The Kumasi symposium: tapping local resources for sustainable education through art
Call for Panel Proposals, Theory Papers / Presentations and Exhibitions / Workshops
Kumasi, Ghana, 31 July – 14 August 2009
The Department of General Arts and Art Education of the College of Arts and Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is organizing a conference on Tapping Local Resources for Sustainable Education Through Art, to be held in Kumasi, Ghana, on 31 July – 14 August, 2009.
A call is made for contributions addressing one or more of the symposium strands and topics: Art Education Practice, Studio Practice, Curatorial/Museum/Community Arts Practice, Art History/Criticism, Arts Administration/Management/Marketing Practice, and Open Session. The symposium features plenary sessions and support activities such as demonstrations/workshops, exhibitions. Expression of interest and proposals for Plenary Sessions and Exhibitions/Practical Workshops will be reviewed until 17 January 2009. Applications for individual paper presentations and participation will be reviewed until the space is filled. All abstracts, brief biographies, full papers and relevant others should be submitted electronically to africoae@gmail.com, with copy to naopoku-asare.art@knust.edu.gh).
The two-week symposium will deal with the issue of sustainability in the 21st century to enable visual arts education developments in Ghana and similar settings, posing the following questions: Is sustainability of art teaching and learning developments in the postcolonial African environment possible? Can the postcolonial Ghanaian and non-Western environments today provide resources for sustainable artistic practice? If so, how can the resources best be tapped for education through art? The focus is on tapping local resources for visual arts teaching and learning through cross-cultural collaborations and critical dialogues. Local resources include national human capital, natural resources, and man-made environment. Proceedings from the symposium will result to a publication.
The event is designed to bring together scholars, educators, curators, practicing artists, and others interested in Africa.Some 200 participants are expected from around the world. The working language of the conference is English.
For details, please see the project web site at http://afropoets.tripod.com/eta and the university web site at www.knust.edu.gh.
Contact: Barthosa Nkurumeh, AfriCOAE General Secretary, Instructional Leadership & Academic Curriculum Dept, University of Oklahoma, P.O. Box 2742, Norman, OK 73070, USA; e-mail: nkurumeh@ou.edu; or Nana Afia Opoku-Asare, Head of Department, Department of General Arts & Art Education, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology-KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana; tel.: 233 (0)20 816-8598, 233 (0)51 634 83; e-mail: naopoku-asare.art@knust.edu.gh, afia_asare@yahoo.co.uk