I’m Louise Thurin.

Art worker 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 and author specializing in Modern and Contemporary African and Afrodiasporic Art. She coordinates several projects at AWARE : Archives of Women Artists, Research & Exhibitions which aim to increase the visibility of Black and Indigenous Women Artists through the production of knowledge. 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 the 2023 edition. This work stemmed notably from her previous involvement with the UNESCO's Routes of Enslaved Peoples project and Franco-Cameroonian NGO Fondation Jean-Félicien Gacha.