Zeitz MOCAA Grows Its Global Council Ahead of a Landmark Decade

Zeitz MOCAA welcomes two new Global Council members and elevates a founding advisor as its tenth anniversary draws near
Olivia Vergunst, House&Garden, 11 May 2026
As institutions go, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa occupies a position that is singular and still, nearly a decade in, quietly astonishing. Housed in the converted grain silos of the V&A Waterfront, with its dramatic Thomas Heatherwick architecture and its commitment to presenting, promoting, and preserving cutting-edge contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, it has grown from a bold civic vision into one of the most important art institutions on the continent. Now, as it approaches its tenth anniversary in 2027, that vision is gaining new momentum.
On 30 April 2026, Zeitz MOCAA announced the appointment of two new members to its Global Council: Lidija Khachatourian, based between Italy and the UAE, and Suzanne McFayden Smith, based between Jamaica and the United States. The announcement also elevated founding Global Council member Michèle Sandoz to a new role as Senior Strategic Advisor: Global Patronage — a transition that signals both gratitude for what has been built and seriousness of purpose about what lies ahead.
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Lidija Khachatourian: Mapping the African Art Ecosystem

Lidija Khachatourian brings to the Global Council a career spent building the infrastructure through which contemporary African art reaches the world. Of Serbian-Armenian descent, born in Serbia and raised in Switzerland, she moved to Dubai in 2008 — a move that proved transformative. It was from there that her passion for contemporary African art began to flourish through extensive travel across Sub-Saharan Africa, developing a curatorial sensibility that is at once rigorous and deeply personal.

She is the Founder and Director of AKKA (A Kostic Khachatourian Art) Project, a platform dedicated to promoting contemporary African art across global markets. In 2019, her curatorial expertise was formally recognised when she was appointed curator of the National Pavilion of Mozambique at the 58th Venice Biennale — one of the most prominent platforms in the international art calendar. She also founded Art and About Africa, a digital platform that maps the contemporary African art ecosystem, connecting practitioners, galleries, and art spaces across geographies. Her approach to artist support is both practical and philosophically grounded: she continues to work with artists in ways that expand their artistic vocabulary while remaining true to their vision. It is an ethos that aligns closely with Zeitz MOCAA's own — an institution that has always insisted that the complexity and diversity of African contemporary art deserves to be encountered on its own terms. 
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