Weaving Collectives and Associations: Nandom & Nadowli

Iteration After Iteration

    Through several iterations of learning and unlearning have evolved many delightful creations and products. What these artisans have learned about the design process and technical tools have furnished them with skills to produce works that bear a marked increase in quality and aesthetics.

Nambeg

Collectives

Two Collectives of weavers and clay potters from Nadowli and Nambeg worked with Kofi Setordji in 'unpacking' their knowledge of the traditional artistic practice. Through several iterations of learning and unlearning have evolved many delightful creations and products.

What these artisans have learned about the design process and technical tools have furnished them with skills to produce works that bear a marked increase in quality and aesthetics.

Nadowli

Collectives

Two Collectives of weavers and clay potters from Nadowli and Nambeg worked with Kofi Setordji in 'unpacking' their knowledge of the traditional artistic practice. Through several iterations of learning and unlearning have evolved many delightful creations and products.

What these artisans have learned about the design process and technical tools have furnished them with skills to produce works that bear a marked increase in quality and aesthetics.

Founded in January 1990, the Modern Traditional Weavers Association (MTWA) is an association of weavers in the Wa Municipality. It has a membership of 500 weavers.

The Association is guided by a constitution. The constitution spells out the various roles of the members and the leadership. It also spells out dues payments and contributions that are to be made.

To support members in times of bereavement

To help those who have not been to school to develop themselves and their talents in weaving.

To help members to acquire credit/loans for business.

In 1967, Lt. General Alexander Drumon of the Commonwealth Society of the Deaf conducted a survey on deafness in the western part of the then Upper Region. The report touched on the then-Catholic Bishop of Wa, the late Peter Porekuu Dery (later the Cardinal of Tamale Dioceses), who visited a school for the Deaf in the Netherlands. He decided to open Wa School for the Deaf under the Catholic Educational Unit in Wa. The school was opened in November 1968. The catchment area covered then was the Upper Region now (Upper East and West Regions) as well as the Bole and Damongo Districts of the Northern Region (now in the Savanna Region). The school started with 17 pupils, but this number has steadily increased over the years. The school now has an enrolment of 240 pupils made up of 148 boys and 92 girls running from Kindergarten through Primary to Junior High School level. Apart from academic subjects, emphasis is placed on practical skills that could make them self-employable. The programmes for practical skills include block laying and concreting, carpentry, catering, handloom weaving, and sewing

In 1982, the school previously located at the Old Catholic Mission House at Wa Pani moved to its modern accommodation site on the Wa – Kumasi road directly opposite Wa Senior High School. The first headmaster was Mr. Bob Miller who had his training as a teacher for the deaf in the Netherlands.

Arts Collaboratory (AC) is a translocal ecosystem consisting of 25 diverse organisations around the world focused on art practices, processes of social change, and working with broader communities beyond the field of art.

In our ecosystem knowledge and strengths are brought together and harvested in processes of collective organisation. It is a radical experiment in exploring the potentiality of art and social transformation.