Global Media Alliance (GMA), in collaboration with the University of Media, Arts and Communication (UniMAC), has hosted the first-ever Public Relations (PR) Art Exhibition as part of the ongoing World PR Day (WPRD) Festival 2026. The exhibition spotlights indigenous African communication systems and challenges long-standing Western-dominated narratives in the field.
The event took place at ALX Hub, One Airport Square in Accra, under the theme “Decolonising PR: Reclaiming Indigenous Communication Power.” As the second in-person activity for this year’s festival, it brought together students, academics, industry professionals and cultural enthusiasts to deliberate on African indigenous communication systems.
The exhibition featured a compelling fusion of art installations, academic research, cultural artefacts, and visual storytelling, which collectively demonstrated the richness and enduring relevance of traditional African communication practices.
Lead researcher and lecturer at UniMAC, Fuseini Iddrisu, highlighted the historical significance of the initiative, calling for a much-needed correction of misconceptions. “It was an epistemic injustice to suggest that public relations only began in Africa when Europeans arrived,” he stated. “If you ever think of public relations, never give the credit solely to the West. It has always existed within our own systems, even if we called it something else.”
Building on this perspective, Head of the Department of Public Relations at UniMAC, Dr. Noel Nutsugah, emphasised the vital link between theory and practice. “There is no practice we do today that does not have any theoretical backing, and there is no theory that is formed without input from practitioners,” he noted. He added that institutions like UniMAC are actively equipping the next generation with both academic depth and practical storytelling skills rooted in local contexts.
The Head of Public Relations at GMA and Lead Curator of the WPRD Festival, Ekow Quandzie, described the exhibition as a bold step toward innovation. “The PR Art Exhibition is a deliberate effort to merge creativity with strategy, showing that communication goes beyond press releases,” he said. “We want to challenge the status quo and inspire a new generation of practitioners to think differently about storytelling.”
Participants praised the event for its role in preserving cultural identity while addressing modern communication challenges. One attendee remarked that redefining PR through an African lens is essential for authentic storytelling and greater societal impact.
The PR Art Exhibition forms part of Global Media Alliance’s broader WPRD Festival 2026 programme, which continues to position Ghana as a leading voice in global discussions on the future of public relations, innovation, and the integration of indigenous knowledge, under the official hashtag #WPRDFestivalThe6th.
The festival continues with the main event, “The PR Dialogue: Connecting Learning to Practice,” on Thursday, 16th July 2026, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Silverbird Cinemas, Accra Mall. The dialogue will feature a student pitch challenge, where participants will put into practice the lessons learnt to solve real-life issues practitioners face in the industry. This pitch is headlined by Telecel Ghana.
The PR Art Exhibition was sponsored by Samsung Ghana, Telecel Ghana, Bank of Africa, Bel Beverages, Bank of Ghana, UniMAC, Silverbird Cinemas, YFM, and ALX.
