CULTURAL ADMINISTRATORS TO GO SCHOOL (MIRROR, PAGE 40)

From Samuel Duodu, Sunyani.

Forty administrators of cultural institutions across the country have attended a five-day training workshop in Sunyani to sharpen their skills and update their knowledge on how to effectively manage their institutions.
The training-of-trainers workshop, which was the second in a series, was organised by the Cultural Initiatives Support Programme (CISP) under the National Commission on Culture (NCC), with funding from the European Union (EU).
Participants, who were drawn from all the 10 regions of the country, were taken through topics such as developing a corporate mission, developing a project proposal for financial assistance for a cultural programme/activity, introduction to techniques in report writing for cultural programmes and activities, developing, monitoring and evaluating framework for cultural programmes, management practice, explanation and definition of accounts.
In an address to open the workshop, Mr Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng, the Co-ordinator of CISP, said the grant received from the EU under the CISP was to support the cultural sector, saying that one of the expected results of the programme was the enhancement of skills training across the cultural terrain.
He said similar training workshops would be organised for journalists and scriptwriters, adding that apart from the training programmes, the CISP grant was also to provide funds for individuals and organisations to undertake other projects and activities.
He disclosed that a second call for proposals inviting individuals and organisations to apply for the funds in the small grants category had been launched, adding that the application forms were available at all the regional and some district offices of the Centre for National Culture.
Mr Gyan-Apenteng stated that during the first grant cycle, 50 applicants were successful out of the 1,600 applications received, saying that the evidence from the first call for proposals suggested that most people filled the forms hastily, without thinking about what they proposed to do with the money, while others thought wrongly that it was a kind of micro-credit scheme to support their businesses in a general way.
He dispelled the notion that the fund was meant for certain people and gave the assurance that the amount for the second call for proposals had been doubled.
He expressed the hope that there would be an improvement in the number of recipients this time around.
The Director of the Brong Ahafo Regional Centre for National Culture, Mr Walsman Azaanab, in his welcoming address, commended the CISP, saying the programme had come at an opportune time to help build the capacities of players in the cultural industry.