Fine art, according to Gustavo Courbet, is knowledge made visible.

At the French Embassy, a section of fine arts lovers was for the first time introduced to a collection of arts by the former President J.A. Kufuor in a book titled Arts and the Power of Goodness.

The book highlights beautiful, rare collection of art from across the world, collected by the former President. This collection shows much of a lover of fine art, President Kufour is.

Author of this book, Ivor Agyeman Dua said “Art is universal and to the extent that art is universal.”

“There are values in art that will help with our own personal development. It will help social development, it will help at the end with national development and we look at art and look at the level of creativity in the country so we can use art to measure the level of creativity in the country,” he explained.

But how can Ghana develop love or pay attention to the arts even though it remains a taste for a section of the public?

Executive Secretary to the President, Nana Asante Bediatuo told JoyNews’ Becky that “not many people are into the fine arts; paintings and sculpture where somebody’s labor of love is involved.”

“A lot of the stuff you buy for decorating are made in factories in china or something the important thing is to have outlets where people you know take their children to the malls on Sunday just to have something to do so if we had lots of museums and galleries of contemporary spaces for arts, people might want to do that and through publicity and education in schools you will get more people interested in art”

For someone like me gradually growing fond of fine arts, people like Ambassador of France to Ghana, Anne Sophie Ave should be my inspiration.

At the end, Ghana can only begin to pay attention to the arts and explore its world like the former President J.A. Kufour did.