GHANA STUDIES / Volume 11 ISSN 1536-5514 / E-ISSN 2333-7168© 2010 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 175 THE “COMMERCIAL” AND “MUSEUM” LIFE OF SOME AKAN BRASS WORKS KWAME AMOAH LABI Introduction In the Fall 2008 volume of Museum Anthropology, I discussed efforts by the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies to develop community- based exhibitions in Ghana. This, I believe, is part of the call by the continent ’s museum professionals for the pursuit of a new direction by African museums. It requires a change in the way some traditional African museums have operated, since many of them were opened immediately before the end of colonialism or soon after independence. Since mounting exhibitions in Sekondi-Takoradi in 1999 and Kumasi in 2000, 2002, and 2004, the Institute has continued to study art and related cultural objects and to engage in different museum activities in an effort to make the museum part of the Ghanaian culture. This article reflects in part some of the efforts being made to increase cultural awareness and contribute to the development of a museum culture in Ghana. It is based on views shared with some of the founding fathers of the museum institution in Ghana, who believe that museums could be used to rapidly develop the country in many ways, in terms of social cohesion (Crinson 2001, 234), in understanding Ghanaian culture and, in my considered opinion, in playing a more integral part in Ghana’s economic growth and educational life. Since their establishment in Ghana, museums have struggled to play a dynamic role in Ghana’s socio-economic development , and sometimes questions have been raised about their relevance. Additionally, they have suffered from inadequate state support and have struggled to create a meaningful public image. The resulting challenges are enormous, including lack of skilled and motivated staff, appropriate structures, and good governance. In spite of these difficulties, a few private museums have been established and some public ones have received external funding for new initiatives. However, what little support they have 176 Ghana Studies • volume 11 • 2010 received has proved inadequate, and they have not created a dynamic space and environment for a rigorous debate about Ghanaian culture and the participation of museums in Ghana’s socio-economic development. In April 2008, the Institute of African Studies opened an exhibition of a brass work collection, titled “Kuduo: The Akan Art of Brass Casting.” Against the background of challenges the museum institution faces in Ghana, the Institute was determined to use this new collection as a model for attracting the public to view and use the objects and the museum’s holdings in general. While preparing the collection for public view, we reviewed and planned ways of addressing concerns about collection accessibility, use, and security. One of the core principles for the collection’s management was a determination not only to exhibit some of the objects and keep the rest in storage, as is often the case, but also to fulfill the donor’s wish to make the collection available to the community. If the Institute of African Studies was to guard against falling into this traditional exhibition/storage syndrome and be guided by trends of museum practice both in Africa and elsewhere, then how could the Institute address the problems local museums encounter and create a platform for the use of the collection, while at the same time securing it? This article is based on pre-exhibition activities, the catalogue that accompanied the exhibition (Labi & Boachie-Ansah 2008), post-exhibition activities in managing the collection, reviews of comments by visitors, and participation in an international workshop on “Producing, Preserving, and Repatriating Digital Cultural Assets” held at Rhodes University, South Africa , in 2008. It provides a comparison between the use of a collection in a private house in Germany and in a public space in Ghana. The current article extends the representations and discourse in the catalogue for a wider public thereby expanding access to the collection beyond those who had access to the original catalogue. By doing this, it will avoid restricting the collection to the Institute and engage in broader public discourse on museums in...