Ghana’s culture minister visits OHIO to discuss the fusion of art, culture and innovation

OHIO’s Global Arts Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary March 17-19. The festival, directed by Professor of Music Paschal Yao Younge, celebrated the many cultures of OHIO’s students and presented arts and research from across the world to expand students’ creative experiences.

As part of the conference, OHIO welcomed as the 2026 keynote speaker the Honorable Abla Dzifa Gomashie. Gomashie is the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts in Ghana as well as a Member of Parliament for Ketu South Constituency, Volta Region, Republic of Ghana. Her speech touched on themes including the intersection of art, culture and innovation.

“I was honored to welcome Minister Abla Dzifa Gomashie to the College and the Ohio University Campus,” said Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, dean of the College of Fine Arts. “She shared powerful stories and brought her full heart to our community—making it immediately clear why she serves as minister. I was especially moved during her keynote, where she drew on meaningful Ghanaian symbols to illuminate the deep, synergistic relationship between art, culture and innovation.”

Gomashie, who made her first visit to the Athens campus in 2017, said her experience at the 2017 event was “really inspiring,” and it motivated her to return to this year’s festival.

“To have all the students who participated in that year’s activities coming from different parts of the world, all of them understand the power of culture, the power of creative arts and the power of what the human spirit can do and share,” she said.

For Gomashie, participating as the festival’s keynote speaker was an opportunity to share her perspective on the intersection of creative industries and inspire confidence in students seeking to enter the arts and cultural sector.

As she sees them, the arts are a way “to use culture to unveil some of the things that were covered before.”

Schroeder-Arce said Gomashie’s words “resonated profoundly” during the keynote speech she delivered.

“Students were visibly moved—some even brought to tears—by both her message and what she represents as the first woman and performing artist to serve in Ghana’s Parliament. Minister Gomashie embodies the global vision for arts education that I aspire to advance through the college,” she added.

Throughout her visit to the Athens campus, Minister Gomashie met with students and faculty alike to share experiences with one another through the arts. To her, the arts are an opportunity to forge relationships and positive memories with others.

“Art gives us more opportunities to drop the barriers and collaborate and make this world a better place,” she explained.

Fitting within the theme of cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural collaboration, Minister Gomashie has been a collaborator with Younge for years, starting when both individuals lived in Ghana. She recalled seeing Younge as a mentor and advocate for emerging artists when she studied the arts.

“Professor Younge has given Ghanaian performing artists the reason to aspire to be more,” she said. To her, Younge’s approach to pedagogy is rooted in collaboration and community because he consistently asks himself “Who can I bring along? Who can I spread my wings for to stand on so they, too, can become either like me, or better?”

Now, she explained, through the steadfast collaborative approach Younge takes, OHIO has developed a relationship with Ghana, eventually leading the University to have the most Ghanaian students enrolled of any university in the United States.

“That relationship has been built over the years because of Professor Younge and, of course, because this community makes it easy for people from different backgrounds to come together and share one stage in the hope that art and music, culture, creativity can bring us together more, and that we get to know each other even more,” she said.

Ultimately, Minister Gomashie sees art as an “opportunity to assess how we relate to each other across cultures.” To her, this is a work in progress that will build bridges with others across cultures, backgrounds and experiences.

She said she believes art is a way to communicate with others that transcends barriers and divides because it is a universal experience everyone can share, regardless of language or cultural background.

“Even if we don’t understand each other, when I perform and I dance, the language it speaks to you is straight to your heart and to your mind,” she said.