College of Art and Built Environment of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana: Handwerklichkeit als Existenzstrategie

How do art academies educate today across the world? This themed issue of the German art publication “Kunstforum” (Volume 245, March/April 2017) profiles 8 art schools and art academies where students explore creativity. It investigates how in places such as Singapore, Ghana, Israel, Columbia, Italy, Germany, the UK and in the US art is being taught and how and if this is possible. Based on interviews and conversations with students, teachers, artists and curators, the focus lies on the central question of the relationship between workshop and studio practice and the idea of making in relation to concepts, ideas and reflection. The individual articles, read together, open up a debate – convergences and differences in different places - about material skills and notions of creativity today.

Stephanie Dieckvoss takes a closer look at one of the best art schools in West Africa the College of Art and Built Environment of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi in Central Ghana. Built on a long history of art education spanning the full 20th Century she brings to light the ambitions of a group of passionate tutors and students to create in the context of tradition and innovation and develop a language of art practice that situates itself in local traditions while making relevant contributions to a global contemporary art practice. [Dieckvoss, Stephanie. College of Art and Built Environment of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana: Handwerklichkeit als Existenzstrategie, in: Kunst lernen?, Kunstforum International vol. 245, March – April 2017, pp. 118-131]