What Passes Between Us

NEWSLETTER #12

What Passes Between Us

There is plenty happening
—and plenty to come—
at Open House of History.

UPCOMING EVENTS BELOW!!!

Have You Read the Feature About OHOH?

The Midcoast Villager recently published a feature article about Open House of History.

It does a great job explaining what we’ve been up to, why we’re doing it, and what distinguishes OHOH. Please read it and share it with others!

And Before You Forget, We’d Like Your Feedback

While many people have shared their thoughts and feelings with us face-to-face, it is especially helpful—for both future programming and funding—to have written accounts of people’s experiences in the building.

If you visited Open House of History this summer, please take a few minutes to share your thoughts and feelings with us.

Your reflections help us understand what is working, what stays with people, and where OHOH might go next.

Where People and Ideas Cross through Feeling

OHOH is a nexus where people and ideas cross through the space of feeling. We use feeling not simply as a subject to be discussed but as a way of opening new possibilities for how we perceive and relate to one another. We want others to consider how the lens of feeling and emotion might give a new perspective and strength to their own work. For this reason, we strive to partner with other organizations.

But there is also something particular about the Custom House itself. Our home offers a unique atmosphere—quiet and resonant, elevating and reflective—that creates space for feeling, attention, and imagination.

OHOH is not simply an event space. We work with groups whose activities and missions extend the history of the Custom House: opening pathways of communication and helping us see ourselves within a wider horizon of possibility. Their public events, in turn, become part of our larger project of exploring the emotional forces that shape our lives across time.

Even when an event is not produced in partnership with another organization, we consider the core of our work to be creating encounters between individuals—especially new faces—that deepen and enrich our feeling for time, place, and one another.

Our Upcoming Events—Free and Open to All—Include:

Sunday, August 23, 1–2 pm

MEMORIES OF WALDOBORO WITH BILL BLODGETT

In partnership with the Waldoborough Historical Society

Join us as we hear memories of Waldoboro as told by longtime resident Bill Blodgett. Mr. Blodgett has served as an educator in Waldoboro schools, a Selectman for the Town of Waldoboro, and a member of the Waldoboro Lions Club, among many other roles.

Friday, August 28, 5:30–7 pm

WHAT MAKES A PORTRAIT?

During the final Artwalk of the season

Join us for a free workshop led by artist Jan Arabas, who created the life-size portraits in the center room of our upper-level exhibition.

We’ll begin with a 20-minute guided tour of the immersive installations at Open House of History, which explore connections among lives across time. Then we’ll gather for an open discussion about portraits: what they are, how they connect us, and why they matter.

Why do we take photographs of ourselves, our friends, and our families? Why do we keep portraits in photo albums, display them in frames, or hang them in museums?

And what actually makes something a portrait? Is the immersive installation at OHOH a portrait of a place, a time, or a community? How do writers create portraits? Actors? Musicians? Can any act of sympathy—of trying to see and understand another person—become a kind of portrait?

Bring your curiosity, your questions, and your opinions. No special knowledge or experience is needed.

Sunday, September 20, 1–4 pm

SHAPE NOTE SINGING

In partnership with the Maine Sacred Harp Singing Group

Shape Note Singing returns to Open House of History!

Sing along to early American sacred music in powerful four-part a cappella harmony. Its sound is enthusiastic, raucous, and haunting. Songbooks are provided, and no experience is necessary—the singers will teach you.

Not sure about singing? Come listen. Sit, take it in, and let yourself be transported. The steel beams and shutters of the Custom House create a warm, immersive, almost surround-sound environment, perfect for hearing voices blend together.

Coming This Fall/Winter: A Community Photography Project and New Ground-Floor Exhibition

In collaboration with the Waldoborough Historical Society

Every photograph tells more than one story. It captures a person, a family, a place, a moment—but it also reveals something larger about a place and time, and even about ourselves, through the feelings and emotions it evokes.

We invite Waldoboro residents—and anyone with photographs taken in Waldoboro or documenting an aspect of the town—to participate in a new community history project.

Bring us a photograph that matters to you and meet with a member of our team to talk about the image: the memories it holds, the people connected to it, the emotions it evokes, and what it reveals about life in Waldoboro. From these conversations, our writers, storytellers, and historians will create a short accompanying text that, with your approval, will be displayed alongside the photograph.

We are looking for photographs from every part of life—not only birthdays, weddings, and other celebrations, but also images connected with hardship, loss, uncertainty, illness, conflict, work, everyday routines, changing landscapes, and moments of wonder.

Together, the photographs will create a community-generated history of Waldoboro as it has been pictured and felt across time: a portrait of Waldoboro that embraces a full range of human experience and connects lives across time and generations.

Rather than telling the town’s story from the perspective of a single person or family, the exhibition will ask what the relationships between these photographs can tell us about the identity of the town.

What different emotions do people feel about Waldoboro? How have those feelings changed across time? And how do they help hold a place and its people together?

Original photographs will be professionally scanned and returned to their owners. High-quality reproductions will be exhibited.

Watch for our call for photographs in September.

Throughout the exhibition, participants will also be invited to speak publicly about their photographs.

In Anticipation:

Aug. 23 — Come hear Bill Blodgett this Sunday for some early inspiration for our community photography project!

Aug. 28 — Then come to Jan Arabas’s workshop, What Makes a Portrait?, to start considering the kind of portrait you might contribute to our community project.

You Can Still…

Visit Us in Person

You can still visit the upstairs exhibition in person by appointment. Please reach out to schedule a time.

The upstairs rooms will also be open for an hour before and after every event we hold. They may remain open during events as well, depending on the noise and activity on the ground floor.

Experience Emotional Currents Online

We have created a THREE-DIMENSIONAL VIRTUAL WALKTHROUGH of the upper level of Emotional Currents: Between Survival and Freedom.

If you live elsewhere—or can’t physically make it up the stairs—you can explore the upper-level installations virtually, with all sound and video embedded.

Wander through at your own pace. Look up, down, and all around so that you encounter all the components of the experience.

Full tips and directions are available on our homepage.

Revisit Our Summer Newsletters and Program Booklet Online

You can also continue exploring what happened at OHOH this summer online.

All of our past newsletters and our complete summer programming booklet are available to read on our website.

Together, they offer a record of the ideas, questions, people, and events that shaped Emotional Currents: Between Survival and Freedom.

Many of our talks, community discussions, and performances were also recorded, and videos are available to watch online. So if you missed an event—or want to return to a conversation or performance—you can still take part.

Help Keep Open House of History Open by Donating

If you want this work—and this content—to remain available, please consider making a donation.

OHOH is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and our funding for the future is not secure. Every contribution directly supports our exhibitions, talks, performances, community discussions, collaborations, and other ongoing programming.

Your contribution also does something more: support from the people who participate in OHOH helps us demonstrate the value of this work and attract the larger donations and grants that can sustain it over time.

So if you’ve valued something you’ve experienced, witnessed, read, or felt at Open House of History—or if you want to see this work continue and help keep the doors of Open House of History open—we would be very grateful for your support.

As always, please reach out to me directly with any questions or comments at any time at michael@ohohwaldoboro.org.

— Michael Amico
Director, Open House of History