The Ephemera Project

What is ephemera?  Historically, the word ephemera is used to describe paper objects with no monetary value meant to be discarded, such as ticket stubs, posters and cards. Here the definition is expanded to include the broken watches of deceased family members, baby teeth, moments in history, mementos from vacation or a subway ride-all simple reminders of people we love and homages to lived experiences.

Waterville Creates and artist Tanja Hollander are photographing your objects on-site and gathering your stories through a series of collection station events. Objects (no larger than 8×10″) will be photographed and catalogued, and the images will be included as part of The Ephemera Project, on view at 93 Main Street beginning June 20, 2023.

The Ephemera Project is a crowd-sourced archive of personal objects and stories based in memory, self-reflection, and vulnerability. It is the broken watches of deceased family members, baby teeth, moments in history, momentos from a vacation or a subway ride—all simple reminders of people we love and homages to lived experiences. At its heart, this project encourages and celebrates making space to value and listen to each other.

For more information or to participate visit: https://www.tanjahollander.com/watervillecreates 

Collection Stations will be located at the Paul J. Schupf Center unless otherwise noted.

Thursday, June 22, 2-7pm

Thursday, July 13, 2-7pm

Friday, July 28, 6-8pm @ Waterville Rocks, Head of Falls

Thursday, August 17, 2-7pm

Waterville Creates’ 2023 Call for Proposals (CFP) for Community-Centered Arts Programming is the final phase of the Common Threads project. The proposals funded through the CFP represent a diverse range of artists and disciplines and are designed to attract people of all ages and backgrounds to the Paul J. Schupf Art Center by providing accessible, meaningful, and joyful arts experiences while also responding to issues and themes that are relevant and important to our community.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and realized in partnership with the Colby College Museum of Art and its Lunder Institute for American Art.