Give us a ministry of creative arts – Rex Omar

Animations from Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Source: graphic showbiz

2019-01-29

In 2013, when the creative arts were added to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture by the NDC administration, it was good news for industry players as they felt that this would finally attract the Attention to the sector after years of neglect. The complaint was that too much priority was given to tourism, which had a negative impact on other sectors.

However, in the last six years under the NDC and the NPP, it seems that the creative arts are still struggling to get the support they want and that the concerned actors in the sector are talking about it.

One of these actors is Rex Omar, president of the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO), which calls for the creation of a separate ministry for the creative arts industry.

During a telephone conversation with Showbiz recently, the singer of Aware Pa said that it was time to demand a creative arts ministry, its merger with tourism being a disadvantage for the sector.

"The truth is that the ministry pays a lot of attention to tourism at the expense of the creative arts and this is obviously not the best because both sectors are demanding.

"The tourism industry is an entity on its own and so can the creative arts.

"For example, the creative arts are not just about music, but also about film, photography, painting, fine art, poetry and speech, fashion, and so on. investment and government support.

"This is the case, the creative industry has been merged with tourism and has not benefited from the support and appropriate investments of the government because it is clearly not a priority," said Omar.

He was of the view that the separation would encourage the demand for accountability of the respective department heads.

"Ongoing projects by Industry Minister Catherine Afeku show that she is more interested in tourism than in the creative arts, so maybe members on the other side are happy, but the same can not be said of the creative arts, "he said.