illustrating the universality of play throughout culture and time
Come friends, follow along the
path of The Ice Age Floods Playground
in beautiful Riverfront Park.
See this special outdoor exhibition during
the 50th anniversary of Expo ’74!
There are 10 banners that line the playground
with art and poems for you to enjoy.
They are from the 1960 photo-essay book,
Playtime in Africa,
and illustrate the universality of play
throughout time and across cultures.
North American photographer Willis E. Bell
took the photos of play, and Efua Sutherland,
famed Ghanaian poet and author, wrote the poems.
Do you see children playing in the park now
like they are in the photos?
Image Credit: Doyle Wheeler
The exhibition was curated by Friends of Mmofra for this anniversary event. The photos and poems were used with permission from Mmofra Foundation and the Efua Sutherland Estate in Accra, Ghana.
FoMm is a local not for profit whose mission is to promote and grow relationships between children and culture, art and nature.
We plant and steward the seeds of those relationships with children globally.
We believe this work is valuable on many levels and beneficial for children everywhere.
Thank you! Yedaase!
This exhibition was made possible by a generous SAGA grant from Spokane Arts Commission and our dedicated supporters.
Featuring a selection of poems read aloud by Amowi Sutherland Phillips.
Learn more about the author and artist behind the poems and photographs.
We could not do this without our amazing community and friends. Read more.
Follow along with more stories about our exhibition and involvement during the expo anniversary.
We had a blast at our opening event on Friday, May 17th. Check out the photos!
Curatorial Statement
Playtime: Then and Now, 2024
Spokane, I belong to this place. I grew up here in a multi-generational family that supported the visual arts and artists within the community. I grew up studying, making and loving art.
In preparation for Expo ’74, my family was volunteering to support making it happen. My dad Parker Compau was one of many attorneys on point, and my paternal grandmother Mildred Compau and mother Nancy Gale Compau were both art docents for the international art exhibition in the world pavilion in Riverfront Park. I was 9 at the time. They would share their stories; my dad’s volunteer makeshift office was literally in a closet in the old YWCA, and he remembers the herculean push the city made to bring it all together. My mother later wrote about the city's new identity and transformation in her history of Spokane for third graders. My grandmother shared details about the international artists and noted that the curator of the contemporary art exhibition was Dr. Frankenstein! This caused a great stir in my imagination, and I expressed that I was very concerned for them to participate… this was fifty years ago. The ‘Expo’ experience left a deep and inspiring impression on me—seeds were sown that are now creating fruit!
Today, I feel a great sense of pride and nostalgia to be the curator of this special art exhibition for the 50th anniversary of Expo ‘74, for Spokane. It feels like a generational circle, complete. My desire is more seeds will be sown….
I have worked in the visual arts my entire life creating art events, supporting artists, and teaching art to all ages. I love designing and hosting art and culturally rich programs, especially for children.
Fifteen-ish years ago, Barbara Loste, Amowi Phillips and I created the tiny not for profit, Friends of Mmofra. I was thrilled to have an additional venue to channel my passions: designing art activities and programing for children, including children with developmental and physical disabilities, here in Spokane and in Accra, Ghana at Mmofra Place—Efua Sutherland’s family compound, now a special children’s park.
In 2022, FoMm was encouraged to compete for a SAGA grant to support FoMm’s activities for children here in Spokane.
The idea to cross pollinate FoMm with the upcoming expo anniversary fit perfectly in my mind. The improvements and additions to Riverfront Park, especially the magnificent children’s playground, which I take my grandchildren to, were ideal for a Mmofra event—fertile with possibilities. All of the elements were there.
Designing a museum-quality, international outdoor exhibition, being free to the public, was a very important element. The juxtaposition in nature and being next to the children’s playground, another. Bringing the pages of the iconic book, Playtime in Africa, to life for all to enjoy and reflect on the universality of play—then and now—all came together so beautifully.
I could not have realized this vision without the amazing talents of my graphic designer Emily McDonald and the encouragement of the “framily” as we have come to call our closest friends…
Jennifer Gale Compau
Exhibition Curator
