Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)

Prof. Glover had recommended that, while in Kumasi, we visit the big university here, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, where he taught for 30 years and was also the department head at one point. Without having a contact there to talk to, I was a bit hesitant as to whether it was worth going, as it's a bit out of the way... But in the end, it was tremendously worthwhile.

Luckily, our cab driver seemed to know the university quite well and was able to drop us right in front of the Fine Arts department (the campus seems huge & we would never have found it otherwise!) We saw a sign for the Office of the Dean of Fine Arts, so we went in, explained who we were and what I was doing in Ghana...and the Dean met with us right then! Dean Daniel Ohene-Adu was able to give us an overview of the different departments within Fine Arts and then introduced us to Nana Afia Opoku-Asare, the head of the Arts Education department. Our meeting meeting with Nana Afia was very interesting to learn more about KNUST's art teacher training program (which is strictly a graduate level program), how there are jobs for all graduates when they're done, and how the program helps students to learn to adapt and blend the traditional crafts with contemporary art to bring into their teaching in the classroom.

Nana Afia also connected us with BON, a colleague of hers and a widely-respected Ghanaian painter, with whom we are supposed to meet tomorrow afternoon. It's wonderful--I think traveling as a Fund for Teachers Fellow and telling people I'm a teacher from the States here on a grant to study Ghanaian art has given me opportunities and access to people I would not otherwise meet. People here have generally been extremely helpful and friendly, and they don't seem to be wrapped up in the sense of busy-ness that Americans get consumed with. This is not to say they're not busy--because they are; however, people here seem more willing to stop what they're doing to have a conversation with a visitor, even an unexpected visitor. It's quite refreshing.