Four high-achieving and deserving daughters of the soil, who, citizens or not, have chosen to celebrate Ghana by doing their lives’ best work here among us, as distinguished lifetime supporters of the arts, were recently honored and celebrated as recipients of the prestigious Bartimeus Prize for Distinguished Lifetime Support & Promotion of Ghanaian arts.
What drives change in their lives and work is a positive and moral outlook, an all-encompassing vision that seeks to unite peoples and cultures, to enrich lives, and to inspire real and tangible progress.
MRS. FRANCES GERTRUDE ADEMOLA
(Née Quashie-Idun)
Without question the ‘Doyen of Contemporary Ghanaian Art’, Achimota School educated Frances Gertrude Ohenewa Ademola – née Quashie-Idun, after obtaining her BA (Hons) degree in English Literature in 1953, worked, first, with the Ghana Broadcasting System, before moving to secure a place as senior producer with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. While there, she was made assistant to the acclaimed writer Chinua Achebe; attending the seminal Writer’s Conference in Kampala with him in 1961.
A year later in 1962, she edited the well-received collection Reflections: Anthology of Nigerian Prose and Verse. Then, in 1969, she opened The Loom, an Art and Craft shop in Accra. An auspicious event, which in retrospect can be seen as a defining cultural institution in modern Ghana.
Best known for The Loom, which under her inspired leadership became Ghana’s indispensable cultural platform from the early seventies on, through to the early 2020s.
Here, she made her most enduring mark, nurturing and championing the work of many artists and painters, budding and veteran, from all across Ghana and West Africa, showcasing their talents in the best possible light. Here,
Bartimeus, Delaquis, Ablade Glover, Anatsui, Setordji, Wiz and the Agbee’s and many, many others found a home.
KORKOR AMARTEIFIO
After leading the effort to set up the Equity Office at the Canada Council to ensure fair granting practices for Canadian artists of all world cultures, leaving indelible imprints on the culture of arts in North America and in Europe, Korkor Amarteifio, an important international personality, returned home to Ghana to take up the position of Director of Programs and Operations at the National Theatre of Ghana from the mid-1990’s to early 2020, a period known as the Golden Age of the Arts in Ghana.
An invaluable thinker, Korkor’s achievements in arts administration have been to make the music and art of people from Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and the Americas truly accessible to the masses, a staple for the citizens through advocacy for fair cultural policies, festivals and artistic programs.
Later, as Chairperson and then Vice Chairperson of the Arterial Network, the dynamic pan-African civil society network of artists, art professionals, organizations and institutions engaged in the African creative and cultural sectors, she steered the Network into becoming a formidable force for creative expression and innovation.
Currently as Art and Advocacy Consultant for the Design and Technology Institute, Korkor continues to forge deliberate engagement with academia, public and the private sectors for the establishment of policy options that address skills acquisitions, gaps, job creation, business development as well as creating activities and supportive systems for young people to acquire soft skills through the creative industries.
KATI TORDA
Ghana’s ‘Queen of Beads’, Kati is the artist who does anything and everything with beads. Hungarian by birth, and Ghanaian by choice, after she married an indigene and relocated, Kati found a home in Ghana, where she discovered that ornamental beads provided her with a unique entry into her new culture.
Acclaimed for her outreach programs and workshops at Sun Trade Beads, the flagship business venture to enrich and promote the use of traditional Aggrey Beads in the cultural life of Ghana she set up in 1996, where Kati feeds her love of beads, and spurs creativity among all kinds of people.
Becoming a founding member of the Ghana Bead Society, hers has been a lifetime of dedicated work to the manufacturing and marketing of beads in Ghana, helping in no small measure to transform their study and sale in the traditional context into a modern and sophisticated source of aesthetic pleasure and inspiration.
BROOKS:
Simply put, Brooks Anne Robinson has been a most influential American cultural presence in Ghana since the mid 1980’s when she joined the United States Embassy in Accra as the Cultural Affairs Officer.
In her time as a Diplomat in Ghana, Brooks diligently sought out and framed for our edification the best talent in art, music and education.
An American citizen, she joined the Foreign Service in 1985 and in her first posting was sent to Accra in 1986, returning to serve as Public Affairs Officer from 1997-2002.
During her 28-year diplomatic career working primarily on African affairs, she served at embassies in Ghana, Nigeria, Swaziland, Liberia, and at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
It was Brooks who made possible a grant to the Ghana Bead Society that supported the creation of the Bead Museum at the University of Ghana, and the publication of a book.
Having served at various levels of the administration of the Fulbright educational program which sponsored scores of Ghanaian academics and scholars, junior and senior, to develop and advance their careers, Brooks, in ways big and small, positively impacted the careers of a swathe of academic leaders and seminal artists in Ghana, including heads of academic departments, senior lecturers, professors, Pro Vice Chancellors, and Vice Chancellors.
This list includes Ghana’s former president, the late Professor John Atta-Mills, our current Vice President Naana Opoku-current Vice President Naana Opoku-Agyemang, and her husband Professor Kwadwo Opoku-Agyemang, who was twice a Fulbright Scholar in Residence. Also an adept collector of Ghanaian art, Brooks has enriched the larger educational and cultural environments.
