Heritage Support

Thanks to a 2019 - 2021 grant from the Peck Stacpoole Foundation, we have been able to join Mmofra Foundation in a revived conservation effort in Accra which is committed to building cultural heritage awareness and preservation skills in young people.

Amowi introduced us to two unique archives which are currently housed in the Mmofra Foundation office in Accra, Ghana: - the papers of her mother, the writer and educator Efua T. Sutherland (1924 - 1996) and the photographic collection of Willis Bell (1924 - 1999), an American expatriate whose photographs of Ghana from the 1950’s to the 1970’s constitute a unique social and historical visual record. Her family’s close connection to the photographer enabled privileged insight into both archives and impressed on us the urgency of saving these fragile collections of documents, images and memorabilia which are owned by Mmofra Foundation and Nyankoma ERA Trust.

The very first project we embraced as an organization in 2012 was to build on a remarkable pilot photo restoration effort at Spokane Falls Community College directed by its then department chair Ira Gardner, and Amowi Phillips.

In the years since then, we have collaborated with Mmofra Foundation to publish a catalogue of images of children by Bell, and curated four child-themed exhibitions locally in Spokane, Washington, in partnership with:The Brick Wall Gallery (2012); Ira Gardner (2012); Joe Guarisco (2012); Spokane Public Library Downtown (2012); Express Employment Professionals (2014); Mary Luft Gladhart (2013 and 2014); North Spokane County Library (2015)

The greater part of collaborative restoration work has been led by Mmofra Foundation in Ghana.