GAVA, cultural centre train artists in paper-making

 
A capacity building workshop for artists, designers and other producers of artworks has ended in Accra.

The workshop, organised by the Visual Arts Department of the Centre for National Culture, Accra, in collaboration with the Ghana Association of Visual Artists (GAVA), schooled participants on how to use local raw materials to make paper.

The resource person, Prof. Mary Hark of the Design Studies Department of the School of Human Ecology, Art and African Studies at the Wisconsin University, created the hand paper-making technology.

Among the materials used in making the paper are mulberry pulp (a plant), okra, water, stiff and foam.

In an interview, the President of the GAVA, Franklin Nii Glover, paid  tribute to Prof. Hark for her ingenuity, assistance and for introducing artists to the technology of hand paper-making.

He expressed the hope that the training would afford the participants the avenue to create businesses out of the training, notably by setting up studios to deal with such paper products.

“As an association, we often organise training workshops to introduce our members to new opportunities that would add value to their works, including how to market themselves and sign contracts,” he noted.

Nii Glover commended Mrs Amy Appiah Frimpong, the Deputy Artistic Director of the National Theatre, for her instrumentality in putting together the workshop.

Present at the workshop were Mr George Oppong, Director, Centre for National Culture; Mr Lawrence K. Agyeman, Secretary; Mr Aubrey-Seth Attoh,Organising Secretary; and Ms Betty Acquah, Treasurer of the GAVA.

Mrs Amy Frimpong challenged and encouraged artists in the country to be creative, “visualise and be innovative, create new things and ideas for the essence of such workshops to be felt.”

She mentioned that the hand-produced paper taught at the workshop could also be utilised in making other domestic products such as fan and room dividers.