Samuel Komla Gene (2023)

The study was based on the use of talking drums by Alavanyo-Kpeme basic schools for instructions, a practice which is the perpetuation of educational policy and preservation of Ghanaian culture. Using the descriptive research model, data was collected through observation and interviews with headteachers, teachers and pupils by interacting with them. The data collected was analyzed by aesthetic analysis. It is noted that talking drums communicate the embodiment portraying the interplay between music, communication and the social structure of the school system. The paper explains the perceptual qualities and the exhibition of the educational potency of the talking drums in Ghanaian schools.

Jacqueline Ogoe, Ebenezer Kofi Howard, Ninette Appiah, Benjamin Kwablah Asinyo, Anthony Boakye Antwi (2023)

This study explored the views of respondents on systems available in Ghanaian institutions that support the acquisition of fashion skills by the visually impaired. The study was premised on the fact that the availability of these systems are not known to redirect and facilitate the skill development of the visually impaired in fashion. Specifically, the study assessed the experiences of visually impaired individuals concerning systems available to enable them to enroll and acquire fashion-related skills. The case study research design was adopted to select and report data qualitatively. Interview and Focus Group Discussion were used to collect data from twenty-seven visually impaired students and six Fashion and Special Education experts. The respondents were reached through the adoption of purposive, convenience and snowball sampling techniques. With the aid of Nvivo software version 14, thematic analysis was carried out and presented as findings in this study. The study revealed that the Ghanaian educational system struggles to provide systems supportive for training the visually impaired with fashion skills. It was recommended that the government and institutions that provide
aids for visually impaired education, implement the necessary support systems to train the visually impaired with fashion skills in order to develop and empower their creative abilities in fashion.

Mark Millas Coffie (2023)

In this study, I bring to the fore some prominent popular musicians whose careers were truncated due to ill health and have passed on recently as an attempt to stimulate a discourse towards the health sustainability of popular musicians in Ghana for a sustainable career and industry. Drawing on descriptive research design, document analysis, and interviews for data collection, I observed that only a few prominent Ghanaian popular musicians had sustained their careers for over five decades. At the same time, some are grappling to do so due to ill health. I conclude that the health sustainability of popular musicians is paramount to the sustainability of Ghana’s music industry. Therefore, popular musicians should prioritise their health as a matter of urgency in their quest to have a sustainable career. I hope this study serves as a moderate contribution to Ghanaian popular music scholarship, marks the beginning of a new direction, stimulates debates, and gives rise to
similar research in other creative arts traditions.

Alfred Patrick Addaquay (2023)

The article is a position paper that discusses the craft of compositions in African Art music in Ghana and highlighting a propositioned guideline in the performance of such created art musical pieces. Given the foundational inspiration from Euba’s notion of Interculturalism in music, there’s a noticeable lack of comprehensive documentation regarding vocal techniques aimed at advancing and instructing performers in the rendition of African Art musical performance. Regarding the selection of the compositions involved in this paper, transcription and analysis of the works were purposively selected, to consider how and why the techniques of various classifications were established in the compositions. It is envisaged that the study will serve as a work of posterity and an introduction to vocal techniques in the singing of African Art music.

Alfred Patrick Addaquay (2023)

This paper presents an analytical work that gives a panoramic view of textual analysis in the choral writings of Sam Kwaku Asare-Bediako; His journey as a free-lance composer enables him to construct text in various traditions and beliefs. In addition to the description given to some of his works as loquacious in this paper, the study provides an insight into the thought processes of the composer, such as the adoption of colloquialism in his music, his controversial system in both spelling and construction of text in the Asante Twi language spoken by the people of Ashanti region of Ghana and lastly, his system of classification in text. The compositions are sampled randomly. The examination of the works involved in this paper was done by observing the scores, listening to both audio and videos online, as well as live performances, and few interviews regarding response to his music by song teachers, performers (choristers) and listeners. Lastly, the perspectives highlight all the social, moral, and educational relevance of the work.

Samuel Ofori Danquah, Samuel Manaseh Yirenkyi (2023)

Art therapy, facilitated by a professional art therapist, effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals, as well as community concerns. Art therapy is used to improve cognitive and sensorimotor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal and ecological change. Perception formation and attitude were indexed on Gestalt’s theory. The study
sought to elicit more traditional interventions which concerns are not explicit in orthodox forms of offering counselling therapy by therapists to lecturers in the University of Education, Winneba. The study employed qualitative research methods to elicit information from 8 senior counsellors from the University of Education, Winneba. A multiple case study was adopted to provide sets of contexts used to explore research questions. Discussions in the study provide a rich source of information that counsellors in academia and lecturers can use as anti-stressors. The study demonstrates that Ghanaian society acknowledges the existence of various art forms that is fine art, dance, photography, music, drama, film and other visual and performing arts and their usefulness in offering psychological support. It is recommended that counsellors in academic settings inculcate the practice of using the various art forms as therapy during their counselling sessions and art therapy must be introduced into counselling education and training in Ghana.

