Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art

The Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA) is an artist-run project space in Tamale, in Ghana's Northern Region. It describes itself as an exhibition and research hub, cultural repository and artists' residency, dedicated to art and cultural practices that emerged in the 20th century. It was founded by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama and opened on 15 March 2019, and it is affiliated with blaxTARLINES KUMASI, working in the tradition of artist-led museums and alternative institutions.

For a visitor, the centre is best understood as a working space rather than a conventional gallery. It combines exhibition halls with a research hub, a library, a cultural repository and residency spaces, and it functions more as a production facility and think tank than simply a display space. Its architecture is repurposed from industrial sites, an approach the centre frames around reclamation and collective labour.

Programmes include exhibitions, residencies and educational activities, with workshops in areas such as photography, drawing, robotics, solar technology, drone technology and history. Public engagement and community participation across generations are part of its stated aims, and its interests extend beyond the arts to ecology, architecture and history. SCCA operates across three sites in Tamale and forms part of a wider network of institutions created by Mahama, including Red Clay and Nkrumah Voli-ni.

The centre is located at QK 37 Montana ST, NT - 0131 - 3954, Kpambegu, in the Tamale Metropolitan Area of the Northern Region. It is open Monday to Thursday from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm, Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, and closed on Fridays. Admission is free. Contact details published by the centre are [email protected] and +233 37 209 6210.

Because SCCA is a working residency and research site, what is on view can change with its programme. Visitors planning around a specific exhibition, workshop or residency should confirm current arrangements directly with the centre before travelling.