Ghana Think Tank Comes to Westport

Can a Think Tank* in Ghana Solve the Problems of Westporters? An Interactive, Community Art Project Explores the Possibilities.

Ghana Think Tank, an activist art project that is part of the Westport Arts Center’s upcoming exhibition “Optimism,” has arrived in Westport. The project is the brainchild of three artists, Christopher Robbins, John Ewing, and Ebe Matey Odonkor, who conceived the idea as graduate students at the Rhode Island School of design in 2006.

The artists “collect” a set of problems from a community - in this case,Westport - and send them to a think tank that has been established in Ghana. The members of the think tank analyze the problems and then propose solutions to the three artists. In late September, Robbins, Ewing and Odonkor will present those solutions in an art installation in the group exhibition “Optimism.”

The artists currently are in the first phase of the project, collecting problems for the think tank. Student film makers from the Westport Art Center’s Youth Film Festival have already interviewed a dozen Westporters, and the footage will be aired on YouTube in August. In the meantime, the Westport Arts Center is seeking suggestions for more “problems” from the general public, and has created an online Ghana Think Tank suggestion box as well as two real suggestion boxes, one outside the Westport Arts Center, and another at the Westport Public Library.

According to artist Christopher Robbins, “The project is an attempt to transpose parts of one culture into another, to take a solution generated in one context and apply it elsewhere.”

“We are excited about the interactive nature of this art work,” said Eileen Wiseman, WAC’s artisitic director. “That people in and around Westport can exchange ideas with people in Ghana via a collaboration of three artists reflects the innovative creative opportunities available in the information age.”

“Ghana Think Tank is like a cross-cultural game of creative chance,” said Emily Hamilton Laux, who is helping to coordinate the project. “I can’t wait to see all the different players, the questions, and how the Ghanaians and the artists respond.”

Hamilton Laux explained that members of the public will have another opportunity to participate once the exhibition is installed in September. “Our education manager is creating a giant chalkboard wall in WAC’s art studio, where gallery visitors will have a place to ‘chalk-back’ and respond to the exhibition, especially Ghana Think Tank.”

The Ghana Think Tank art work will be on view as part of the “Optimism” exhibition, which opens on September 26 at the Westport Arts Center. Curated by Michael Connor, “Optimism” examines the idea of art as a form of activism, and explores ways in which art can be used as an agent of change - as a vehicle of both criticism and transcendence.

The Westport Arts Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating arts experiences that contribute to individual growth and enrich the community. The Westport Arts Center is supported with funds from The Artur and Heida Hermanns Holde Foundation, Inc., Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, National Endowment for the Arts, Connecticut Light & Power, Fairfield County Bank, Gault, Inc., Main Street Resources, U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, and Westport Resources.

For information, contact Westport Arts Center at 203-222-7070, www.westportartscenter.org, or visit the gallery, M-F, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sat. and Sun. from 12 noon to 4 p.m., at 51 Riverside Avenue, Westport.