Director at the National Museum of Mali
Samuel Sidibé, Director at the National Museum of Mali, Bamako, Mali.
From 1971 to 1980 he studied in France. He has Master’s Degree in Art History and Archaeology and a PhD in History of African Societies. Dr. Samuel Sidibé, since 1987 is the Director of the National Museum of Mali.
From 1994 to 1996, as associate curator of the Niger Valley exhibition, he managed the itinerancy of this exhibition which has been presented in Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mauritania, Guinea and Niger
Samuel Sidibé collaborated with ICOM and UNESCO in a crusade against the looting of archaeological sites and illegal trafficking of the Malian cultural heritage. He contributed to raise awareness both at the national and international levels about the necessity to protect cultural heritage. He has been one of the founder members of AFRICOM and member of the Board of this organization.
From 2001 to 2003, he conducted the rehabilitation and expansion of the National Museum. This museum is today a major museum of the continent with appropriate exhibition halls who dedicate itself also to contemporary art. Samuel Sidibé produced in 2007 with African curators an important regional exhibition of contemporary art, Contact Zone, that brought together artists coming from North Africa and the south of the Sahara.
Mr. Sidibé is the Director of the 8th Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie.He received the Prince Claus Prize in 2006, and is also Officier dans l’ordre des Arts et Lettres (France)