Women’s Arts Institute calls for support for creative industry
The President of the Women’s Arts Institute Africa (wAiA), Madam Akwele Suma Glory, has urged the government to provide a more holistic support to the creative industry in Ghana.
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She made the call at a day’s sensitisation seminar for members of the Women’s Arts Institute in Accra.
The workshop focused on reviewing a research commissioned by the Women’s Arts Institute on the state of visual arts financing in Ghana.
At the opening ceremony of the workshop, Madam Glory said, women engaged in visual arts were unable to secure funding for their works because they did not have the needed collateral to access loans.
That, she said, was the primary reason women completed art schools and then diverted into other areas of work which many a time, was of less value to their training.
Madam Glory said she was hopeful that the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts would work with the legislature to pass the legislative instrument that would enable the Ghana Culture Trust Fund to be operational.
Presenting the research work, Ms Mardey Ohui Ofoe, Secretary of wAiA, said former President John Agyekum Kufuor, adopted what became the Ghana Cultural Policy drafted by the National Commission on Culture under the leadership of Professor George P. Hagan.
Policy Draft
A key component of the policy, she said, was the establishment of a Culture Trust Fund to support the creation of works by underserved artists.
Ms Ofoe added that the then government voted GH¢2 million as seed money for the fund.
However, for the fund to be functional, Parliament would have to pass a legislative instrument which had not been done.
According to the research, a number of countries pay particular attention to the development and sustainability of their creative industry, through deliberate government and private support, such as providing the industry with infrastructural and logistical resources.
Additionally, she noted, South Africa represents an African country that has been able to sustain and develop its creative industry through such support; while Norway is also an example of a country that has efficiently and effectively managed its creative industry.
Ms Ofoe pointed out that strategic support to the industry, particularly to women of visual artists, would create jobs, increase income generation and expand government revenue.
Participants in the meeting called on the government to roll out specific programmes for the arts, targeting women and other vulnerable groups.
The sensitisation programme was attended by over 35 female participants with varied creative skills and abilities.