An arts practice exploration of Ghanaian-Irish cultural dialogue, through music and dance pedagogy, curation and performance

This research uses arts practice approaches to explore the contribution of artistic pedagogy, curation, and performance to cultural dialogue, with particular reference to Ghanaian-Irish cultural encounters. Using my experiences as a performer, festival curator and teacher of Ghanaian traditional music and dance as a point of departure, it develops two performance events and tracks the key emergent themes from these activities. Its goal is to better understand how such cultural practices can support sustainable models of cultural dialogue between Ghana and Ireland and how this learning might also be applied to other cultural dialogue contexts.

This is qualitative research which draws on a mixed-mode methodological approach. These include but not limited to arts practice, auto-ethnographic journaling, audience questionnaires, and focus groups built around the development and documentation of two major performances; Kutrikuku/Resilience and Kadodo/Collaboration. In addition, ethnographic methods from ethnomusicology and festive arts were employed.

The first work, Kutrikuku/Resilience looks at the function of cultural dialogue in the context of Ireland's multicultural groups. It explored the potential value of cultural dialogue to build social and cultural capital, promote social cohesiveness, give communities the opportunity for public celebration, ‘space to connect with other migrants and internalize shared positive experiences that allows to develop a sense of belonging to the Migrant community, as well as foster their sense of pride and self-esteem’ as noted by Hassanli et al. (2020:10). The second performance presentation, Kadodo/Collaboration, comprises two events; Africa Day 2021 webinar events in Limerick and an audio-visual recorded project called Kadodo: Collaboration in Artistic Cultural Dialogue. The Africa Day 2021 webinar events, including a public seminar with Africa scholars and an online music and dance sharing called ‘The Irish World Music Café’, focused on the curation, scholarship and performances of Africans and other immigrant artists. Kadodo: Collaboration in Artistic Cultural Dialogue is a collaboration project which focused on my drumming practice as a form of dialogue with an Irish percussionist who has learned and explored palm drumming techniques in West African countries, including Ghana.

Key emergent themes from Kutrikuku/Resilience include the importance of resilience, diversity, and community integration in cultural dialogue. These themes informed the development and structure of Kadodo/Collaboration. The themes emerging from this work were around the value of collaboration, intercultural teaching and curating, and networking through intercultural events.

Combining these two experiences leads to the conclusions of this thesis which propose that cultural dialogue is a complex activity, requiring constant creative adaptation. Recognizing complexity and embracing adaptation are key requirements of sustainable cultural dialogue.