Lily Sefa-Boakye has built her career at the point where art and education meet, and it's hard to separate the two once you trace her path. She trained at Goldsmiths, University of London, and at KNUST, earning a PGCE in Art Education and a BA in Sculpture. That combination, teaching on one side, making on the other, has quietly shaped everything since, including the twenty five years she spent teaching students from early years through to secondary school. Most people in the gallery world don't come from a classroom. Lily does, and it shows: exhibition, engagement, and learning aren't separate boxes for her, they simply happen together.
Her curatorial credits include two Ford Foundation sponsored exhibitions, "Pioneers of Contemporary Ghanaian Art" and "Homecoming, Ghanaian Expatriate Artists Exhibition," alongside "Lagos to Accra," developed in collaboration with CFAO in Ghana. Beyond the exhibitions, she has taken on public wall spaces too, Kotoka International Airport among them, putting Ghanaian art somewhere thousands of people will actually see it.
Trust sits underneath all of it. Years spent building relationships with artists across Ghana show up in something small but telling: Lily can walk into an artist's studio because of the relationship, not because she booked an appointment. That kind of access is rare in this industry, and it has become the backbone of how TIGA works with the artists it represents.
Education, curation, public art, and genuine relationships with artists and collectors, that combination is what eventually became TIGA Art Gallery. Lily remains closely involved with the gallery and its education arm, TIGA Studios.
