Proper marketing lacking in Ghana's creative arts industry - Professor Younge

A Ghanaian lecturer with the Ohio University School of Music, Professor Pascal Badu-Younge has attributed the woes of the country’s creative arts industry to the shortfall in the marketing of their artifacts and products.

Though he acknowledge the uniqueness of the Ghanaian culture, he bemoaned the fact that the richness and exclusivity is not ‘sold’ or presented well enough to the world like the culture of other countries are.

“We have all these here but we do not market ourselves, there are facilities in the theatre but people do not know what happens here, if we market ourselves well people will be coming here to study” he said.

Professor Younge said, selling the Ghanaian culture and Arts demands a deliberate effort from the ministerial level to the various Directors and Managers found within the creative Arts industry.

He was quick to debunk the long held notion that creative Arts belongs to school dropouts and ‘truants’

“ It is very sad that people have that notion about the Arts, a culture without the arts is dead, I am here, a professor in the USA because of music, Arts is not for school dropouts” he said.

Addressing the issue of low patronage of theatre Arts in Ghana, Amy Appiah Frimpong, the Executive Director, National Theatre said the Theatre is woefully under fund and that has made is difficult for it to advertise it programs to compete with others, adding that “unfortunately we are in era where we still haven’t recovered from the 1983 curfew which stopped people from going out late in the evening”

According to her, the National Theatre is working tirelessly towards reviving the Theatre culture among Ghanaians

“We are working against certain perceptions and that needs investment of time and money” she said.

Professor Younge and Mrs Frimpong were speaking at the launch of a week-long program to climax the 25th Anniversary celebrations of the National Theatre christened, “ Agoro” in Accra.

The peak of the celebrations is scheduled for 28th, 29th and 30th June at the auditorium of the National Theatre at 7pm each day