Jamestown Arts Festival opens on Friday
On Friday, April 26, 2013 the Jamestown Community Theatre Centre will come alive with the Jamestown Arts Festival.
The event will celebrate the creative energy and tremendous artistic talent of young people in Jamestown.
Local theatre groups, musicians, dancers and visual artists will create unique cross-genre collaborations inspired by the people and characteristics of the community.
The line-up will include Bukum dance hall/highlife performer Jay Marcus and the Chameleons, traditional Ga dance group, Tsotoobi, Miishejeloi Cultural Troupe, and Heritage. Additional activities will include film screenings and visual artworks created by local children.
The Jamestown Community Theatre Centre is managed by Theatre for a Change, an NGO which has been working to transform the lives of children in Jamestown since 2003.
The festival reflects their valuable mission; to use theatre and the arts to encourage participatory learning in sexual and reproductive health, HIV and gender rights.
Johnson Kefome, Country Director for Theatre for a Change, said, “After 10 years of working within the Jamestown community, this festival will not only celebrate the energy and passion of our participants, but also illustrate some of the fantastic changes we have achieved.”
The festival marks the completion of Theatre for a Change’s seven-month behavioural change project funded by the Australian High Commission in Ghana.
The project touched the lives of hundreds of people at risk in Jamestown through sexual and reproductive health education, advocacy performances, community outreach programmes and the opening of a new internet café.
“Australia is glad to partner with Theatre for a Change and support its work in engaging young and vulnerable people within the Jamestown community,” said Australian High Commissioner, Ms Joanna Adamson.
"Australia places a high priority on the creative arts. I am happy that our support through funding and placements of two Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development has gone towards such a vibrant and inclusive project."
By Nicholette Lorraway