Raymond Silverman, Professor Emeritus of History of Art, African Studies, and Museum Studies (University of Michigan), and Neal Sobania, Professor Emeritus of History (Pacific Lutheran University) have been working together in Ethiopia for almost thirty years. Their first collaborative research in Ethiopia dates from 1993 when they organized and directed research that documented the lives and work of “makers” and involved commissioning and collecting artifacts for Ethiopia: Traditions of Creativity. This groundbreaking exhibition and book foregrounded individuals whose creativity sustains the physical and spiritual well-being of the communities in which they live. This interest in the people who make things, rather than in the things themselves, has continued to drive much of their research. Most of it has been undertaken in the historic community of Aksum in northern Ethiopia where they have worked with gold- and silversmiths as well as blacksmiths, and with scribes and painters who produce work for both the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the market.