A Quiet Revolution in Arts Education The Rise of blaxTARLINES Kumasi

A quiet revolution has steadily been rising in Kumasi, Ghana. The fluid, experimental network known as blaxTARLINES is a mutable and transgenerational community of artists, curators and writers that is based in, but extends beyond, the Department of Painting and Sculpture at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).¹ This special issue on blaxTARLINES, edited by Ruth Simbao and Kwaku Boafo Kissiedu (Castro), brings together five articles authored by twenty blaxTARLINES affiliates who, in their own words, trace the rise of the creative and intellectual network that was sparked by the work of kąrî'kạchä seid'ou, affectionately known as the godfather of this revolution.

Kissiedu and Simbao first met at the African Tertiary Arts Education (ATAE) meeting organized by the African Arts Institute (AFAI) and the Goethe-Institut South Africa in 2015.² Spearheaded by the playwright and arts activist Mike van Graan, the ATAE meeting brought together "high-profile leading African arts educators of formal tertiary as well as nonformal (postsecondary school) institutions in arts education … to network, exchange and identify key areas of concern and collaboration."³

Participants from ten African countries shared their experiences of being involved in tertiary arts education on the African continent and focussed on the importance of networking, which for van Graan is about "stakeholders taking responsibility for their own lives and livelihoods … irrespective of whether government comes to the party or not."⁴

1.

blaxTARLINES member Edwin Bojawah, in the painting studio at Rhodes University, South Africa, during the PROSPA Publishing Workshop, November 2018. The artwork is by Masters candidate Stary Mwaba, Mapping Black Mountain I (2018), mixed media on tarpaulin, 292 cm x 268 cm.

Photo: Stephen Folárànmí

2.

kąrî'kạchä seid'ou, Ibrahim Mahama, and Stary Mwaba during a studio critique of Mwaba's work at Rhodes University, 2018.

Photo: Lifang Zhang

In a plenary panel with Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa and the late Harry Garuba, Simbao shared her ideas of "learning sideways" and curriculum transformation in the context of the 2015 Rhodes Must Fall movement. This paper developed into ongoing interest in collaboration on the African continent and resulted in the multivocal dialogue, "Reaching Sideways, Writing Our Ways," coauthored with fourteen artists, writers, and curators (Simbao et al. 2017). It was at this ATAE event that African colleagues in arts education learnt about the blaxTARLINES network from Kissiedu, who has the reputation of being the informal ambassador, negotiator, and counselor of blaxTARLINES.⁵ Our mutual interest in arts education models that emphasize nonhierarchical learning and collaboration laid the foundation for this special issue.

The backdrop of the ATEA networking event is important, as it sets the stage for discussions on arts education that are not predicated on a dichotomy between formal and nonformal education. The assumption of such a dichotomy overlooks opportunities for meaningful resonance, slippage, and intervention. Although some might have lost faith in the intellectual currency and social relevance of African universities—particularly since the crisis of universities in the 1980s and 1990s (Zeleza 2009)—it would be erroneous to suggest that it is only independent arts spaces on the African continent that are generating exciting intellectual and creative ideas. A spirit of scholarly and creative camaraderie that intersects across various types of learning platforms is growing significantly in Africa and is attracting the attention of people worldwide. As this special issue demonstrates, there are scholars, artists, and curators within tertiary education institutions in Africa who are successfully navigating the formal and the nonformal, as well as the "gown" and the "town" through their embrace of interventionist strategies, daily struggles, and the optimistic belief that there is always possibility for slippage, subversion, and surprise. Reflecting on her visit to Kumasi with participants of the Àsìkò Art School in 2013, Bisi Silva (2017: xxi–xxii) expressed confidence in such fluid and intersecting models, concluding that the cultural revolution encountered at KNUST proffers "great reason to be optimistic about the possibilities for art on the continent."

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