Highlife musician Rex Omar has added his voice to calls by some stakeholders of the arts to get an autonomous ministry for the sector.
The Chairman of the Ghana Music Rights Organisation (GHAMRO), told Graphic Showbiz in an interview that the merging of the arts with tourism has not benefited the former.
“The truth is that the Ministry gives a lot of attention to tourism at the expense of the creative arts and that is obviously not the best because both sectors are demanding,” he said.
He added that the tourism industry is a whole entity on its own just as the Creative – a reason the merger is not benefitting the arts.
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“For instance, the creative arts involves not just music but movies, photography, painting, fine arts, poetry and spoken word, fashion and many others and these sectors need investment and government support. This is the case that the creative industry has been merged with tourism and not getting the right government support and investment because it is clearly not a priority,” Rex Omar stated.
He also stated that the minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture is leaned towards the tourism sector and by virtue of that gives lesser attention to the creative people.
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“The current projects by the sector Minister, Catherine Afeku, shows that she has more interest in tourism than the creative arts so perhaps, members from the other side are happy but same cannot be said for the creative arts,” he said.
The Creative Arts sector was added to the Ministry of Tourism and culture by the National Democratic Congress’ administration in 2013.
Six years later, some people in the industry including hiplife musician Barima Sidney believe that it will be better if the creative arts sector is separated from the tourism sector.