Coda: Looking Forward

The study of the visual arts in Ghana has come a long way in the last sixty years. The contributions to this special issue of Ghana Studies are a testimony to the vitality of this field of inquiry and, as Nii Quarcoopome has noted, the expansion of the canon. Having considered the past and present, we thought it would be worthwhile to offer a few observations regarding the future: both where it seems to be headed, and where it needs to go. We asked each of the contributors if they might offer a few thoughts on the subject. What follows is a summary of their responses, integrated with our own reflections.

This collection of short essays reveals that, over the last sixty years, there has been a dramatic epistemic transformation of visual art/culture studies. Initially, individuals interested in the visual arts of Ghana focused on figurative sculpture, mostly in wood and terracotta, produced and used in vernacular settings—what is generally referred to as tradition-based art. As noted in Quarcoopome’s overview, the scope of inquiry began to broaden in the late 1970s with the incorporation of visual practices that included the working of metals (brass, gold, and iron), pottery, textiles, sign painting, and architecture. The most significant change occurred in the 1990s when studio-based academic art, long ignored by scholars and collectors, was “discovered” by the global art world. Since then, there has been a veritable explosion of interest in contemporary art produced by artists educated in the School of Art and Design at KNUST and other institutions; artists who have been stretching the boundaries of their visual practice, pursuing projects that involve traditional idioms as well as performance and community-engaged art-making. A new social consciousness is now part of the creative landscape, manifest in the work of artists such as Ibrahim Mahama, Serge Attukwei Clottey, and Kwame Akoto Bamfo. Joseph Oduro-Frimpong believes that it is important we assess the impact that these artists are having in the communities in which they live and work.

Today, interest in contemporary art has eclipsed the study of historical and vernacular art. Scholars of the visual arts of Ghana have expressed concern that a dichotomy now exists between tradition-based and academic practice, and that the two have little to do with one another. In our conversation with kąrî’kạchä seid’ou, he pointed out that this is a false dichotomy: while some scholars see these as separate arenas of visual practice, they are, in fact, two parts of a larger creative ecosystem. He argues that contemporary artists are constantly drawing inspiration from historic vernacular practices, and that artists who continue to make things that have been made for generations find themselves adopting and adapting new technologies and content in their work. We anticipate that the future will bring innovative exhibits and writing that put the vernacular and academic, the historic and contemporary, in dialogue with one another. To do so, fresh strategies for approaching visual culture will be required. Recognizing that Ghanaian visual practice is often a multimodal cultural phenomenon, Quarcoopome suggests that enhanced multidisciplinary collaboration involving cross-ethnic, cross-media, and cross-genre analyses is needed. Michelle Apotsos reinforces this stance, observing that, “Meaningful transformations are on the horizon with regards to the growth of critical cross-disciplinary analyses and approaches that privilege a more intersectional understanding of the diverse contexts and realities that inform creative production past and present.”

Along similar lines, Ghanaian visual art/culture studies appear to be at a critical juncture: fundamental paradigms that have shaped the field are being challenged by scholars and artists. Several contributors expressed the need for jettisoning established hierarchies that have privileged certain visual practices while marginalizing others. For instance, as Quarcoopome observes, the arts of Akan societies have dominated visual art/culture studies. Christopher Richards suggests that the visual practices of northern Ghana, having been overlooked for decades, need to be given more attention. The recent openings of the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art in Tamale and an additional location of Nubuke Foundation in Wa signal a parallel development in expanding contemporary art exhibition spaces—predominately located in Accra and Kumasi—to also include northern Ghana. Similarly, a few authors noted that it is time to challenge conventional categories for art-making (e.g., academic, popular, traditional, vernacular, and street) as well as the values associated with them, as they have become impediments to engaging the myriad domains in which aesthetic objects are made and used. This of course resonates with imperatives articulated by kąrî’kạchä seid’ou and his colleagues at KNUST: first, that the terms used to think about art must be deployed, not as discrete categories, but as permeable containers, and second, that it is time to challenge the capitalist foundation upon which the art world rests, and to begin regarding art as a gift rather than a commodity (Bodjawah et al., 2021). Such a reorientation, no doubt, will lead to a more relevant and inclusive engagement with the visual arts in Ghana.

Addressing the history of art, Apotsos argues that it is important to acknowledge that narratives are rarely oriented around single points in time and that the continued prevalence of “pre-colonial,” “colonial,” and “postcolonial” period designations does more to privilege Western than Ghanaian historical authorship. Indeed, the study of Ghanaian art has been driven by analytical paradigms and perceptions of the past that have their origins in the Global North, rather than in Ghana. As noted above, with the shift in interest towards the present during the last few decades, there has been relatively little work on historic practices and their present-day iterations. Richards recommends that some of the seminal writing on Ghanaian art (for instance, Timothy Garrard’s [1980] comprehensive analysis of Akan gold weights and Doran Ross’s [1998] study of kente) that was produced decades ago be interrogated and, in contexts where these practices have continued to evolve, updated. We anticipate that new approaches to exploring the impact that such traditions have had on contemporary art-making will inspire scholarship that calls attention to historic art practices.

