So, I admit-I don’t truly know what an “oral history” is. I know that oral historians interview people and archive their interviews, but I’m not so sure if, say, there are rules for how one should conduct an oral history or, for example, what the exact difference between a journalist and oral historian is. So if I’m ignorant when it comes to oral history protocol, why in heavens am I writing this Wisconsin oral history blog entry? Because, this past summer my friend and I graduated from college and created our first public project, a bilingual exhibit that features photographs and quotations to tell the story of why gardening at Quann Community Garden is important to its gardeners. Now, I want to advise other people like me—people ill-versed in the world of oral histories, project planning, and grant writing; people who might be described as the polar opposite of an expert— on how to create a successful and personally fulfilling public project.
1) Have a mission for your project and a vision for the precise question it will address. This is important. For one, it will help you get funding, since no one will fund a project that does not have a clear focus. Second, having a clear mission and vision will help you change your project’s logistics (which, I guarantee you will have to do) without changing your project’s spirit and enable you to gracefully weather all the tiny mistakes that you will surely make throughout the project. Last, the sheer nobleness of your vision will keep you going when you are doing dreadful things like, oh, asking people for money or writing your seemingly billionth press release that no one pays attention to!
2) Keep it small. This is for two reasons. First, if it’s too ambitious, it will be hard to complete. Second, as relative nobodies, you’re probably only going get small grants and donations. Sadly, this means you will also have a small budget.
3) Connections, connections, connections. This might be the most important advice in oral history project planning as in life. Think of the organization where you have the most connections and do your project there. Unless you’ve established yourself as a 501-c3 non-profit, you’re going to need a fiscal agent who will handle your grant money for you. You’re going to need letters of support when you apply for grants. You might need liability insurance. (And, let me tell you, you don’t want to pay for that alone.) You’re going to need in-kind donations, which are donations of supplies and time. AND, most importantly, you are going to need people who actually care, show up, and want to be a part of your project!!!! Only good, strong connections will help you to accomplish these things.
4) Milk your cluelessness. For our project, we often met with possible grant-funders and said that we were very ambitious young people that wanted to accomplish an important project, but that we had no clout and little grant-writing experience. Grants people LOVE this. They want to fund those innovative, doing it for the love of doing it projects, and will greatly assist you, particularly if they see your vision, connections, and work ethic. Remember, doing a project that does not have an institutional affiliation--academic or otherwise--can be good in that it allows you maximum creativity and flexibility.
5) Include as many people in the project as possible--at least of course if you actually want people to care about your project. We included Quann gardeners by a) having them help plan the exhibit project and exhibit opening, b) interviewing/photographing as many people as possible, c) including as many people in the exhibit as we could, and d) putting up the exhibit right across from the community garden itself. First and foremost we wanted the gardeners to feel like they “owned” the project, so we showed up at their garden meetings to brainstorm the project months before we even started interviewing anybody. While we did work hard to get the media/public to come check out the exhibit, the project was most rewarding to us because it was for the Quann gardeners.
6) Don’t expect to get paid for your first project. Yah, it stinks I know, but don’t expect it.
7) Search out private funders. Grants are great and you should probably apply for a few of those, but you’ll have to jump through far fewer hoops to get private donations. After filling out tedious grant applications, we decided to go ask some private companies for small donations. We got rejected a lot but when people said ‘yes,’ it was the best feeling in the world. No follow up grant evaluations to fill out. No applications. Incredible! Go to companies that might have an interest in your project or are in the neighborhood. And, don’t ask for too much. Also, connections will help in this case too.
8) The project won’t always be glamorous, but it will be very rewarding. Of course, when we first imagined our project, we pictured ourselves camping out in the community garden, eating lovely fresh-picked tomatoes, interviewing many friendly gardeners, and creating art from our discoveries. We did all this, and it was incredible. But a majority of our project consisted of writings, emails, phone calls, meetings, and logistics, logistics, logistics. When we first dreamed up the project, we didn’t realize that the project process wouldn’t be like starring in a movie. However, we felt like we skirted the line between community organizers and exhibit creators while creating the exhibit, and this made all the logistics worth it in the end. And watching all the gardeners discover their photos and quotes made it worth it too.
I don’t think we could’ve had a better experience with our first public oral history project. And now as we venture into the lovely period of our life we like to call post-college unemployment, we wish you fellow non-experts out there many happy projects. Public projects are important. And somebody’s got to do them.
[Note on photos: First, Quann gardeners and others viewing the exhibit. Second, Julia Steege (with microphone) and Elizabeth Henley, Steege's project partner, speaking to exhibit opening attendees.]
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