Kwame Nkrumah University And PSU Collaborate
On African, African American Web-Based Art Course
January 15, 2001
University Park, Pa. -- An innovative web-based course on African, African American art, culture and history is now in development by Penn State and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana and eventually will be available to students world-wide.

"Art is the perfect vehicle for communicating the history, culture and values of a people," says Grace Hampton, professor of art and art education at Penn State. "The overall goal of the course is to increase the ability of students —in Ghana, at Penn State and at other institutions -- to understand and appreciate their cultural differences and similarities through an examination of West African and African American arts."

KNUST Vice Chancellor Professor John S.K. Ayim and Professor Keshkaw Singh, campus coordinator of the World Bank’s African Virtual University Project at KNUST are on campus this week (Jan. 13 — 20) to meet with colleagues and further cement arrangements for the course, which will be called "Branches of the Same Tree."

Hampton, who teaches a course on The African American Legacy and Traditions In the Visual Arts, was on sabbatical leave at KNUST last year -- conducting research on how the African university was preserving the traditional arts and culture of Ghana -- when she proposed the collaborative approach to teaching students of both countries.

"Twentieth Century African American art has its roots in West African visual traditions. We want our students to understand the social, political and cultural environment that gave rise to African American artistic expression and for Ghanian students to make the link between their art forms and ours," Hampton says.

Working with Continuing and Distance Education officials, Gary Miller, associate vice president for distance education, Peter Rubba, director of academic

Withall, program manager, and Melanie Doebler, program developer, Hampton is now working on course development with Penn State faculty in Art, Integrative Arts, Music, and History, in particular.

Her colleagues in Ghana will focus on the history and cultural context of traditional West African art while the Penn State faculty will focus on contemporary expressions in the U.S.

In addition to course units taught by faculty from both institutions and virtual team projects combining students in both locations, the Web-based program will involve actual faculty and student exchanges and opportunities for faculty and student research.

To further integrate the course units developed here and in Ghana, KNUST officials Ayim and Singh are paying close attention to Penn State’s technology of distance education and learning more about how the University is using technology in the classroom and in the integrative, graphic and performing arts, especially.

Hampton expects the Web-based course to be on-line by September 2002.

Other projects that may develop through this collaboration are a joint course in the social foundations of architectural design and a graphic design and ceramics course using traditional forms for contemporary art. Both universities have strong programs in community-based architecture and graphic design.

For more information, contact Grace Hampton at 814 863 5408 or by e-mail at gxh2@psu.edu.