‘Woori: A Festival of our Weaving Tradition’ returns to the township of Loho in the Upper West Region of Ghana for the fifth time from 6th March to 30th June, 2025.
Now entering its fifth anniversary, the Woori Festival, organised by Nubuke Foundation Centre for Textiles and Clay, has evolved from its initial focus on showing the dynamism within the handwoven traditions occurring in the Upper West to a vibrant festival that platforms skill exchanges, art exhibition, fashion show, poetry, food tastings, music performances and film screenings. This year’s festival is under the theme ‘The role of collaboration in harnessing the potential of weaving for socio-economic development’.
Notably, the festival date coincides with International Women’s Day – a reason to appreciate the weaving traditions of the Upper West and Ghana. We celebrate women as cultural preservers and bearers, and the economic transforming role of weaving in the fortunes of their families, community and villages.
The festival responds to ‘Why Collaborate?,’ a question posed by Austrian visual artist and Professor Barbara Putz-Plecko, who participated in the 2021-2024 editions of the Woori Festival. Putz-Plecko’s urge is for us to pursue mutual learning.
In line with this proposition, the festival will feature a range of performative, process and participatory contributions from Ghana, USA, Germany and Austria that explore mutual learning. For the first time, the festival will be held in three locations. The discursive, durational and performative aspects of the festival will occur from 6th to 9th March, 2025.
Artists Jemima Fordjour, Blanche Boni-Mississo, Emmanuel Aggrey Tieku, Simon Bowman Jnr, King David Osabutey, Fran Redeker, Dzidefo Amegatsey, Enoch Laryea Nii-Adjei will present works from their textile and fibre practice, with some focused in making art especially accessible to our public, with ideas and processes engaging with youth, children, visually impaired and deaf community. The exhibition will continue until the end of June 2025.
Highlights include skill exchange workshops led by the University of Applied Arts, Vienna; which will feature weavers from Modern Traditional Cloth Weavers Association (Nadowli) and Tietaa Weavers Association (Nandom), all from the Upper West region. The workshop will focus on traditional and contemporary weaving techniques, sustainable practices and innovative textile design. Visitors should expect to be engaged in hands-on workshops with weavers and artists using recycled plastics. The festival celebrates other creativity and innovation with poetry, music, performance, film, food, fashion and literature.
Nubuke Foundation
Nubuke Foundation is a private visual art and cultural institution based in Accra, Ghana. Founded in 2006, it serves as a nexus for arts and culture across the country while supporting the artistic practice of emerging and established Ghanaian artists. The foundation’s programming includes exhibitions, art talks, seminars, workshops and spaces for drama, poetry, music and film collaborations. Nubuke Foundation is a member of the Arts Collaboratory Network.
