Dundee to Accra: Creative Industries Mapping and Potential Collaborations

With the transition from the over-reliance on the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) to the recognition of the Arts, in what has now become widely accepted as STEAM, the importance of the creative industries has deepened its roots.

With the recent realisation of the  contribution of the creative industries to the global economy, I would be making a presentation to colleagues (both staff and students) on the shared cultural heritage of two cities – Dundee and Accra –  well into the Tayside and the Cape Coast. Think about Jute @VerdantWorks in Dundee and the Kente weavers in Ghana.

In my presentation I would be reflecting on my recent article on Arts Marketing to propose collaboration between Accra, Ghana (Africa) and Dundee, Scotland (UK). This proposition is based upon my recent ManaGlobal secondment from Dundee to Accra in Jan-Feb 2020, where I explored the creative industries in the context of the latter, with a view to mapping this against the backdrop and/or experience of the City of Discovery, Dundee, in the latter quarter of 2019.

Coincidentally, a similar potential avenue for collaboration between these two cities has been recently captured in #LinkedIn post by Iain Walker, the Dundee-born UK High Commissioner to Ghana & UK Ambassador to Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo highlighting insights from The Ghana Grand Project. 

https://youtu.be/gCNg17SG69k

Let me take you through some snippets from the Weave initiative at the Hannah Maclure Centre at the Abertay University Dundee to the Jamestown cultural quarter in Accra Ghana.

Set on the coast of downtown Accra, the [Jamestown] neighbourhood is listed as Lonely Planet’s #1 top sight in the city, and boasts both a fascinating history and vibrant local community.

Source (Jamestown Walking Tours)

To sum up, there are obvious implications for theory, management and policy and especially considering recent events such as the UK-Africa Summit in London, the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, location of the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Ghana come July 2020, and the appointment of Wamkele Mene who was installed as the new secretary-general.