Ibrahim Mahama joins the ranks of Prof. J.H. Nketia (Laureate 1997), Tetteh Adzedu (Principal Award 1998), and El Anatsui (Laureate 2009) as previous Ghanaian Laureates of the Prince Claus Awards.
Ibrahim is a visual artist who is actively involved in improving social conditions. His powerful artworks use provocative materials and sites to examine and expose histories, uphold the role of labor, challenge authorities, and criticize the mismanagement of resources.
Directly addressing the lack of opportunities and facilities in his home region, he has set up an open-access cultural center and other social projects providing employment, education, studio space, and creative activities.
Ibrahim Mahama Redcay studios at Jana Kpeng community have created space to teach children engineering, drone technology fused with art and architecture. At the studios of Redclay, Ernest Ofori Sackitey and Ibrahim uses their experimental aircraft as classrooms to teach drone technology to children. This, the founder explained will create a motivating environment for the children.
This idea to teach children drone technology all began with Abdul-Latif; son of the Assemblymember of the locality where Redclay is situated. Within few training sessions with Ernest Ofori Sackitey, he is flying drones and also teaching his colleagues in the area. Abdul-Latif has also learned to take photos with the camera and does that passionately.
The drone practice with his community mates happens like their usual play grounds. They play with it at Redclay like playing with sand.
Tech workshops in the age of the pandemic
Scca Tamale and its sister institutions are taking drone lessons into other communities in the region/metropolis. Aside from having kids at their institution’s they believe it’s necessary to take the program of the institution to these communities who ordinarily wouldn’t be able to make it on site.
In a demoralizing ecosystem where artists have to swim all by themselves offshore, Mr. Mahama has been and is trying to change the narrative. In 2019, the Ghanaian artist founded the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art in Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region of Ghana.
Ibrahim has hopes to build a future from the history left behind by people who had a great vision about society. He believes our past if brought to this present day, can give us an opportunity to redirect our future to an amazing experience.
As a creative artist, Ibrahim Mahama did not leave out the fact that the way we think affects how we do things. This he said that, by his weird imaginations, he hopes to bring those abstract thoughts to life in his works.
The renowned Ghanaian artiste has since the opening of the SCCA, held two art exhibitions there, with the first centered on the works of Kofi Dawson and Akutia retrospective exhibition of Dr. Agyeman Ossei’s works which also featured heavily at his Redclay studios respectively.
The unveiling of Nkrumah’s secret ‘dungeon’ in Tamale
His two art spaces so far have caught the attention of people to art and he wants to expand it more and give the younger generation a chance he never got. As relentless as Ibrahim Mahama is, he managed to save part of the left-to-rot Nkrumah building situated at Nyohini in Tamale, and will now serve as one of the few, but biggest scientific and eco-art spaces in Northern Ghana.
The many decades-old building has been abandoned by successive governments of the fourth republic. For decades, this structure has been abandoned and its purpose is not well known to the public.
Built with all standards, the Nkrumah government had built this structure purposely as a warehouse for foodstuff and other storage purposes, according to some sources.
The highly regarded international artiste has on several occasions, defended why situating the SCCA and the Red Clay Studio in the north is not misplaced. Despite the lack of support, Mr. Ibrahim Mahama is on a course to instill the artistic ecosystem in the north.
