advocates dedicated to preserving the continent's creative heritage." The Global Council is foundational to that evolution — not as a decorative feature, but as a working instrument of the museum's international mission.

The museum enters its second decade with a renewed focus on sustainability and impact — and with a clearer understanding than ever that both require exactly the kind of human infrastructure the Global Council represents. By bridging global philanthropy with local excellence, the Council ensures that Zeitz MOCAA continues to serve as what the museum calls "a vital sanctuary for contemporary African narratives."

At a moment when the question of who tells the stories of African art — and on whose terms, and in whose interests — is as urgent as it has ever been, the work of this institution and this Council matters in ways that extend well beyond the gallery walls.

Credits

Images: Supplied