Stories of Place: A Community Storytelling Project
October 2020 - June 2021
To see the online exhibition hosted by 5 Lands Walk, click here
In the middle of the pandemic, when people felt most isolated, we invited older Central Coast residents to write a story about a local place that was special to them. A school-age artist then read that story and created an artwork inspired by it. As part of the experience the writer and artist had a Zoom conversation so that the artist could collect more details for their illustration.
At first, some of the young art students were shy and the older writers quite nervous to talk remotely across a computer screen to someone they didn’t know. There were some awkward moments. But they began discussing the story in more depth, sharing ideas about design elements that might work in the picture — their creativity broke the ice.
When 91-year-old Marjorie teamed up with 12-year-old Amelie, a special connection formed:
“As a great grandmother it means the world to me to be able to share my stories with younger generations. What a pleasure it was to meet Ami and have her listen to my story of Lion Island, for her to interpret it through her eyes and bring it to life with her beautiful painting. What a talented young artist Ami is!
I am so grateful to have been asked to participate in this very special project. I wish to thank Jo and Adrienne for the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful experience — it truly has been an unexpected highlight of my life! I am honoured to have my story be among so many other narratives from the Central Coast. How lucky we are to live where we do. ”
“It has been such a pleasure and honour to be included in the Stories of Place Project, and to meet my talented young artist on Zoom.”
“I think it was a great initiative and Leslie and I were pleased to be involved. The inclusion of young artists was fabulous and it certainly was delightful to meet them on Zoom. We are looking forward to seeing the displays and the young artists’ illustrations. They should be congratulated as you all should be — it is a most worthwhile project, well done!”
