Who We Are
Keisha Cameron
Board Member at Large
Farmer. Cultivator. Educator: High Hog Farm
From a young age, Keishe has been passionate about connecting and communicating with the community and cultures around her. She is always studying and developing new ideas to celebrate and explore our histories through storytelling. After attending Hampton University and becoming a working mother of three, Keisha returned to study Social Theory, Structure, and Change at SUNY Empire State College. This interdisciplinary program addresses sociocultural anthropology and focuses on intercultural communications.
In 2013, a few years after moving to their present-day farmstead, Keisha received her Permaculture Design Certification. This, combined with a focus on food justice and sovereignty, led to her interest in and study of agroecology and indigenous land and foodways. As an active social justice and human rights advocate, she has given her time as a community volunteer. She enjoys sharing her knowledge and passion for agrarian arts with friends, neighbors, local organizations, and schools.
Today, Keisha continues to work alongside her family on their small farm, growing food and fibers while offering programs, workshops, and healing circles designed to address the various forms of healing that are needed within and beyond our food systems. Keisha lives a life generated by love and a desire for understanding to bridge divides and strengthen local and international relationships.
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Arianne King Comer
Board Member at Large
Arianne King Comer, a BFA graduate of Howard University, resides in North Charleston, SC as an artist, teacher, art consultant, and indigo advocate.
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In 1992, Arianne received the UN/USIS grant to study under the renowned Batik artist Nike Olyani Davis in Oshogbo Nigeria, where her passion for indigo manifested.
Since 1995 Arianne has been in multiple solo and joint exhibitions nationally and statewide. As a South Carolina resident artist, she continues teaching community base textile and multi-medium programs.
Arianne is a board member of the International Center for the Indigo Culture (ICIC) and an SC representative for Economic Empowerment through Crafts through Bloomberg Philanthropy Project.
Elizabeth DuBose
Board Member at Large
Elizabeth E. DuBose, Executive Director, has led the Ossabaw Island Foundation since 1998. A native of Atlanta, she holds a B.A. in American Studies from Hollins College (now Hollins University), and an M.A. in Historic Preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design. During her tenure at TOIF, Ms. DuBose has led all aspects of the organization: advocacy for Ossabaw’s Heritage Preserve designation and gatekeeper for appropriate island use; program development, fiscal management and fundraising; stewardship of buildings and equipment on the northern half of Ossabaw Island including the restoration or stabilization and maintenance of ten historic buildings on Ossabaw Island; historic research related to Ossabaw Island; and hosting of approximately 20 groups per year on the island for overnight stays or day trips, including providing expertise on tabby-making, historic preservation techniques, indigo dyeing and dye-making, hurricane impacts, and the history of the native population, the enslaved African-American and Freedmen of Ossabaw, 20th century intellectual/creative community, and colonial-era through present-day ownership and use of the island.
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Tony Williams (he/him)
Board Member at Large
Tony Williams is a Cleveland-based artist whose work has been shown in numerous local and national juried shows and international shows. His most recent "Biennial Juried Exhibition" 2021 Riffe Gallery Columbus, Oh and "Black Creativity" Chicago, IL, "Sankofa" 14th Annual African American Fiber Arts Exhibit, Charleston, SC, "About Body About Face" Cleveland Oh, "Paper on Skin", exhibit 2020 Tasmania, Australia, 75th Ohio Annual Exhibition at the Zanesville Museum of Art, "seenUNseen," Cleveland Oh. Cleveland Foundation's Creative Fusion Fellow: Waterways to Waterways and "Contemporary Fibers", National Juried Textile Exhibition in St. Augustine Historical Society St Augustine, FL, "Paper on Skin" 2018, exhibit Tasmania, Australia, "A Dialogue in Black and White", exhibit Charleston, SC. His public Art projects include The Year of the Horse, Year of the Sheep sculptures Asia Town Cleveland, Oh and The 100 Leaves sculptures Beachwood, Oh. Tony is currently an artist in residence at the Morgan Conservatory working with Indigo on paper, and past recipient of a Karamu House- Room in the House artist residency. A 2019 Cleveland Foundation Creative Fusion Fellow: Waterways to Waterways and Contemporary Fibers,
He curated his first exhibition, "In the Beginning", at the Tri-C Eastern Campus Gallery Highland Hills, Ohio, 1998 and "The Ardent Thread", 2020 Artists Archives of the Western Reserve Cleveland, Oh, and co-curator for "CONVERGE" LGBTQIA+ art exhibition 2021 Artists Archives of the Western Reserve Cleveland. tonywilliamsartist.net
LaChaun Moore
Board Member at Large
LaChaun Moore is an ethnographic fiber farmer, interdisciplinary artist, and designer. In Charleston, South Carolina, she founded and operates nnia farm (pronounced knee-ah), a small-scale fiber farm in Charleston, South Carolina. Her farm's roots stem from the inspiration of her grandfather, a sharecropper from Georgia who stole away in the middle of the night with his five brothers to find safety up north. She works with heirloom fiber plant varieties such as Indigofera Suffruticosa, naturally colored green, naturally colored brown sea island cotton, and heirloom gourds.
