Since the invention of democracy in Ghana, many activities have taken place. As the guiding light of democracy in Africa, Ghana continues to enjoy stable and political atmosphere for the past two decades.
The country’s economy has also been given a major boost since the commencement of oil production in 2010.
Nevertheless, one aspect of Ghana’s economy that is still under the hegemony of colonization is the arts – its education and industry.
Unknown to its strong economic impacts, each year, when the budget is presented in parliament, a decimal fraction of the budget is given to the arts industry, even if any. The least said about it the better.
Art in any form primarily entertains, educates, enlightens and informs. Without the arts, life can be equated with the cemetery.
Life will be bland, boring and plain – the power of the arts! In a strict sense, art is categorized into three nomenclatures – literary, visual, and performing and media.
The literary arts include: novels, poetry and short stories. The visual arts include: painting, sculpture photography and architecture while the performing and media arts encompasses: theatre, film, movie, dance, opera and music.
Realistically, all the stated art forms are conceived, presented and interpreted by artisans. For the arts to be made complete, it must be appreciated, watched, listened to and enjoyed by people (audience).
Ironically, it is this same group of people who patronize the arts that turn around to either tease or give distasteful names to the artisans involved.
Admittedly, this situation is pathetic and unforgiving. It is quite unfortunate hordes of people presume arts education is useless and nothing short of waste of time.
Naively, others still presume arts education and arts industry is for people without mathematical and scientific brains. No wonder that presumptions have sparked off the proliferation of household and national anthems such as dondology on the lips of many people, especially, students pursuing the better courses – Medicine, Law, Business, among others.
From the standpoint of the naïve, seeking post-secondary education in the arts may be senseless and foolish.
Many a times, arts students are asked “So what course are you reading?” And if the answer is given as theatre the resultant statement is “Oh I see…you’re studying theatre arts…What then are you going to do with that?”
I write this article with mixed feelings. I was extremely excited when I had a notificationthat I have been admitted to the University of Cape Coast to study Theatre Arts.
But at the same time, I became dispirited prior to the course that I was coming to study. Why? This is the big answer. “Why Arts? Why not Political Science? Why not Business?Why not even Education…?” I was quizzed. The reason is, I had the opportunity to pursue a course in Political Science and Education at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the University of Education, Winneba, respectively.
Well-known for my right-winged views and vociferous demeanour, I was pushed to go and study Political Science. That was enough motivation! But my star sign wasn’t for that. I’m a Leo.
Therefore, I defied all odds to come to University of Cape Coast to study Theatre Arts, my first love.
Many of us, when growing up, imagination and creativity was extremely appreciated by all and sundry.
When we dipped brush in colours to fill a blank sheet of a paper or on a canvass, we were given toffees. When we imbibed the feel of a song and sang it beautifully with full dedication in church for Children’s Day, we were given chocolates. And when we dressed up as a child to play the role of a character in a drama in school for our Speech and Prize Giving Day’s, we were cherished by our parents and even considered as superheroes with super powers.
Sadly enough, when I made the decision of coming to University of Cape Coast to study Theatre Arts, I was told point blank that my plans in the arts are not realistic and that they will be more than a pipe dream.
In a soliloquy manner, I said to myself “nothing can bring me done except myself” as a sign of being self-confident. The passion for arts kept drumming a clarion in me that as a student, why don’t I study what I am passionately drawn to and make a career out of it rather than following the wishes of other people.
I was then again told that I’ll not have future with the arts. Rather than being demotivated, I found solace in the timeless words of Horace Walpole “the world is a tragedy to those who feel but comedy to those who think.”
True and impossible to disagree with, when thinking about the future with the arts, it may scare away one’s passion.
A prospective arts student are told that the course is not a good course. In addition, as compared to Law, Business and Medicine, the salary involved is not anything to brag about with the kind of work involved which demand long hours and sacrifices.
Amidst all these demands, those who look forward to make future in the arts with unflinching confidence makes it, although no job assures maximum comfort and security.
Contrary to popular belief that the arts education is a well-trodden pathway to financial woes; rather,it is the excellent choice for the growing number of unemployed graduates.
It is an obvious truth that arts students are multi-skilled. They are cut-and-dried, naturally gifted, well-rounded, employable and capable of excelling in a wider range of professions.
Arts education endows students with skills such as: interpersonal, presentational, innovative, communication, entrepreneurial, active listening, discipline, time management skills, just to mention a few.
These are the qualitative skills that multi-billion companies are competing to get from bright and smart graduates. The study of arts, therefore, makes a person whole.
Apart from these qualities that a student of art is endowed with, arts also have a ripple effect on a country.
The effects are colossal. Arts can be viewed in the economic measures of employment. Employment is created through the organization of entertainment and exhibition events such as musical concerts, theatre performances, fashion and model shows, movie and music videos as well as painting, sculpture and literary exhibitions.
In the course of these activities, payments are made to headline artistes, booking agents, stage managers, directors, writers, producers, designers and many more workers which serve as a form of employment opportunities for them.
Tax revenues are also accrued by government through taxation on these events. Tax as a direct economic subvention to the country, therefore, contributes to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Arts, as a powerful tool is also endorsed by politicians. Since arts can be used to dazzle, woo and influence people, politicians adopt it in their political campaigns by billing appealing and hottest artisans to perform for them.
Through this act, both onlookers and party sympathizers become easily persuaded for their predators.
The impacts of arts are unparalleled and immeasurable. Irrespective of arts single action of overwhelming benefits, it is still relegated to the background.
This is because, naivety has succeeded in Ghana to blur the lines of art between reality and fantasy.
Paraphrasing my encounter with Mr. Michael Attipoe, Director of Administration and Finance at the National Commission on Culture, he palpably recounted that here in Ghana, when it comes to the allocation of funds to the various sectors of the economy, what naturally comes to mind by the politicians is that Ghana has many problems with road, healthcare, education (not arts education) and many more issues.
So when it comes to the arts, what they say is “why don’t we do the necessary things first”. This assertion, consequently, resonates with the title of this article. Hence, the continue dwindling of arts education and its associated industries in the country.
Nevertheless, all hope is not lost. There is still light at the end of the tunnel. In bathing ourselves in this pool of motivation, one thing that is needful is to collectively rethink of the powerful impacts of arts as an individual, governments and agencies on the country.
As a country, if we had believed that art has the possibility of being life-changing, we would have better started working assiduously for the improvement and betterment of this country as far as arts education and its associated industries are concerned.
In endeavouring to rethink, resurrect, reawake and revive thedeclining arts system in the country, William Shakespeare’s famous quotation from his play As You Like It, provides us with a hefty dose of medication to cure our ailing arts economy. He indicates that “all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely player and one man in his time plays many parts…” Indisputably, the best way to resurrect the arts is through collaboration.
Governments, agencies and individuals have to play their part. Since it is a recursive process, when we work together to realize shared goals, the resultant synergy will be very productive.
I am with much confidence that with a collective determination to reach an identical objective in re-conceptualizing our education arts curriculum and the economy, the arts sector will be the litmus test to Ghana’s economic independence as it is in the United States of America.
Submitted
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