The Kumasi Symposium

THE KUMASI SYMPOSIUM: Tapping Local Resources for Sustainable Education through Art

Department of General Art Studies, College of Arts and Social Sciences,

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana

July 31-August 14, 2009

I am a member of the International Advisory Board to NKA Foundation’s Arts Village at Abetenim, a design-build-and-live-in project in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. My colleague Barthosa Nkurumeh sent me a report of this Kumasi Symposium, a first in a series of planned symposiums that encourage collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to art and community interactions. The next one is planned for 2011.

His report follows with some images of the art installations from the participating artists. These installations were in an open public space accessible to the general public. Artists constructed "curio kiosks" in anticipation that the outward design or content would invoke curiosity and bear special attraction to the public. The "curio kiosks" interventions provided opportunities for artists and passersby to interact freely and to share ideas specific to the artworks or concerns within their communities.

Lizzetta

REPORT

The symposium was organized as collaboration between African Community of Arts Educators (AfriCOAE) and KNUST’s Department of General Art Studies to stimulate transnational dialogues that focused on tapping local resources for sustainable education through art interventions. The topics ranged from art education and studio practice to art criticism, arts advocacy and marketing practices as solutions to problems. The event was a two-year project; the first was held in summer 2008 at Aba House in Nungua, an Accra suburb. The following year participants were to reconvene to share results from implementation of some of the practices.

Roughly 200 scholars, educators, curators, and artists participated in the 2009 symposium, with 50 regular attendees. Presenters came from Uganda, Ireland, Austria, Australia, Netherlands, Hungary, Finland, Germany, Canada, China, Nigeria, Cameroon, and USA. Of course, many arts practitioners and scholars from Ghana including Professor Ablade Glover, the traditional ruler of Maabang, and Fulbright Scholar Dr. Kwaku Ofori-Ansa presented papers. The workshops, demonstrations, local immersion and projects culminated in a two-day art exhibition at the University Museum with Professor Kojo Fosu as the Keynote Speaker.

Many recurrent standpoints were discernible: (1) Art is a national resource; art education can help. (2) Issue of localization of practice was also recurrent. Moving forward implies that art education programs in schools in Africa need to take in all of the best practices indigenous to the learners to create synergies for autonomous and sustainable growth. (3) In advocating for the arts in a contemporary African setting such as in this symposium, take into consideration that fine arts and crafts are even now viewed the same by the general public.

My overall assessment is that the symposium was a success in many ways in that Uganda is already planning to hold a similar event. Nana A. Opoku-Asare, one of the key organizers, on a post-conference e-mail reminisces, “The exhibition opened my eyes to the many facets of art that we have not thought of and teach…the symposium has ended but sharing of ideas and work has just begun.” Perhaps, it is too early to duly assess the outcomes because as noted, some participants have continued to implement the results from the two-week engagement.

-Barthosa Nkurumeh, Project Initiator/Director