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Grantee: Friends of Mmofra

Project Title: Playtime: Then and Now
Year awarded: 2023, Round 3
Exhibition Opening
Friday MAY 17, 2024 – 5:00 PM

Opening Celebration at Northbank Shelter at Riverfront Park.
Admission includes food by Ghanaian Chef Christobel and specialty cocktail or nonalcohol drink ticket via Feast World Kitchen.

Friends of Mmofra (FoMm) is a Spokane-based 501c3 non-profit whose mission is to support culture, nature, literacy and play globally. Mmofra means “Children” in Ghana’s Akan language. Since 2012, FoMm has directly engaged young people with artists, photographers, designers, architects, storytellers and musicians from across the globe, including a diverse array of multidisciplinary international collaborations.

With SAGA support, Mmofra brings together the photographs of late local photographer Willis E. Bell and the poetry of late Ghanaian writer Efua T. Sutherland. Bell’s beautiful black and white photos of children at play in Ghana will be juxtaposed with the delightful poems of the late Efua Sutherland, an author, poet and child advocate, curated into an outdoor exhibition reflecting the universality of play across place, 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.