Kumasi was the capitol of the powerful Asante Kingdom in the 18th and 19th centuries, and continues to be a center of vital cultural activity today. Contemporary and traditional artists and musicians maintain lively practices creating works steeped in Asante's glorious past and engaged in contemporary Ghanaian life. Living and working in Ghana, they respond to a world where art and daily life is bound seamlessly together. Brilliant patterned textiles are produced, sold, and sewn into lively clothing worn every day. The distinctive percussive beat of the African drum provides a soundtrack for daily life. Creative activity in Ghana responds and contributes to the color, pattern, and sounds of the markets and the streets.
Look, Look, Listen, Listen - Celebrating the Arts of Ghana brings to the University of Wisconsin-Madison the work of important contemporary and traditional artists whose visual and musical creations are influenced by the dynamic cultural activity and street life of the Greater Ashanti Region. Highlighting the events is a concert by renowned palm wine musician Koo Nimo and multiple exhibitions. Dorothy Akpene Amenuke's sumptuously patterned batik textiles will be shown, along with the Boakye family workshop's elaborately stamped adinkra cloth. Recent paintings and prints by internationally acclaimed artists Dr. Atta Kwami and Pamela Clarkson will be exhibited, as well as the first publication of Take Time Press. This celebration offers many opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and the community to connect with a variety of masterful artistic accomplishments that originated in and around the energetic city of Kumasi. Presenting art from a variety of media side-by-side allows us to consider this work closer to the way it is experienced in Ghana: in conversation with each other and with history, always reaching forward.
Look, Look, Listen, Listen has brought together a wonderful consort of academic departments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, members of the greater Madison community, and other institutions. We gratefully acknowledge support from the following: the anonymous Fund; the Design Gallery of the School of Human Ecology; the Design Studies Department; the Department of Art History; the Art Department; the African Studies program, the Kohler Art Library; the Department of Afro-American Studies; the Center for Visual Cultures; the School of Music; the Madison Children's Museum; Dr. Jonathan Overby of Wisconsin Public Radio; Aggo Akyea of the African Association of Madison; Edi Kwasi Gbordzi of Atimevu Drum Ensemble; Jonathan Kertzer of Folkways Alive Ethnomusicology Center at the University of Alberta, Edmonton; the African Studies program of Northwestern University; Sowah Mensa of the African Music Ensemble at Macalester College; and Mark Conway of the Literary Arts Center at the College of Saint Benedict.
This event was organized by Mary Hark, assistant professor, Design Studies Department, and Henry Drewal, professor, Department of Art History, with Lisa Frank, curator, Design Gallery, and Lyn Korenic, director, Kohler Art Library. Also thanks to Christine DeMars, publication design.
