Digital Directory of Selected Contemporary Ghanaian Artists

This study adopted the experimental research method to design a digital directory of selected contemporary Ghanaian artists as a means of promoting quality teaching and learning of art within the context of general education in Ghana and also make Ghanaian art and artists accessible to students, researchers and interested others. The approach involved direct interviews with five professional Ghanaian artists and art educators and documenting their works and creative achievements on Compact Disc to facilitate self-tutoring, research and effective teaching and learning of Painting, Packaging Design, Sculpture, Ceramics and Art Education. This study is based on the fact that Computerization is today the fastest spreading phenomenon sweeping across various fields of human endeavours and also proving to be indispensable in academic pursuits. The fact also remains that accurate as well as wrong and unauthenticated information can be downloaded from the internet by those who use this medium due to their inability to gain access to current books and other appropriate study materials. Besides, books on Ghanaian art and artists are simply unavailable. This interactive audio-visual medium has been produced to support application of computer technology to effectively promote knowledge sharing between practising professional artists and student artists in Ghanaian educational institutions. This medium can supplement fieldtrips which constitute the alternative means by which staff and students in High Schools and tertiary art institutions in Ghana source first-hand information on Ghanaian art. Making professional art educators and artists such as Ablade Glover, Ato Delaquis, Kofi Broni and Kwame Amoah, for example, who are world-renowned artists but whose lives and works feature cursorily in the General Knowledge in Art textbook that Visual Arts teachers in Senior High Schools totally iv depend on to satisfy the theoretical and some practical requirements of the very programme that prepares Visual Arts students for tertiary art education in Ghana. This handy CD makes it possible for Visual Arts and Art Education students and researchers to access accurate information on Ghanaian artists or referred to a web page or CD that has this sort of information for their study. This brings into focus the essence of adopting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a tool or means for teaching and learning of art rather than having ICT taught in isolation in Ghanaian schools, in colleges, polytechnics and universities. The outcome of the study revealed that ICT can be used for the teaching of visual art as a mode of teaching and learning than mere teaching ICT in isolation to champion the introduction of ICT in the Ghanaian educational reform. Again the study brought to the fore that Visual Arts students and instructors accept the new paradigm teaching and learning is taking but have no requisite skill and knowledge to take up this challenge. Upon the outcome of the research, the researcher recommends that The Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service should train teachers and ICT instructors to be conversant with software development, programmers and users need to be sought for specific purposes. For example building interactive compact discs on the various topics they teach, thereby encouraging students to use the computer in their learning process.

Source: KNUST