How does an art fair grow from 5,000 visitors into the defining cultural moment for an entire country?

In this bonus clip from Compelling, host Katy Wellesley Wesley speaks with Tokini Peterside-Schwebig, founder of ART X Lagos, about the ten-year journey from a bold idea to a multidisciplinary platform that has activated an entire city. Tokini traces the evolution of ART X Lagos edition by edition. From integrating live music on day one, to launching ART X Cinema, establishing the country's leading emerging artist prize, and building an education programme that brings hundreds of school children into the fair each year.

By its tenth edition in November 2025, ART X Lagos had sparked close to 50 satellite events across Lagos, drawn collaborators including Yinka Shonibare and his artist residency programme, and positioned the city as a fixture on the global arts calendar. This is a conversation about what happens when a platform stops being an event and becomes a movement.

Tokini Peterside-Schwebig: Tokini is the founder and CEO of ART X Collective, the cultural enterprise behind ART X Lagos — West Africa's first and leading international art fair. Launched in 2016, the fair has grown into an anchor event on the global arts calendar, welcoming galleries from over 70 countries and establishing Lagos as a dynamic cultural capital. Under her leadership, ART X has expanded into a year-round ecosystem encompassing ART X Live! (a platform for emerging musicians), the ART X Prize (an annual award for emerging artists across Africa and its diaspora), and ART X Cinema (a showcase for independent African filmmaking).

Visit ART X Lagos

Katy Wellesley Wesley: With over 18 years of leadership across galleries, foundations, and startups, Katy has built a career shaped by curiosity and a drive to explore new ideas. She spent a decade at leading commercial galleries—first at Gagosian, then at Pace, where she was Director of Exhibitions in London. She went on to lead the Villa Lena Foundation in Italy as Director, before joining the founding team of ROKBOX, a pioneering environmentally focused art logistics startup, as Sales Director. After relocating to Paris six years ago, Katy developed a strong interest in the intersection of art and luxury. To deepen this focus, she recently completed an Executive Master’s in Luxury Management and Design Innovation, a joint program between ESSEC Business School and Parsons School of Design. She now works as a consultant to brands, artists, foundations, and collectors. Among her clients is the legendary art publisher Cahiers d’Art, where she heads Commercial Partnerships.

Compelling is proudly in partnership with Cahiers d’Art.

Compelling is produced in collaboration with Cahiers d’Art, the iconic Paris-based art publisher founded in 1926, home of the Catalogue Raisonné of Picasso and most recently the Frank Gehry Drawings Catalogue Raisonné. At the heart of it's publishing program is the Cahiers d'Art Revue, one of the most significant and longest-standing annual art publications of the last century. In 2026, Cahiers d’Art will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a series of major publications, projects and exhibitions in collaboration with leading global institutions, including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the MoMA in New York City and the Musée Picasso in Paris.

Visit Cahiers d’Art

Art direction by Eddie Harrop Studio
Website and Production by Story Ninety-Four

What does it take to build cultural infrastructure in a country where the state will not do it for you?

In this episode of Compelling, host Katy Wellesley Wesley speaks with Tokini Peterside-Schwebig, entrepreneur and founder of ART X Lagos — West Africa's leading international art fair — about a career defined by creative conviction and strategic clarity. From her childhood in Lagos, through a law degree at the LSE and an MBA at INSEAD, to a pivotal visit to the 2015 Venice Biennale that crystallised her vision, Tokini traces the journey that led her to launch ART X in 2016.

The conversation spans identity, access, and the power of art to reshape perception. ART X Lagos marked its landmark tenth edition in November 2025 under the theme Imagining Otherwise, No Matter the Tide, welcoming galleries from over 70 countries and participants from 170 nations. Tokini reflects on what the next decade demands of a platform that has already achieved what it set out to do.

• (00:00) - Welcome to Compelling
• (02:45) - A Creative Childhood in Lagos
• (06:09) - Boarding School, Britain, and Nigerian Pride
• (10:16) - From Law Graduate to Luxury Brand Builder
• (13:21) - Discovering the Intersection of Culture and Commerce
• (20:36) - The Vision Behind ART X Lagos
• (25:39) - Building the First Edition Against the Odds
• (30:16) - Convincing Galleries and Sponsors to Believe
• (36:15) - Navigating COVID, Social Unrest, and Renewed Purpose
• (41:05) - Openness, Access, and the Culture of Looking
• (46:56) - The Next Frontier for ART X Lagos
• (49:15) - Trust Yourself: Advice, Mentors, and Habits

Tokini Peterside-Schwebig: Tokini is the founder and CEO of ART X Collective, the cultural enterprise behind ART X Lagos — West Africa's first and leading international art fair. Launched in 2016, the fair has grown into an anchor event on the global arts calendar, welcoming galleries from over 70 countries and establishing Lagos as a dynamic cultural capital. Under her leadership, ART X has expanded into a year-round ecosystem encompassing ART X Live! (a platform for emerging musicians), the ART X Prize (an annual award for emerging artists across Africa and its diaspora), and ART X Cinema (a showcase for independent African filmmaking).

