An Over View of Visual Art Education in Ghanaian Schools

Abstract

The focus of this article is on the introduction and development of Visual Art Education in the School system in Ghana.
The discussion touches on the 1909 inclusion of the subject on the school time-table as “hand and eye” to change the mere bookishness of the school course.
The Christian Missionaries' exclusion of the subject from the school curriculum because its teaching will have an obvious reference to the indigenous culture to which they were antagonistic, is also discussed, together with its negative consequences.
Visual Art education's re-emergence into the schools, and its phenomenal growth especially at Achimota, where the pioneering efforts of expatriate Art masters such as A.G. Stevens, Maclaren, Pippet, Mr. and Mrs. Meyerowitz and Machendricks gave the subject the much needed Ghanaian cultural base is covered. The rationale, nature, scope and transfer of Visual Art Education from the Department of Art at Achimota to the newly established College of Technology in Kumasi in 1952 under Mr. Machendricks, and its later development in Ghana are also treated.