The University of Aberdeen will welcome Ade Adesina as Entrepreneur in Residence, working with students and staff on a research-led, decolonial artistic project responding to the institution's Legacies of Slavery report.
Ade Adesina is a Scottish-Nigerian artist based in Aberdeen and one of Scotland’s leading contemporary practitioners. A graduate of Gray’s School of Art in 2012, he has established an internationally recognised practice through high-profile exhibitions, residencies and fellowships. Working from WASPS studios and as a member of Peacock Visual Arts, Adesina has played a significant role in Aberdeen’s cultural landscape. His work frequently addresses the historical, political and economic relationships between Scotland and Africa through print-based works that are both thought-provoking and accessible.
The residency builds on the University’s Legacies of Slavery report, published in 2024, which examined the institution’s historical links to slavery and the slave trade. In 2025, the School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History, in collaboration with University Collections, hosted Framing the Past, Imagining the Future: Adjusting Material Legacies, an event that explored how material culture might be reinterpreted in light of this research.
Adesina participated in the event as a guest speaker, contributing to discussions around the portrait of Gilbert Ramsay, a seventeenth-century donor and enslaver, currently displayed in a University building.
As Entrepreneur in Residence, Adesina will work closely with students and staff to consider the future of this portrait and the broader role of artistic intervention in responding to difficult and contested histories.
From February to May 2025, he will lead a series of entrepreneurial workshops open to students from across the University, guiding participants through the process of conceiving and developing a research-led artistic project of historical and social significance. The workshops will combine practical insight into building a sustainable creative practice with critical reflection on ethics, representation and decolonial methodologies, supported by contributions from academic staff whose research and teaching relates to the project.
During June and July 2025, the residency will move to a practice-based phase focused on the development of a bespoke artistic intervention for the University in response to the Legacies of Slavery research.
The entrepreneurship will help students to gain first-hand experience of working within a contemporary studio environment, to develop skills in project management, ethical research-led practice, professional self-presentation and networking, while engaging directly with questions of history, memory and institutional responsibility.
Ade Adesina said: “I’m honoured to be joining the University of Aberdeen as Entrepreneur in Residence at such a significant moment. This is an opportunity to work with students and staff on a project that brings research, creativity and critical reflection together. I’m particularly interested in how art can question inherited narratives, respond to difficult histories and help shape new ways of thinking about the future."
Professor Beth Lord, Head of the School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History, said: “We are delighted to welcome Ade Adesina as Entrepreneur in Residence.
“His appointment programme reflects the University’s ongoing commitment to addressing its historical legacies through critical research, creative practice and meaningful collaboration with artists, students and staff.”
To learn more about the ‘Build a Career in the Arts’ workshops visit https://www.abdn.ac.uk/dhpa/employability/news-events-and-opportunities/#panel159675