LaChaun earned her BFA in Integrated Design at Parsons, The New School For Design with a focus on Alternative Fashion Strategies and Social Practice. In her time at Parsons, she conducted grant-funded research that still informs her work today. After graduation, she started her career in agriculture where she gained a certificate in wholistic farming and business planning. In 2018 she began her podcast series Contextualizing Textiles for WEAVE podcast. In this series, she’s interviewed fiber farmers and textile artists. In 2021, she completed Rising: Climate in Crisis Residencies at A Studio in the Woods and a solo exhibition at The Hilliard Museum in Lafayette, Louisana. In 2023 she was part of the first cohort of the Braiding Seeds Fellowship and is currently an active member of the International Center of Indigo Culture working on building out a regional dye initiative as well as on the Board of the Surface Design Association. LaChaun envisions the creative fiber-making aspect of her work as an aesthetic representation of her farm and fiber research practice. Ultimately, she hopes to create a brand from farm to fabric that prioritizes social and historical equity.
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Donna Hardy
President
Donna Hardy is the founder of The International Center for Indigo Culture and Sea Island Indigo. Her earliest memories are of learning about plants and the natural world from her mother, as well as developing an intense inquisitiveness about fiber and textiles. Her love of plants evolved to a deep appreciation and curiosity for their various applications, which lead to Donna’s driven and thorough scholarship of textiles and natural dyes, with an intense focus on the history of indigo in South Carolina and Georgia. Rooted in a profound history, with a deep relationship with indigo, Donna is working to create a thriving, sustainable indigo culture in America.
Heather Powers she/they
Vice President
Heather’s BFA in Fiber from SCAD positioned her for a 15-year career as a textile designer collaborating on worldwide projects in various capacities.
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In 2010, she launched her design and professional organizing business. As an organizer situates herself amongst artists, craftspeople, and collectors. It gives her an intimate understanding of how individuals retain use and live with material culture.
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In 2021, she graduated with an MFA in Critical Craft. She continues to research textile history, weave, and use natural dye techniques in which her work investigates memory, place, and identity themes through discarded vintage ephemera and materials.
https://hkpowerstudio.com
David Harper
Treasurer
Being married to an indigo textile artist (Caroline Harper, founder of CHI design indigo) means that I get to combine my career as a land conservation professional with a love of ecologically-focused design. When we practice our best stewardship of land, we celebrate the whole community of people, plants and animals it supports. I value my role in the farm-to-fabric supply chain, with a focus on growing the indigo plants and processing them into dye that others can use.
I believe that our collaboration as growers, textile artists, and designers is essential to inspire people to see the beauty of indigo as a vibrant part of a local living economy in the 21st century. Since the first time I planted indigo seeds in the spring, raised them over the summer to become healthy plants taller than I am, learned to harvest and make the dye the fall, and finally put on a freshly dyed deep blue shirt that captured that whole growing season in one color, I knew there is a magic in this plant that reconnects us to the land and to each other.