Ex-athlete in Ghana to promote peace:Using sports-inspired scultpure
British sculptor and former athlete, Donald Brown, is in Ghana to spearhead a global peace initiative, using sports and arts as tools to promote the project.
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The 2011 European Masters 60-metre indoor champion has created a painting titled “A Sporting Chance for Peace” with which he is touring the world to present to leaders and citizens of various countries aimed at promoting global peace.
Brown’s organisation, The Global Gallery, combines the visual arts and sports to address issues comprising confidence, self-esteem, identity, balance, striving for excellence and building healthy relationships among others.
It also addresses issues such as crime, gang violence and drug abuse while promoting the quest for inner peace by raising awareness for peace and positive action for life.
Explaining the symbolisms in the sculpture to the press in Accra yesterday, Brown said the art work which took him four years to complete had a positive message and meaning that people could relate to in everyday life.
He said the painting symbolised how various sporting activities such as tennis, hockey, golf, athletics, javelin, cricket, football, basketball, baseball and swimming could be used to empower people to make the right decisions and choices in life.
The sculptor used the dynamics in the games to explain different kinds of issues that pertained to life such as disappointments, influences, responsibility, motivation, honour, pursuing excellence, humility, overcoming challenges as well as failures and successes.
He mentioned that a game like tennis involved back-and-forth movements and required strength and dynamism to win, just as people needed these qualities to make informed decisions to succeed in life.
The painting also depicts a female athlete with a baton, which he said symbolised the necessity for the older generation to pass on knowledge, information, wisdom and responsibility they have to the younger ones. He further explained that if the elderly failed to pass on the baton to others, then we held them back in life”.
According to the organisers, the initiative has non-political, non-religious and had been embraced by people across the world, with the painting being sold to generate revenue to be donated to organisations engaged in championing health issues across the globe.
Health Education Access for Ghana (HEAG Medical Centre) has been selected as one of the beneficiaries of the project.
