We’ve been working on an event, and here’s the low-down, the info, the 4-1-1…capeesh?
2nd Friday Art Walk Offers Unique Imaginary Family Project and live music from John Calvin.
START AT STASH on Friday, February 8th for Downtown Norman’s 2nd Friday Art Walk from 6-10 p.m. Among the features this month will be the book release of “The Imaginary Family Project (IFP),” a compendium of 52 short stories by 51 different authors written weekly over the period of one year. As a bonus, every one who attends will be given a free vintage photograph as a souvenir. Also not to miss will be the dreamy croonings from folk singer/songwriter John Calvin. This free show is sponsored by the Norman Arts Council and STASH.
More about the IFP:
Inspired by a happenstance trip to a random flea market in Tulsa, and a subsequent brainstorming session with his facebook friends, The 2011 Imaginary Family Project (IFP) was coordinated by occasional amateur artist Quentin Bomgardner and co-sponsored by The Red Dirt Chronicles.
The project was based upon “lost” vintage photographs, which had been acquired at flea markets, garage sales, estate sales, and eBay – heirloom collections, with no heir.
Over half of the authors are residents of Oklahoma and include the likes of Sterlin Harjo, Melissa Scaramucci, Charles Martin, Dorothy Alexander, and Wampus Reynolds. Other authors include academics from major university creative writing departments, people who have never written prior to this project, and other unique individuals with their own stories as to why they chose to join this project. Ultimately, stories were written from all over the United States and across 3 different continents.
Every week a different author “found” one photograph by creating an imagined history around one of its subjects. Kicked off in the first week of January, 2011 and completed during the last week of that year, the work has now been compiled into book form.
This publication is the group presentation of that collective work, and represents exactly what “The Imaginary Family Project” was intended to be: 52 stories for forgotten photographs selected by their authors, and written from a wide variety of diverse, creative and unique perspectives.
The creators and authors hope you enjoy reading the works as much as they enjoyed seeing each story come to life.
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The authors dedicate this project to anyone who will ever find themselves the subject of a lost photo.