By Naa Shormei Odonkor
Kumasi, Nov. 08, GNA – Mrs Grace Agyapong Fosu, the Head of Visual Department of the Ashanti Regional Centre for National Culture (CNC), has stressed the need for a deliberate national policy to promote the development and use of locally designed Ghanaian fabrics.
She said investments in made in Ghana designed fabrics would not only help to create employment but would also help to promote the indigenous Ghanaian culture.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, during a tour of the Visual Department of the CNC in Kumasi, Mrs Fosu said there was the need for the government to help regulate the importation of fabrics into the country,
This was because, the imported fabrics were sold at cheaper prices in the market at the expense of the locally produced ones.
Mrs Fosu debunked the erroneous assertion by many Ghanaians that the CNC was only associated with the performing arts.
She pointed out that the Centre was made up of five departments, including the Visual Department, Performing Arts Department, Research and Documentation, among others.
She said the visual arts played a crucial role in the lives of every human being, adding that, “without visual arts, there would be nothing beautiful to create and admire and that, life would be very blank and empty”.
Mrs Fosu defined Visual Arts as the expression of creative ideas into something tangible which could be seen and touched.
She said the Visual Arts Department of the Centre consisted of the pottery and ceramics, batik, tie and dye, fashion section, graphic design and painting, broadloom Kente weaving and the Ashanti Kente weaving sections respectively.
She added that the broadloom Kente weaving skill, which was not common in the market was adopted from Japan into the country.
Mrs Fosu noted that the Visual Arts Department had in the last two years, trained about 256 people in various skills for self-employment.
She said the CNC was ready and available to train citizens interested in obtaining skills in Visual Arts as part of efforts, to promote job creation and economic empowerment of the people.
Mrs Fosu mentioned some of the challenges facing the department as insufficient funds to run its activities, especially in the purchasing of materials, whose prices keep on increasing every day.
GNA