Francis Akosah Akwaboa is an experienced art instructor with two years` experience teaching sculpture. He has the ability to create detailed and comprehensive lesson plans and is dedicated to the individual student’s growth.

Akwaboa was born in Ghana and received his Bachelor of Art in Metal and Leather Integration at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, in 2018. He completed a Master of Art in Studio Art at Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois in 2021. He has recently completed a Graduate Assistanceship at the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

Francis has good interpersonal skills and has the ability to prioritize tasks. He is able to manage inventory, projects, and teams and is highly effective at communication and managing relationships.

Artist Statement

My childhood was memorable, where my existence in this world was a blessing and a curse to my parents. On 14 May 1995, was the day I was born into this world, but precisely five years later, I became a curse to my parents due to an unplanned birth and some economic crises my parent went through during that year, so they agreed to send me to the rural community to live with my grandparents.

Living in the rural area was hard because I was used to the urban-style of living, but I had to adjust to living with them because of circumstances. Of course, things didn’t work out for me then, but I began to adapt to the environment as the days passed.

Life wasn’t easy growing up. I had to wake up with sheep and goat bleat. Life in the rural area was difficult, but I had to endure that hardship. Beating empty cans to form into shapes, farming and hunting with my grandfather, and sometimes staying home with my grandmother while she cooked and share with me stories about my tribe and how lucky she was to have my dad, her son.

Staying with my grandparent was a blessing in disguise. I learned and experienced a lot about my culture and learned how people do their everyday activities in the rural community. My grandparent lived in a small town known as Bonwire, a part of the Ejisu Juaben municipal district within Ghana’s Ashanti Region. In Ghana, it is a town where the most popular cloth in Africa, popularly known as “Kente,” was found. So I had the opportunity to visit and learn how the kente cloth is made.