Dr. Richmond Teye Ackam, a Ghanaian artist, will present a Robert Lehman Art Lecture at 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 22, at Leighton Hall, Room 304, at Carleton College. The talk is titled "African and African American Painting Culture," and is free and open to the public.

Ackam is associate professor of art at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. Since September 2002 he has been a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at the African Studies Institute and the Lamar Dodd School of Art of the University of Georgia, Athens. He is also the Kumasi Program Coordinator of the University of Georgia Ghana Study Abroad Program. At Georgia, Ackam’s research is on "The Artist as an Entrepreneur in a Free Market Economy."

Ackam has a 1st Class B.A in art from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, a M.F.A. in painting from Howard University, and a Ph.D. in African studies from the University of Ghana, Accra. Ackam is the founder and president of the Professional Painters Organization in Ghana and the originator of the "Ackamism" style of painting based on a play of dots. He combines traditional Ghanaian "Bomborisi" earth wall painting motifs with the dot elements.

The talk is sponsored by the Carleton College history, art and art history, American studies and African and African American studies departments and the multicultural affairs office.