Art they say is the body, soul and spirit of a society, that’s why in every community the culture of arts plays an integral role in what ever they do as a people. The African art and culture has over the year gone through lots of transformation to suit the rapid development of a modern integrated society. Remember that Arts promotes culture, it helps identify cultural, ethnic and national groupings and many through arts has been able to project their culture over others creating cultural barriers and cultural inferiority within integrated societies worldwide.
In Ghana our art industry is not as buoyant as other neighboring countries even within our ECOWAS sub region although there are government institutions whose mandate are to see to the development and growth of the Art and Craft industry. We have institutions like the National Commission on Culture under whose umbrellas are the regional centers for national culture and these centers are where one can take a glimpse of our real Ghanaian arts and craft.
The mere observation of these centers will not only draw you closer to the realities of the art and craft industry in the country but also will give you a fair picture of how gloomy the future holds for the world cherished art industry in Ghana. A visit to the center for national culture in Accra popularly known as the ARTS CENTER tells the whole story of how Ghanaian although value arts, pays no or less attention to the up liftment of the art industry. Picture your self walking through the colliders of the administrative block of the ARTS CENTER itself; you would come to appreciate the uniqueness of arts through wood caverns, paintings and craft. But the story ends there immediately one enters into the show rooms where there are lots of colorful paintings, you will be confused with the settings and arrangements of the paintings hanging on the walls which are poorly arranged coupled with electrical and telephone cables left hanging amidst the paintings which are suppose to attract visitors who patronize the center.
Folks this is the center that promotes our arts and culture, I think the folks out there at the center will sit up and do the right thing.
Let me walk you through the place where we have these young dynamic boys carving their craft for OBRONI to admire and purchase it as a souvenir for friends and love ones outside the shores of Ghana. The environment and the condition under which these talented, creative and industrious young men work leaves much to be desired yet they strive to promote and project the Ghanaian art and craft in spite of the odds they are made to go through at the hands of the so call administrative of Ghana’s art and culture.
Rasta is one of the carvers and has been in the carving business for ten years, he says the art and craft business has seen a drastic decline in recent times. According to Rasta he use to sell his finish products on the local and international market and that earned him some good money, but the story has change in recent times because of the high cost of wood on the market and also high taxes impose on them by the A.M.A, other revenue collectors and the center for national culture . Our identity as Ghanaians and the promotion of our diverse culture lies soly in the bosom of Arts let us all rise up to support the art industry before it is too late.
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