Arts and Crafts producers attend workshop

Kumasi, July 18, GNA - Nana Brefo Boateng, a former director of the Kumasi Centre for National Culture, on Thursday charged Ghanaians to ensure that the next government promotes culture as the bedrock of society. He said past and present governments had ignored the promotion and funding of culture which had the potentials to drive socio-economic development of the nation.

Nana Boateng, who is also the Chief Director of the National Commission on Culture, expressed these sentiments when he chaired the opening session of a maiden workshop for Arts and Crafts Practitioners in Ghana at Kumasi.

The five-day programme, funded by the European Union, gave rise to the Cultural Initiative Support Programme (CSIP) as a result of the grant to government to enable it support the cultural sector. CISP had already provided training for administrators of cultural institutions, performance technicians and journalists. The training was to make up for shortfalls and weaknesses in the implementation of Ghana's cultural policy. Nana Boateng reiterated that though the government had set up the Ministry of Arts and Culture, little was done to promote culture as the identity of the citizenry. Mr. Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng, Project Co-ordinator, said the objective of the workshop was to develop an inventory of the cultural sector which the public could appreciate as major components of Arts and Craft. Mr. Osei Bobie-Boahin, Head of Department of the Integrated Rural Arts, called on the practitioners to seek proficient training in order to produce the best of the arts.