A testament to great upfront publicity. The Putnam Museum invited their guests to share their personal history. And did they ever. They brought personal treasures and mementos, and after the 4 hours of the scheduled event there was still a 2 hour wait.
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At the American Alliance of Museums convention in 2016 I met Kim Findley, Director of the Putnam Museum. She saw the ONE by ONE Community Portrait™ as a great way to kick off their 150th anniversary the following January. Since they were a history museum she added the idea of asking people to bring an item that was of historical significance to them.
Kim did a GREAT job of publicizing the event, because at the end of 4 hours each day (usually how long I photograph) there was still a two hour wait! I couldn’t turn people away so I kept photographing (thank you, Red Bull!) and at the end of 3 days I had photographed a total of 1246 people!
“The images are still up on our walls two years later. They are so popular that we can’t take them down!”
-Christina Kastell
Curator of History and Anthropology
Putnam Museum and Science Center