 Augusta Arko-Mensah, Veronica Agyeiwaah (2023)

The paper was a result of a phenomenographic study which sought to identify a number of conceptions of a Musicianship course among level 200 students pursuing Bachelor of Arts, Music Education, at the University of Education, Winneba in individual interviews of a sample size of 20. The study was premised on the fact that students have diverse understanding of the musicianship course thereby affecting its significance on their general musical practice. These conceptions were grouped into four categories related to the students’ preferred explanations for Musicianship. (a) the ability to play or perform by hearing (b) performing in an ensemble work (c) gaining mastery in reading at sight (d) transcription of musical pitches or sound from audio or video recordings into notation. Using the concept of integrated music learning’ and improvisation as the framework, the findings from this study raised two critical but general issues regarding Musicianship learning. The first of these is the critical role played by students in their everyday practice to acquire the necessary skills for understanding and interpreting concepts in the Musicianship course. A second issue is the tendency for students to extend their understanding and interpretation of concepts in the Musicianship course to actual performance of their major and minor instruments. This study argues that an understanding of the Musicianship phenomenon by students should form an integral component of the teaching of the course, both as points of origin for lesson planning and for the development of curricular materials. It is envisaged that the results of the study facilitate a better understanding of student’s learning of the Musicianship course as part of their training as music educators while it gives further direction to teachers of the course to use the integrated approach to help students acquire the necessary skills in the course. 

Fuseini Ayaaba, Daniel Kwabena Danso (2023)

This research work sought to identify and discuss the socio-economic and cultural relevance of fugu (smock) fabrics, study the extent to which traditional symbols of the Upper East Region of Ghana are incorporated in fugu fabrics, and also design and produce fugu fabrics with selected traditional symbols of Upper East Region of Ghana incorporated in them. The researchers adopted the studio-based research approach as it is deemed the most appropriate for this type of research project. It involved the descriptive and exploratory methods of research. The purposive and quota sampling methods were employed in this research which made it possible to reach the fugu fabric weavers, users of the fugu, sellers of fugu and fugu fabrics for needed data. A sample size of fifty (50) was used and data gathered were obtained through the use of questionnaire and interview. The researchers found that fugu fabrics contribute a lot in the cultural and socio-economic lives of the people in the Upper East Region of Ghana as they use them for funerals, festivals, marriage ceremonies, and it also help them earn good living through occupations such as weaving, sewing, and sale of smocks. Respondents also, generally, expressed interest in the incorporation of traditional symbols in the fugu fabrics of Ghana. The study concluded that the incorporation of traditional symbols in the fugu fabrics of the Upper East Region of Ghana will promote the cultural value of the products, enhance their aesthetic appeal, and also attract more people to purchase them. It is, therefore, imperative for fugu fabric producers and textile artists, in general, to turn attention to the fugu business and work towards the inculturation of fugu fabrics with traditional symbols of Ghana to make the industry a vibrant and more attractive one. The researchers also recommend their newly designed fugu symbolic fabrics for use. 

Kow Eduam Ghartey, Osuanyi Quaicoo Essel (2023)

Studies on the economic impacts of the wax print companies in Ghana abound. However, the design history of the wax prints design culture in post-independence Ghana has received little or no scholarly focus. This study focuses on Akosombo Textiles Limited (ATL) now Akosombo Industrial Company Limited, one of the giants in wax prints in Ghana. Historical research design and expert purposive sampling were used. In all sixteen (16) respondents were selected which comprised of designers, production managers, sales representatives and managers. Semi-structured interview and document review was used to collect the data while available artefacts formed part of the data collected. Historical and document analyses were used as data analysis methods. The study traced the wax prints fabric design and production history of Akosombo Industrial Company Limited, which has been in existence since 1967, highlighting its major fabric design evolution for over five decades of its existence. The study concluded that from 1967 to 2018, ATL produced two (2) main types of designs: ABC Wax designs and Java designs. ABC Wax designs were designed and printed in England while Java designs were designed and printed in Ghana. From 1967 to 2022 the company produced its 19,837 design and counting. AICL design and print both ABC and Java in Ghana from 2018 to present (2023). The study therefore recommends that, AICL should prioritize the creation of fabric design catalogue from 1967 to 2023 for reference, and teaching and learning of designing in Textiles and Fashion related schools in Ghana. The creation of such a catalogue will serve as resource material for analysis on the ABC wax print designs and Java design and to establish how they appertain to Ghanaian culture; as well as for fabric design idea development.

Theophilus Kwesi Mensah, Ebenezer Kow Abraham (2023)

This study was informed by the art-based approach to peacebuilding and unity to situate the Unity Monument as a didactic symbol of unity and peace in Simpa. The illustrative case study design was used in conjunction with semiotics to discuss the aesthetical connotations of the unity monument in relation to its nexus to unity and peace in Simpa. Simpa has experienced a protracted chieftaincy feud which resolution continue to hang around the neck of Kingmakers like an albatross. Many approaches have been explored to no avail. What is missing, is the use of art-based approaches to peace. Through literature review, interviews, and observations data was collected from a sample of nine (9) respondents chosen through purposive and convenience sampling techniques to advance an aesthetical discourse and solicit public opinions on the monument as a viable peacebuilding edifice. The findings revealed a threesome perspective from aesthetes who only consume the hedonistic nature of the monument; the optimists who relate to the unity and peace message in the monument and the skeptics who despite their inclination to the monument as a symbol of unity, doubted its potency in the unity and peace narrative of Simpa. We concluded that while art-based approaches could only do so much, this monument was nonetheless a valid ally (visual reminder) and a physical instantiation to the quest for unity and peace in Simpa.