Addoley Dzegede is a Ghanaian-American artist and educator from South Florida (USA), based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her work investigates how trade histories between Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas have shaped individual and communal identities. More specifically, her work incorporates how European textiles and beads have heavily informed African fashion and adornment – a cross-continental connection belonging to the broader narrative of how postcolonial ties impact quintessential signifiers of self-expression.
Dzegede received an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She was a 2022–2023 Fulbright Fellow to the Netherlands for Craft, where she was Artist Researcher in Residence at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam. In recent years, she has been in exhibitions at the National Museum of Norway, CANADA gallery in New York, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, and the Carnegie Museum of Art.
Visit Addoley Dzegede’s website here
2026
Craft / Visual Arts / Multidisciplinary Practice / Film & Video
Research Focus
In 2019 Addoley Dzegede visited the National Folklore Collection at University College Dublin where she was particularly struck by the 1937-39 School’s Collection and Evelyn Lyndsay’s hands-on research into natural dyes. These two projects appealed to her personal interest in the oral history of her Ghanaian side of the family in the way they captured and valued the history and memory of ordinary people who otherwise might not be recorded in capital “H” history. Addoley’s proposed research inquiry is to find ties between these two collections, in combination with her own archive of family photos, recordings and objects, to link colour, textiles, and people’s histories of Ghana and Ireland, both nations who claimed independence from the British in the 20th century.
More about the Dwell Here Residency
Dwell Here offers participants a simple proposition: to commit to this time and place while thinking deeply about its urgencies. Together we are curious to learn what can be activated or challenged through the process of dwelling. IMMA encourages reflection across the following themes to consider geographical, historical, political and cultural concepts of Ireland as a starting point to expand and connect international contexts through similarities and differences:
Technologies of Peace – to consider commemorative landscapes and memories of peace (as a dream, movement, or value) while generating perspectives on sustainable coexistence.
The Irish Paradigm – Welcomes artistic research that creates intimacy and connections, while celebrating the perceived agility and freedoms of operating on the periphery. As a small island on the edge of Europe, Ireland often has a challenging relationship with ‘the centre’.
The Museum as a Site of Vibration – consider how the museum and site can create new vibrations and rhythms within the built legacy of empire. How can museums make visible cultural shifts, including erased, censored or marginalised histories, as well as sustainability, planetary care, sharing and hospitality.