Some 100 artists within the performing and visual arts domains across the northern sector have been trained to improve their knowledge on existing policies and legal frameworks governing the culture and creative arts industry in Ghana.
The two-day training in Tamale was to develop and implement a comprehensive programme that empowered artistes to cultivate cultural policy and legal understanding underlining their craft.
It was also to provide them with the tools and knowledge needed to create high quality productions, with protection and freedom, that spoke to the times and reflected their cultural heritage, while addressing contemporary sociocultural issues.
The National Commission on Culture organised the programme, in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), as part of the UNESCO-ASCHBERG Programme for artists and cultural professionals.
The training also offered an opportunity for participants to make contributions for consideration in the new cultural policy document, which is under review by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture.
The policy is expected to consider better ways to enhance the status of the artistes, ensure freedom of creativity, protection of their rights and and works among other things to create a friendlier and more peaceful environment for creativity to thrive.
Nana Otuo Owoahene Acheampong, the Executive Director, National Commission on Culture, said similar training programmes had been slated for the middle, coastal and southern sectors of the country to train additional 300 artistes within the performing and visual arts domains.
The creative industry is an essential component of the global economy, and its contributions are critical to the success of the country as the sector employs a large percentage of the working class, especially young people.
However, many creative artistes in the country, especially emerging ones, lack knowledge and understanding of policies and legal frameworks that affect their work leading to challenges in navigating through the industry successfully.
Other issues include appropriate remunerations, freedom of expression, and access to institutional support and guidance.
Nana Owoahene Acheampong said the talents in the industry were enormous, especially in the northern part of the country, but needed coaching and mentoring to build their capacity and confidence “to make it big.”
“There is so much talent in northern Ghana, raw peculiar talents that we need to tap. What they are doing, they are on the right track. They just need to motivate themselves. We as a government agency, will do our best to organise periodic coaching and interactive sessions with them that will spur them on to be their best.”
Dr Benjamin Oduro Arhin Jr, National Expert, UNESCO-ASCHBERG Programme, who was a facilitator, expressed the need for all to understand their own culture and that of others to relate well with them.
GNA
EA/BM/ABD
1 June 2024
Caption: Cross section of participants
