Village Des Arts: A Must-Visit in Dakar
The Village Des Arts is an art community, workshop, museum, and gallery located in Dakar. The space is eclectic as the village hosts painters, sculptors, and mixed-media artists not only from Senegal but also from Africa and the rest of the world. Bring cash and plan to spend an hour walking through the 50 workshops (depending on what’s open!) taking in the incredible art and doing a bit of shopping.
The Basics
- Free entry.
- Plan to spend around 1 hour here.
- Bring cash for purchasing items.
- If your taxi driver isn’t aware of where the Village is, just start off on the airport road. Eventually, he will start stopping and asking people on the road for directions as you get closer (as is the norm). Help out your driver by having the location open on your phone.
- Visit between 9am-3pm during the weekdays for the most action at the workshops.
- There is no website and the Facebook page is outdated. Trust that it’s open and just go!
The History of Village Des Arts
The Village des Arts was developed at the request of the artist community in 1998 and is now managed by the Senegalese Ministry of Culture. It takes up four hectares for the gallery, workshops, cafe, bronze foundry, open spaces, as well as the living quarters of the Village’s resident and visiting artists.
The Village is located in several structures that house about 50 artist workshops and galleries. Likely, not all will be open when you visit. Each room contains a different artist who works in various mediums. Don’t be afraid to pop your head into each of the workshops. Many may look closed, but the artists will eagerly welcome you into their workshops once you knock and poke your head in.
The building itself has been transformed into a work of art in many places, with brilliantly colored murals that depict the magic and spirit of Senegal.
The Art and the Artists
The gallery may look closed, but that’s just because the door will probably be closed. Enter on in. All the artwork is for sale, but you can’t take pictures inside.
There is a cafe at the back of the gallery. However, it wasn’t open when I visited. It’s usually open when there are events, which occur frequently according to my guide for the afternoon.
Plan to bring cash to spend purchasing smaller items like notebooks, batiks, or glass paintings. According to Trip Advisor reviews, you can bargain for the artwork. I didn’t feel this was necessary for the small items I purchased.
Many of the artists also frequently ship overseas so if something looks like it won’t fit in your suitcase, don’t panic. Just ask the artist how they would ship the artwork.
The Artists
Artists at the Village are both nationally and internationally known.
The first workshop I walked into was a recycled paper creator who makes notebooks. She adds ingredients like tea, coffee, and leaves to make her pages unique. There were several different notebook sizes, the smallest of which was only 5,000fcfa. I bought a notebook that had tea leaves integrated into the paper because I love tea! It was cool to see the paper actually being made in the workshop.
Amadou Makhtar Mbaye — Shadow boxes and sculptures are found at Amadou Makhtar Mbaye’s workshop. Amadou mentioned that he first met the Masai people while at a gallery in Denmark and became intrigued with the culture of the Masai. He modeled these sculptures after the Masai. He’s been a part of several international exhibits.
Bronze Artist Issa Dip — Located at the back of the village, walk through the bronze workshop and meet Issa. He also has a workshop with his bronze sculpture work displayed inside the buildings.
Batik work — I bought one of the t-shirts for Wilhelm.
Carry-on friendly, I bought two of the small glass paintings.
Dieynabou senndin Baldé —Stop in Dieynabou’s workshop to see her interesting oil colors.
There are so many more artists than what I’ve shared here. I saw several large paintings that were so stunning. I was a little intimidated at first to just be taking pictures of the artworks while the artists were there (sometimes working or teaching!). Eventually, once I bought something I built up the courage to ask each artist if I could take a picture of their work—they all said yes.
Do I need to speak French at Village Des Arts?
Knowing some French will definitely help if you want to communicate with most of the artists. Only one of the Senegalese artists spoke a little English with me. Another time I was asked if I speak Wolof since I said my French skills were limited.
An (unintentional) guided tour
You may get asked if you want to be guided around by the library manager if he’s around. I decided to do this to get some background on the village, but it’s not necessary. He speaks English and will ask for a tip at the end. I tipped 8,000cfca; I had a 10,000cfc note and asked him to give me back what he felt was appropriate. Considering that a notebook from the recycled shop cost 5,000fcfa, I thought my tip was generous. Visit with smaller banknotes for this purpose.
There isn’t much else around the Village. I visited on my way between the airport and Les Almadies.