{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Compelling with Katy Wellesley Wesley","title":"Tokini Peterside-Schwebig: Art, Identity, and Africa's Cultural Rise","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3409,"description":"What does it take to build cultural infrastructure in a country where the state will not do it for you?\nIn this episode of Compelling, host Katy Wellesley Wesley speaks with Tokini Peterside-Schwebig, entrepreneur and founder of ART X Lagos — West Africa's leading international art fair — about a career defined by creative conviction and strategic clarity. From her childhood in Lagos, through a law degree at the LSE and an MBA at INSEAD, to a pivotal visit to the 2015 Venice Biennale that crystallised her vision, Tokini traces the journey that led her to launch ART X in 2016.\nThe conversation spans identity, access, and the power of art to reshape perception. ART X Lagos marked its landmark tenth edition in November 2025 under the theme Imagining Otherwise, No Matter the Tide, welcoming galleries from over 70 countries and participants from 170 nations. Tokini reflects on what the next decade demands of a platform that has already achieved what it set out to do.\nTokini Peterside-Schwebig: Tokini is the founder and CEO of ART X Collective, the cultural enterprise behind ART X Lagos — West Africa's first and leading international art fair. Launched in 2016, the fair has grown into an anchor event on the global arts calendar, welcoming galleries from over 70 countries and establishing Lagos as a dynamic cultural capital. Under her leadership, ART X has expanded into a year-round ecosystem encompassing ART X Live! (a platform for emerging musicians), the ART X Prize (an annual award for emerging artists across Africa and its diaspora), and ART X Cinema (a showcase for independent African filmmaking).\nVisit ART X Lagos\nKaty Wellesley Wesley: With over 18 years of leadership across galleries, foundations, and startups, Katy has built a career shaped by curiosity and a drive to explore new ideas. She spent a decade at leading commercial galleries—first at Gagosian, then at Pace, where she was Director of Exhibitions in London. She went on to lead the Villa Lena...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/2JTE_96t8Hbe5R3xzuClzLrfaoeuMMr-F1NVjEB9yC8/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8wMjI5/ZGE0Y2Y0MDc4MDRm/MzRlNDVkMzVlZGJh/ZTRlYi5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}