Herbert Cole, whose experiences in Ghana date from fifty years ago, asks a series of questions about the infrastructure that supports visual practice, suggesting that the institutions—such as museums, galleries, arts curricula in tertiary and secondary schools, and arts-focused publications—need to be enhanced. The contributions appearing in these pages demonstrate that, during the last several decades, a good deal more attention is now being paid to the arts in Ghana than in the past; however, one can easily argue that a great deal more is required. Since independence, the government of Ghana has provided nominal funding for the arts. The state of Ghana’s flagship arts and culture institution, the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB), offers tangible evidence of this situation.¹ Though it receives some support from the national government, for most of the last forty years, the GMMB has been without viable leadership.² Without a strong qualified Director, the institution has been unable to properly fulfill its mandate as a custodian of the country’s cultural patrimony and proponent for contemporary cultural practice. It is encouraging that the government recently established the President’s Committee on Museums and Monuments. Its thirteen members have been charged with seeking “a ‘radical’ new direction for the country’s museums and cultural heritage sites” (McGivern 2020). We are eager to see if their work leads to a greater commitment from the government to Ghana’s historic sites and cultural institutions (Ayim 2021). In the meantime, various individuals and institutions have sought other means for advancing the visual arts in Ghana, establishing new spaces for making and exhibiting art.

Though there are a few examples of government-sponsored projects, primarily sited on university campuses (e.g., KNUST Museum and the museum housed in the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon), these initiatives have been funded by foundations, foreign governments, or individuals. Most are focused on contemporary art. Arts organizations like blaxTARLINES that bring together emerging and established artists reveal the potential for future collaboration in the visual arts. The Chale Wote street arts festival, along with the Nubuke Foundation, the Dei Centre for the Study of Contemporary African Art, the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, ANO Ghana, Nuku Studio, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, and Gallery 1957, are just some of the recently established venues for making, exhibiting, and studying art. Veritable crucibles for creativity, these institutions are offering artists, critics, and scholars unprecedented opportunities for experimentation and expression. We anticipate such efforts will continue to thrive.

One of the primary motivations for studying the visual practices of Ghana has been based on the fundamental premise that with time comes change. Evolution is inevitable. Historic practices must evolve to remain relevant. When a tradition is no longer relevant, it is no longer practiced. New traditions are born. It, therefore, is not surprising that several authors emphasized the need to collect as much information as possible about practices that are quickly changing or have recently been abandoned. Suzanne Gott identifies the impact that digital technologies are having on art-making, especially in the production of two-dimensional imagery. As an example, she cites the important research of Atta Kwami and Doran Ross, who have both worked with Kumasi’s celebrated sign painters, “a profession that has been eclipsed by the digital,” noting how their writing on the subject will undoubtedly enrich “future understandings of Ghana’s visual arts and expressive culture.” Along similar lines, Richards, who has an interest in Independence-era Ghana, observes that the individuals who experienced this period are now getting on in years and that it is “imperative to gather as much information as we possibly can, to better understand this transformative moment in Ghana’s history.”

Though the field was dominated for the first forty years by scholars from Europe and North America, much of what is being written today about visual art in Ghana is being produced by Ghanaian scholars, art critics, and artists. This is reflected in the roster of contributors to this issue of Ghana Studies. It is a critical shift in authorship that is likely to continue.

One final observation regarding the future emerges from the recent discourse concerning the restitution of cultural property expropriated by Europeans from Africa during the colonial era. In addition to the return of material heritage, there has been a call for a “new relational ethics” that involves a greater commitment from the Global North to engaging in genuine collaborative activities with the citizens of Africa (Sarr and Savoy 2018). Until recently, there has been only limited collaboration between scholars from the South and North. Today there is some activity, most of it involving individuals who are curating exhibitions and writing about contemporary Ghanaian art. In 2017, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) organized its 17th Triennial Symposium on African Art. It was hosted by the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon and was the first ACASA Triennial since its founding in the 1960s to be held in Africa. More events of this sort must be organized as they provide exceptional opportunities for seeding international collaboration. Similarly, discussions regarding the visual arts of Ghana have taken place, to a limited extent, at the triennial conference of the Ghana Studies Association; surely, this multidisciplinary meeting has not been fully exploited as a venue for advancing visual arts scholarship.

As an ever-evolving field of cultural inquiry, Ghanaian art studies are on an exciting trajectory. If we take the writing presented here in this issue of Ghana Studies as a sample of the scholarship on visual art being undertaken today, great things are in store for the future.