It amazes me how one of the very few esteemed art galleries in Ghana is shamelessly adjacent a refuse dumping site in Accra and no one, except the owner, seems to care.
The Artist Alliance Gallery, an ultra-modern art gallery that showcases works of great Ghanaian artist Ablade Glover and the likes of Wiz Kudowor and George Hughes, has for the past four years had an unpleasant next-door neighbour.
Opened to public view, the gallery and refuse dump is at the center of La, a suburb of Accra, along the beach road opposite the La township.
The mere sight of the refuse dumping site near the gallery is is just appalling, to say the least, and speaks volumes of us as a people.
Tourists and expatriates visit this gallery on a daily basis with the King of Morocco, King Mohammed VI, visiting just two months ago.
He purchased quite a number of paintings.
If he had seen the shame and smelled the stench from the refuse dump, what impression would he have carried back to his country?
According to Prof Ablade Glover, he has on countless occasions spoken to heads of La traditional council but all have yielded no results.
The situation calls to question the sense of dignity and morality, and perhaps, the sense of pride and nation building as a people.
What are our authorities waiting for to stop this menace? This was not there when the art gallery was established. How could authorities have looked on for one, two refuse receptacles be placed near the country’s foremost art gallery owned by a living legend and a prolific son Ghana.
Worse of all, he is an indigene of La.
Would there be a rubbish dumping site next to any business owned by a foreigner in the country?
The value of art works equals gold and just as gold some of the artworks in the gallery cost as much as GH¢30,000 and over.
This a Ghanaian owned business that generates income for the country, upholding the Ghanaian culture and identity.
I bet authorities cannot sit and watch such a gallery of the standard tarnished with the refuse dump site.
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