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Where: Morrell Meeting Room, Curtis Memorial Library.
23 Pleasant Street, Brunswick
When: Thursday, February 26, 6:30-8pm
Free
Artists at Spindleworks usually tell their stories through drawing, writing, performance, and other art forms. This winter, a group of artists have been learning a new way to record the story of the center. Inspired by the 30th anniversary of Spindleworks, they have been taking part in a series of classes to learn how to conduct oral history interviews with one another. The results of their work, along with archival film footage and slides from the Spindleworks collection, will be presented on February 26th at the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, sponsored by
Five River Arts Alliance's "Arts Night at the Library" series. The project began after several artists said they would like to interview their peers and staff about the history of Spindleworks, a program of Independence Association that has provided studio and gallery space for artists with disabilities since 1978.
After receiving a grant from the Maine Humanities Council and Maine Arts Commission in support of the project, historian Andrew Jawitz was hired to teach a series of oral history classes to the artists. In each class, they learned how an oral history interview is researched, conducted, recorded, and preserved. The artists also studied examples of other oral history projects from around the world. Class discussions arose around issues such as voicing the experiences of people with disabilities and life as a working artist in Maine. "I loved doing this because now we know how to do an oral history, and it's important to hear from people who have been involved with Spindleworks", said Kim Christensen, an artist who worked on the project. In addition to holding a public presentation at the library, they plan to include excerpts from interviews on the Spindleworks website and hope to have the project included in the collection of a Maine archive.
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