A pop-up, street-level, mini-museum!
Leader
Downtown Brattleboro Alliance ~
Location
Main Streets Brattleboro, VT 05301
Imagine walking down the street in Brattleboro, up ahead, a crowd gathers in front of a what appears to be a trailer of some sort, parked outside a store.
Only, it’s not really a trailer, not a normal one anyhow. The outside is covered in artwork and graphics, and people are taking pictures, waiting in line to get inside.
Some people are visitors who’ve come to town to enjoy the annual Literary Festival- a jam-packed weekend of events featuring well-known and local authors.
There are also many locals, like the young family whose kids are eagerly talking about Lucy Terry, the first known African American poet from the late 1700s...how they learned about how she and her husband were freed slaves who owned and fought to keep their land nearby, her connections to Brattleboro, and the podcast they helped record that will be shared with their parents once inside.
This is MILES -- Brattleboro's unique Mobile Interactive Literary Exhibition Space.
What is a “Mobile Interacitve Literary Exhibition Space”?
Simply, it’s a mobile mini-museum that provides pop-up, street-level, immersive experiences highlighting the local literary legacies of the region.
The space is designed for ADA accessibility, providing visual and audio experiences from local artists, bringing legacies to life, and context about why they matter, not just historically, but today.
The first exhibit, featuring Lucy Terry Prince, will include her poetry, a map of significant locations nearby for the curious to explore further, and a chance for everyone to share how words, and one person’s voice, can change the course of history and shape the future.
This project is being led by a team of committed people and organizations, including:
Brattleboro Literary Festival Director, Sandy Rouse
Researcher and former Brooks Memorial Library Director, Jerry Carbone
Downtown Brattleboro Alliance Coordinator, Jen Austin
118 Elliot owner, Lissa Weinmann
MILES will be the first project to launch the brand new 3-year National Endowment for the Humanities backed program “Peoples, Places and History of the Word in Brattleboro”.
See video describing the MILES project and full design.
https://youtu.be/uJSDYgYfSmo
An amazing array of local talent is excited to participate in this project!
To date we have:
This means: YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS WILL BE IMMEDIATELY MATCHED!
Once we reach the $5000 goal, funding will not be matched, but will still be highly valued.
As soon as the funds are in-hand, MILES' timeline is:
SEPTEMBER 3: Tiny House Festival Vermont in Downtown Brattleboro!
As a project that intersects the Tiny House movement and Public Art, MILES incorporates important concepts in Placemaking, Museums, and pop-ups, and how they contribute to community. The project will be showcased at the Festival.
Sept 20 - Oct 1: Finish the building and exhibit and secure the necessary paperwork to make sure the trailer insured and legal
Oct 6 - Move MILES to central Downtown location for October's Gallery Walk
Oct 12-15: Ribbon-cutting for MILES with local officials, artists and community members as part of Brattleboro Literary Festival and continuous visitors to MILES all weekend long.
Oct. 16 to 30: MILES visits local schools for students to see and hear the story of how the community came together to celebrate its unique cultural history and how they can be part of that moving forward with MILES
MILES- Down the Road
MILES will continue to develop and evolve over the next several years. Exhibits will change, the full design will be implemented, and it will roll on.
MILES is already working magic, bringing diverse groups of people in our community,
historians,
school kids,
local families,
college students,
business leaders,
professors,
authors and writers,
artists,
Rotarians,
historical societies,
builders:
so many different groups and interests coming together in Brattleboro around the concept and Lucy Terry, an inspirational, but largely unknown, figure who few locals have ever heard about.
Sharing her story with the public in this fun, interactive way, we celebrate the power of one voice.
It also fosters a sense of pride of place for local youth -- that our town is special and they are part of it; that the unique history of Brattleboro is not just for tourists, but it is part of who they are, and what makes this place special.
MILES helps bring more local people into the annual Brattleboro Literary Festival, which has become a regional tourist attraction.
By encouraging people to enter Lucy's world of storytelling and sharing their experience on how 'one voice matters' -- stories to be further shared with the larger community -- empowers residents and visitors to deeply understand how Lucy's story is relevant today.
