I’m Louise Thurin.

Art worker, researcher and author specializing in Contemporary African and Afrodiasporic art.

Cultural activist and public speaker based in Paris, France.

“My mother arrived as a child in Metropolitan France from its insular Caribbean territory of Martinique. My father was raised in rural France from a family who had partly recently emigrated from Poland.

I am known for my every-day, personal and professional involvement in Africans’ and People of African descent’s access to their Cultural rights. I also do believe that everything historic, artistic or, to speak more broadly, “cultural” from the African continent and its diasporic communities is of global great interest and that access to their knowledge is a fundamental right to everyone, whoever they may be. 

I gained mass public recognition for my work, writings and ideas in June 2020 in the heat of the global Black Lives Matter movement when I published an Op-Ed to French cultural institutions to notably ask of them an increased production and display of knowledge within and outside their walls on Africa, Communities and People of African descent, thus and counter-striking fake news, dubious historic perceptions and overall racial disinformation.

Through media exposure, I gained access to key policy makers and started working with them, while collaborating with POC youth and associations to co-visibilize our voices and activities. Thanks to my involvement with UNESCO’s Routes of Enslaved People : Resistance, Liberty and Heritage, I was offered to participate in a great number of global stature events and consultations directly concerning the topic of race and cultural rights; thus I gradually gained understanding of the international policy making stage. 

Today, as an art worker and author specializing in African and Afrodiasporic art working with the eminent public and private structures of my field, I want to continue as a cultural activist and public speaker through workshops, round tables and open discussions to raise awareness, inspire and especially help People of African descent break through the still structural “racialized gatekeeping” of the French and global Arts and cultural industries sector.”

Louise Thurin is a cultural activist, an independent writer and researcher with a focus on the visual cultures of the Black Worlds. She also coordinates several projects for the non-profit AWARE : Archives of Women Artists, Research & Exhibitions, which all aim to increase the visibility of Black and Indigenous women artists through production of knowledge and academic events. She was a Consultant for UNESCO's Routes of Enslaved Peoples programme. Between 2021 and 2023, Louise Thurin acted as the Artist Residency Coordinator of the Biennale Internationale de Sculpture de Ouagadougou (BISO) where she also served as co-curator for its 2023 edition. Louise Thurin has also been involved in the activities of Franco-Cameroonian cultural cooperation NGO Fondation Jean-Félicien Gacha - Espace Culturel Gacha.