Dakar keeps its art out of the glass case: painters work with studio doors open at the Village des Arts, tailors cut bazin above Marché HLM, and the Sorano orchestra rehearses in the afternoon. Three days across galleries, stages and workshops.
Senghor's 1966 idea, finally built in 2018: a 14,000m² rotunda modelled on a Casamance impluvium house, holding Ousmane Sow bronzes and Kongo power figures. Open Tue-Sun 09:00-18:00, captions in French only.
Built in 1860 and rebuilt in cast iron after the 1993 fire, this circular colonial market hall sits two streets back from the port. Flower sellers ring the outside; inside it is fish, spices and Fouta blankets under the dome.
Some fifty studios in converted army barracks off the VDN, home to painters and sculptors including Ndoye Douts and Soly Cissé. Artists work with their doors open and will talk you through canvases without pressure to buy.
The Institut Français gallery occupies a restored 1930s colonial riding school on Rue Joseph Gomis. Shows rotate roughly every six weeks and lean towards young Senegalese photographers and installation artists; a garden bar adjoins.
Moved in 2015 to the Place du Souvenir Africain on the Corniche, this museum reads Senegal through its women: Wolof gold jewellery, Signare portraits from Saint-Louis and objects from the ndeup healing ritual.
Cape Verdean-Senegalese canteen off Rue Moussé Diop, running since the 1980s and filled at noon with Plateau office workers. Plates are enormous: cachupa on Saturdays, thiéboudienne midweek, fried plantain arriving unasked.
Opened in 1965 as Senghor's flagship for the national ballet, drama company and traditional orchestra. Afternoon rehearsals of the Ensemble Lyrique Traditionnel are often open, and the box office sells same-evening seats.
An 1,800-seat house opened in 2011 above the western Corniche, programming sabar percussion galas, Wolof-language theatre and touring dance companies. The week's schedule is posted on the billboard at the entrance.
Dakar's textile market: blocks of stalls stacked with wax prints, bazin riche and Malian bogolan, with tailors working upstairs who will cut a boubou in 48 hours from a photo on your phone.
A craft village beside the Soumbédioune fishing bay where woodcarvers, leatherworkers, silversmiths and souwère glass-painters work in open sheds. Reverse-glass painting is the one art form here genuinely native to Senegal.
An independent art centre in Zone B founded in 2008 by curator Koyo Kouoh, with a reference library of African art publications, a residency programme and exhibitions consistently sharper than the commercial galleries.
A five-minute pirogue from Ngor beach to a car-free island of coral-stone houses, painted walls and small bars. Painters sell from doorways and the western rocks catch the last light over the Atlantic.