Visit ART X Lagos

Katy Wellesley Wesley: With over 18 years of leadership across galleries, foundations, and startups, Katy has built a career shaped by curiosity and a drive to explore new ideas. She spent a decade at leading commercial galleries—first at Gagosian, then at Pace, where she was Director of Exhibitions in London. She went on to lead the Villa Lena Foundation in Italy as Director, before joining the founding team of ROKBOX, a pioneering environmentally focused art logistics startup, as Sales Director. After relocating to Paris six years ago, Katy developed a strong interest in the intersection of art and luxury. To deepen this focus, she recently completed an Executive Master’s in Luxury Management and Design Innovation, a joint program between ESSEC Business School and Parsons School of Design. She now works as a consultant to brands, artists, foundations, and collectors. Among her clients is the legendary art publisher Cahiers d’Art, where she heads Commercial Partnerships.

Compelling is proudly in partnership with Cahiers d’Art.

Compelling is produced in collaboration with Cahiers d’Art, the iconic Paris-based art publisher founded in 1926, home of the Catalogue Raisonné of Picasso and most recently the Frank Gehry Drawings Catalogue Raisonné. At the heart of it's publishing program is the Cahiers d'Art Revue, one of the most significant and longest-standing annual art publications of the last century. In 2026, Cahiers d’Art will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a series of major publications, projects and exhibitions in collaboration with leading global institutions, including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the MoMA in New York City and the Musée Picasso in Paris.

Visit Cahiers d’Art

Art direction by Eddie Harrop Studio
Website and Production by Story Ninety-Four

What happens to taste when algorithms stop us discovering anything unexpected?

In this episode of Compelling, host Katy Wellesley-Wesley sits down with New York-based designer and creative director Rafael de Cárdenas for a wide-ranging conversation on the forces shaping culture, luxury, and design right now. Rafael traces a non-linear path from Calvin Klein to architecture school and, ultimately, a multidisciplinary studio practice spanning interiors, architecture, art advisory, and brand work. Along the way, they unpack high culture versus low culture, the role of subculture in personal identity, and why the modern obsession with optimisation can flatten aspiration.

They also explore the Hoffman Process and what it changed in Rafael’s leadership, alongside a frank look at politics, Americanness, and how creative scenes form when rules loosen. With recent design press continuing to spotlight Rafael’s work, including a 2025 Architectural Digest profile of a historically inspired Manhattan townhouse, this episode captures an active cultural moment rather than a retrospective.

• (00:00) - Welcome to Compelling
• (02:54) - Growing Up in New York and Finding Subculture
• (07:44) - Calvin Klein, Fashion, and Learning Brand Precision
• (09:24) - Architecture School and the Pull of Alternative Worlds
• (11:00) - Accidental Beginnings and Early Projects
• (12:56) - Interior Design as Drag and Reinventing Space
• (21:16) - Gen X, JFK, and the Shift to Postmodern Culture
• (24:15) - Algorithms, Aspiration, and the Culture of the Lowest Common Denominator
• (27:43) - Europe, America, and Making Sense of Politics and Identity
• (36:06) - The Hoffman Process and Leading with Vulnerability
• (54:04) - Dream Projects, Flash Mobs, and Wonder as a Way of Living

Rafael de Cárdenas: Rafael de Cárdenas is a New York-based designer and creative director, and the founder of Rafael de Cárdenas, Ltd., an interdisciplinary studio working across architectural and interior design and creative direction. Since 2006, Rafael’s practice has spanned residential and commercial projects as well as brand-led work, with recent coverage including a 2025 Architectural Digest feature on a six-storey Manhattan townhouse renovation.

Visit Rafael de Cárdenas, Ltd

Katy Wellesley Wesley: With over 18 years of leadership across galleries, foundations, and startups, Katy has built a career shaped by curiosity and a drive to explore new ideas. She spent a decade at leading commercial galleries—first at Gagosian, then at Pace, where she was Director of Exhibitions in London. She went on to lead the Villa Lena Foundation in Italy as Director, before joining the founding team of ROKBOX, a pioneering environmentally focused art logistics startup, as Sales Director. After relocating to Paris six years ago, Katy developed a strong interest in the intersection of art and luxury. To deepen this focus, she recently completed an Executive Master’s in Luxury Management and Design Innovation, a joint program between ESSEC Business School and Parsons School of Design. She now works as a consultant to brands, artists, foundations, and collectors. Among her clients is the legendary art publisher Cahiers d’Art, where she heads Commercial Partnerships.

Compelling is proudly in partnership with Cahiers d’Art.

Compelling is produced in collaboration with Cahiers d’Art, the iconic Paris-based art publisher founded in 1926, home of the Catalogue Raisonné of Picasso and most recently the Frank Gehry Drawings Catalogue Raisonné. At the heart of it's publishing program is the Cahiers d'Art Revue, one of the most significant and longest-standing annual art publications of the last century. In 2026, Cahiers d’Art will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a series of major publications, projects and exhibitions in collaboration with leading global institutions, including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the MoMA in New York City and the Musée Picasso in Paris.

Visit Cahiers d’Art

Art direction by Eddie Harrop Studio
Website and Production by Story Ninety-Four