Call for applications: Atuu Festival of Arts Ghana

The contest is aimed at aspirant musicians, writers, poets, scriptwriters, photographers and filmmakers aged between 15 and 21. All entries will be judged in three categories:

• Songwriting: Entries for this category should be recorded on a CD or pen drive with lyrics attached.
• Creative writing: This covers drama, poetry and fiction. Entries for this category should be based on the festival’s theme, Our Culture, Our Development. Each entry must be under 800 words. Poetry should take up one page; drama should last 20 minutes.
• Sight and sounds: Entries here should be of cultural and tourist significance. Entries can either be paintings, still photos or short videos.

Members of the JCCMO planning committee include Rex Omar, Abraham Adjartey and Ahmed Banda of the Ghana Music Rights Organisation (GHAMRO), Dr Annor, John Kweku Ganu and Ben Nyadzi of Copy Ghana, and Abeiku Sagoe, Richard Prempeh and Augustine Abbey of the Audiovisual Rights Society of Ghana. Ahuma Bosco Ocansey is the group’s project officer.

“The idea is to give budding artists an opportunity to expose their talents and get some quality mentoring from the industry,” Sagoe said.

Atuu Festival planning committee chairperson Asare Konadu Yamoah said the festival itself was “a window for the people of Ghana and of course the world to understand Ghana as a country and the culture of the people".

It is also an important platform for the exchange of cultural ideas and cooperation between the various actors who are the rights holders,” he said.

Speaking about his country’s artists, he said that the event would “bring talents to the fore and help promote these talents and offer them the opportunity to showcase their creation to the world”.

Entries for the Atuu Festival of Arts should be sent to the Copyright Office in Accra, Ghana, either personally, by mail or via courier.

The submission deadline is 30 June. The winners will be announced at the end of Atuu Festival of Arts in Accra on 25 August . The organisers have said that there will be "attractive prizes for the three winners in each category”.