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Feature: CREATIVE ART INDUSTRY: Six (6) Years Into Government’s Agenda, A work in progress.
By: G I D E O N
Amidst the lamentations of creative art persons and industry players, registering displeasure in the Government and the office of the Tourism, Art and Culture ministry of a failed sector, we can’t generally conclude that the sector has come to nothing since its establishment.
At least, the sector has gained the attention of the government which wasn’t as such in times ago and that alone is an evidence of a “work in progress”.
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Art and Culture became part of the Tourism Ministry in 2013 during the Mahama led NDC administration after the excessive rant of some industry players to have the Creative Art sector on the agenda of the government since it was jilted.
The office of the ministry was then occupied by Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu Agyare until 2017 where Mrs Catherine Afeku resumed office after the NPP had won power over the NDC in the 2016 general elections and later reshuffled for Mrs Babra Oteng Gyesi.
The NPP before coming to power presented their aspirations of making the sector decorative and a major revenue- generating sector that provides safe, memorable and enjoyable experience for tourists and art practitioners.
They outlined 14 strategic polars which they seek to establish during their term in office to achieve a sustainable, decorative and a revenue generated sector.
These and I quote [From The 2016 Manifesto of the NPP page 49 and 50]
NPP 2016 Manifesto on Tourism, Culture and Art.
The NPP in their 2016 Manifesto promised to;
1. Aggressively develop our tourist sites to bring them to world-class standards, complete with the requisite amenities and facilities.
2. Pursue a deliberate marketing programme to promote our unique historical sites, flora and fauna, waterfalls and other cultural artefacts
3. Take the staffing of these tourist sites and our hospitality industry as a whole seriously. To improve professionalism in the sector, we will partner with the private sector to set up a state-of-the-art hospitality teaching facility, with an operational hotel, classrooms, kitchens, library, and dormitories.
4. Encourage local communities to take ownership and be invested in the sustainability of tourist attractions in their localities, The NPP will champion a revenue-sharing programme to inject 5% of tourism revenues from fees of well-developed tourist attractions into local community projects.
5. Promote domestic tourism, by making it an aggressive plank of our tourism strategy with a marketing drive centred on entrenching a tourism culture among Ghanaians.
6. Reviewed and actively implement the Culture Policy developed under the Kufuor-led NPP government to give our culture pride of place in our national development.
7. Build a detailed inventory of all our cultural assets, so the nation has a database of these assets.
8. The Copyright Act 2005 (Act 690), among other provisions, provides for the protection of Adinkra symbols and the older Kente designs as expression of folklore. The NPP will ensure that the provisions regarding the protection of Kente and Adinkra designs are strictly enforced against illicit exploitation by foreign interests, to enable the country maximize revenue through the proper marketing of these heirlooms.
9. Establish a Creative Arts Fund to make available funds to modernize and develop the sector.
10. Create a Division of the High Court, focusing on the Creative Arts to deal with all matters relating to intellectual property rights, complete with a dedicated enforcement unit.
11. Establish a Creative Arts Council to coordinate and harmonize the various interests and fragmented associations into a well-functioning body to protect the interests of members.
12. Collaborate with private sector interests to acquire the technology and equipment needed to log creative works, in order to determine true and deserved royalties.
13. Promote regional and district literature, music, dance and drama competitions, particularly in schools and colleges.
14. Pursue the construction of modern large seating theatres in every regional capital except Accra, beginning with Takoradi, Tamale and Kumasi, as well as setting up an additional Copyright Office in Tamale to cater for the northern sector in addition to the existing ones in Accra and Kumasi.
In my next writeup, I will make sure to outline some fulfillments of the above enlisted promises of the NPP.
Let’s come up and build, be the heroes of our time and raise a standard creative art industry for the future.
We can’t rely on the government all day, Yes, their promise and fail character is chronic due to their pursued political ambitions but as a citizenry, we are not to stay passive and watch such a sickening industry rot in bed but uphold its betterment by contributing our quota to its development.
