Tribute by Pradyuma Vyas, Director, National Institute of Design (Nid), Ahmedabadab, Gujarat, India

We at the National Institute of Design (NID) were very saddened to hear the untimely demise of Mrs Bridget Kyerematen-Darko, the Executive Director of the Aid To Artisans Ghana (ATAG), who had worked very closely with NID’s Outreach Programmes during the “Designing the Difference” Programme executed in 2013 and 2014.

The NID’s work in Ghana formed part of a larger programme supported by the Government of India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry under the aegis of its Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, and administered by the Ministry of External Affairs.

Bridget was the person who facilitated the programme in Ghana and who said “Ghana is a craft producing nation and I have long felt that we have much to learn from India, where craft is also very important. It is the most important country that we can look to. The idea that Ghanaian artisans would travel to India and look at it through the eyes of artisans – well they would learn more than they could anywhere else.”

We are deeply saddened with the news and are shocked. Her demise has been a big loss to the crafts community. Bridget brought 25 indigenous crafts women to NID and our experience with them both in Ahmedabad and Accra was very rich.