Last week I completed the first important stage of the community memoir/public art project for Carroll County, IL: presenting an outline of the project to the board of the Carroll County Historical Society. I told them about the project, and passed around mock-up photos (do they still call it that these days?) of the outside installation part. Here's another photo that I showed to the board: Patty and I will gather the material from the participants by asking them to supply photos showing at least two generations of the same family. Patty will then run writing workshops so that the participants can generate short instances of personal narrative -- not full oral histories, but moments. Selections from the photos and the written memories will then be printed onto light boxes, as shown above -- light boxes that will be arranged like a small banner sign. After the presentation, the board voted on whether or not to sponsor the project, and thankfully they voted 'Yes'. This me...