(The Ghana ThinkTank Mobile Unit, a solar-powered video-booth and tea-house, collecting African solutions to American problems in Morocco as part of the US State Department’s smARTPower program in October 2012. Photograph by Raphael Benito)

Ghana ThinkTank at Outpost Artists Resources
November 30 to December 21, 2012, with events every weekend

The Ghana ThinkTank is Developing the First World

Founded in 2006, the Ghana ThinkTank is an international network of think tanks creating strategies to resolve local problems in the “developed” world. The network began with think tanks from Ghana, Cuba and El Salvador, and has since expanded to include Serbia, Mexico and Ethiopia. For a recent project, we sent problems collected in Wales to think tanks in Ghana, Mexico, Serbia, Iran, and a group of incarcerated young women in the U.S. Prison system.

The think tanks analyze problems collected in the “first world” and propose solutions, which we put into action back in the community where the problems originated – whether the proposals seem impractical and others are brilliant. Some of the actions produce workable solutions, while others have created intensely awkward situations, as we play out different cultures’ assumptions about each other.

The cycle of problems-solutions-actions becomes a way to explore the friction caused by solutions that are generated in one context and applied elsewhere, while revealing the hidden assumptions that govern cross-cultural interactions.

At Outpost Artists Resources, Ghana ThinkTank will be working with Aaron Krach to focus on solutions for “American Problems” received in the city of Tbilisi, Georgia and the village of Tassoultante, Morocco (near Marrakesh). The gallery will be used as workspace, yoga center, launch pad, concert hall, classroom, olive tree garden, and sounding board, where we will work with visitors to implement African and Eastern European solutions to American problems in Ridgewood, Queens and Bushwick, Brooklyn.

 For information on how you can get involved:

GhanaThinkTank@gmail.com

http://ghanathinktank.org/

http://www.aaronkrach.com/

http://www.outpostartistsresources.org/
Because of limited space for the workshops please RSVP to secure participation.

1. Friday, November 30 at 7pm.
-Georgian Toast Workshop
-RSVP to GhanaThinkTank@gmail.com

2. Sunday, December 2 at 4pm
Yoga and Koran Reading
RSVP to GhanaThinkTank@gmail.com

3. Saturday, December 8 at 3pm
Yoga and Revolution Meditation
-RSVP to GhanaThinkTank@gmail.com

4. Friday, December 14, from 7-9pm
Tom Waits Music Night (Open-Mic, Performances, Sing-a-Long)

Open Attendance.
To perform, email GhanaThinkTank@gmail.com