What happens when creatives become part of the democratic conversation? 🎨🎭🎶 It starts here in Accra, #Ghana 🇬🇭! The @AU_ECOSOCC, @reforminitiate and WCE Studio are convening the inaugural Creative Democracy Lab Roundtable, bringing together 15 African creative practitioners and four facilitators to explore how art, culture and creative practice can open new spaces for democratic participation. The two-day roundtable is part of Reimagining a Just and Resilient Democracy in Africa, a two-year initiative funded by @OpenSociety. Opening the Roundtable, Ambassador @WilCarew, Head of the ECOSOCC Secretariat, challenged participants to think beyond creativity as a way to communicate #democracy. “The democratic space is much wider than the institutional space.” He noted that Africans experience and discuss politics not only through parliaments, elections and formal consultations, but also through community forums, universities, #radio, #film, #music, #theatre, #storytelling, #podcasts and digital platforms. The question, therefore, is not simply whether #art can contribute to democracy. It is: what can creative practice make possible? Over the next two days, participants will develop and test practical creative approaches that make democratic ideas accessible and create opportunities for citizens, particularly young people, to engage with them in spaces they already inhabit. As Ambassador Carew put it: “We do not want creatives to come in only at the end of the process to communicate a message that has already been decided.” The goal is to explore how creatives can help question, interpret and shape democratic conversations themselves, and ultimately help citizens move from being audiences of #governance to participants in it. 📍 #Accra, Ghana 🗓️ 21–22 August 2026 #CreativeDemocracy #ReimaginingDemocracy #DemocracyInAfrica #Creatives #Media