Red Clay Studios: A Creative Haven

Hello guys,
Trust you’re having a great day. It’s been a while, let’s do some some exploring today. I’m excited to take you on a journey with me through Ghanaian history.

Let’s take a walk through the Red Clay Studio, Savannah Centre for Contemporary Arts and Nkrumah Volini. This Studio is owned by a Ghanaian artist in the person of Ibrahim Mahama. If you love art, you’d probably know him to be one of the famous artists in Ghana with some of his works spread all over the word.

His main goal for starting this studio was to collect bits and pieces of the Ghanaian history so that the generations to come will be able to appreciate the life others have lived. The good part of this place is that, you can visit as many times as you want. I know what you’re thinking. Why would you go to a place you have already been to to see the same things again?

Now, here comes the interesting part, there’s always something new to see. You can go there today and when you go back tomorrow, there’s something new being added to the collection and that’s the beauty of this place. The last time I was there, I saw a huge block of shoe makers boxes which moved me a lot because it spoke volumes about the lives of shoemakers. There were also other stuff from way back when Ghana was still fighting for our independence

Today, let’s look at something different, new additions to the studio. Here, we love old airplanes. During my last visit, I realized that old aircrafts collected from the airports were brought here and made into IT rooms for kids here. Being in the north, most of the kids here don’t have access to computers and have little to no computers skills. So, this was a way of giving back to the society. Today, I see there a few new additions to the already existing number which sounds great to me- more impact!

Here, we have this art showing the arm of a Kayayo. Kayayos are women who leave home to urban areas to seek for greener pastures. Eventually, they end up carrying goods in the market for some amount of money which isn’t much. You’d think it’s a real arm but it’s a painting. And those writings on the arm, not a tattoo. We could call it a tattoo as it’s stuck to the body permanently. This used to be done by most people here to serve as a form of identification incase someone got lost or in the case of an emergency.

Also, here we have the arm of a shoemaker with his box. This box holds all of his tools, from glue , to pin, to dusters, you name it. It’s was more like a toolbox for shoemakers but now it’s lost in the system.

I’d like to believe this is a mirror because I haven’t set my eyes on anything like this before. It’s probably older than me, which would explain why it’s not really giving mirror vibes.🤭

Gone were the days when we used to study with kerosine lanterns. @yahuzah and @fashtioluwa would not be able to relate cos they’re gen z kids.😂
This lantern was literally everyone’s source of light at night and it could stay on for a very long time. I believe the bowl on the left side is a basin for storing water .

This art right here, depicts the reality in flats. Growing up, I had friends who lived in flats because their parents were teachers and it was more like a community house. Every family had an apartment and there could be over 20 apartments on each block. Now, I really have no idea if these still exist. The last time I heard about this was from my roommate back in the university.

This is where I would end for today. I hope you enjoyed the tour and I’m glad sharing this with you:)

all images belong to me.