The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) has announced the 2023 OneBeat Program, titled “OneBeat Ghana”. Announcing this, ECA said that the program was designed to “bring together a cohort of leading young musicians and entrepreneurs from Ghana, Nigeria, and the U.S. for an intensive 2-week residency in Ghana to exchange and build strategies for stronger artist communities and creative economies in the region.”
It further stated that selected participants will play a part in a wide range of activities such as culture sharing, ideation, skill exchanges, practical creative engagements and interactions, discussions, and knowledge sharing workshops. These workshops will be geared towards bringing to reality various projects initiated by participants. It shall be coordinated by established invited artists.
The collaboration between music starters and established artists is to ensure a stronger and more united music community while training them to become creative entrepreneurs. It is expected that the program will help deepen relations among U.S., Ghanaian, and Nigerian creatives, promote the development of creative art forms, and boost economic activities in the West African region. Interested creatives, entrepreneurs, and musicians have been asked by the organizers to identify projects they wish to work on during the program. It also announced that at the end of the residency, “fellows will be asked to develop a pitch or plan for the next steps of their projects, which will be presented in Accra.”
The OneBeat Ghana will be the first of its kind since the inception of the OneBeat initiative. It will be a pilot program as organizers set out to remodel the OneBeat Abroad exchange to reflect recent challenges faced by creatives, especially musicians. The new model will focus on addressing problems confronting the growth of musicians globally through the deployment of workable strategies to improve creative entrepreneurship.
The OneBeat program was launched in 2012 as an initiative of ECA; the OneBeat Ghana is supported by the embassies of the U.S. in Ghana and Nigeria and produced by Bang on a Can’s Found Sound Nation.
According to organizers, entry applications are due by July 14, 2023. This year’s edition will take place in Accra, Ghana, between November 6, 2003, and November 20, 2023.
