TERRA
ALTA
terra alta
- we're pressing on to higher ground -
Established in 2017 by artist and performer Elisabeth Efua Sutherland, Terra Alta is an artist-led performing arts space in Accra characterised by an open-air stage and repurposed shipping containers that serve as places for research, classes, and rehearsals, offering a year-round programme of performances and events.
Our Story
We started as a need housed in swampy earth. We literally had to raise the earth in order to make the plot usable. Every step of our journey has been a step towards higher ground, and this has become our mantra.
Terra Alta started as an artist's response to the lack of accessible arts infrastructure in Accra, particularly space for rehearsal, research and development. Five years of community building, crowdfunding and crowd sourced knowledge later, we're proud to have the complex of six shipping containers, gardens and stages that comprise our rehearsal room, artist residency spaces, (unfinished) gallery and library. Funding such a space is an uphill battle as most sources are not willing to invest in infrastructure, but we continue on with the day to day support of our incredible community and the artists we serve. We have hope that we will finish soon enough, and then our real work of professionalizing young artists, raising standards and hard skills transfer can be scaled up.
Until that happens, day by day, step by step, we're pressing on to higher ground!
Services
We offer support services on several fronts to private groups, schools, community service organizations and others. Please see below for some of the options we offer, or get in touch directly at terraaltagh@gmail.com if you have a more particular request.
Terra Alta has been a gift for me, and a gift for many already. I hope we can continue to share so much more for the space and the community here in Accra, a green oasis in the city, a space of peace, a space for risk, a space of reward.
- Elisabeth Efua Sutherland