Arts refers to the theory, human application, and physical expression of creativity found in human cultures and societies through skills and imagination in order to produce objects, environments, and experiences. Major constituents of the arts include visual arts, literary arts, performing arts, and culinary arts.
The President Nana Akufo Addo made gargantuan promises to the creative arts industry in the build up to the 2016 election which largely contributed to his overwhelming victory against the National Democratic Congress (NDC) led by John Dramani Mahama but four years down the lane, he’s yet to fulfil any of those promises.
It’s against this background that some key players in the creative arts industry, including legendary music producer Appiah Dankwa aka Appietus is having double minds about supporting Nana Akufo Addo in this year’s election.
See below for the 17 promises Nana Akufo Addo made in that regard before he came to power in 2017.
1. Pursue a deliberate marketing programme to promote our unique historical sites, flora and fauna, waterfalls and other cultural artefacts.
2. Take the staffing of these tourist sites and our hospitality industry as a whole seriously.
3. To improve professionalism in the sector, we will partner with the private sector to set up a state-of-the-art hospitality teaching facility, with an operational hotel, classrooms, kitchens, library, and dormitories.
4. Encourage local communities to take ownership and be invested in the sustainability of tourist attractions in their localities.
5. The NPP will champion a revenue-sharing programme to inject 5% of tourism revenues from fees of well-developed tourist attractions into local community projects.
6. Transform the Ghana Tourist Authority into a modern, efficient research and marketing institution with the necessary technical resources and funds to help project the image of Ghana as a globally-recognized tourism brand.
7. Reactivate and resource the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board to function effectively as a repository of both our cultural and historical records.
8. Pursue an ecotourism policy that enables us make these sites available whilst protecting the ecosystem.
9. Invest in Tourism IT as an enabler, to improve knowledge and the sharing of information about tourism opportunities in the country.
10. The Culture Policy, developed and adopted under the Kufuor government, will be reviewed and actively implemented to give our culture pride of place in our national development.
11. We will build a detailed inventory of all our cultural assets, so the nation has a database of these assets.
12. The NPP will ensure that the provisions regarding the protection of Kente and Adinkra designs are strictly enforced against illicit exploitation by foreign interests.
13. We will establish a Creative Arts Fund.
14. The NPP will collaborate with the Chief Justice to create a Division of the High Court, focusing on the Creative Arts to deal with all matters relating to intellectual property rights, complete with a dedicated enforcement unit.
15. The NPP will establish a Creative Arts Council to coordinate and harmonize the various interests and fragmented associations into a well-functioning body to protect the interests of members.
17. The NPP will collaborate with private sector interests to acquire the technology and equipment needed to log creative works, in order to determine true and deserved royalties.
18. We will pursue the construction of modern large seating theatres in every regional capital except Accra, beginning with Takoradi, Tamale and Kumasi, as well as setting up an additional Copyright Office in Tamale to cater for the northern sector in addition to the existing ones in Accra and Kumasi.
SOURCE: www.Ghgossip.com