FAQ
Q. I am a museum and want to bring “What is Your story?” Do you travel?
A. Absolutely! “What is Your Story?” is a traveling exhibit. We bring everything we need to host the exhibit and can customize the experience based off of your audience and location. We charge a flat fee for the exhibit based off of exhibit duration, shipping, travel, and installation. Contact us and let’s get your exhibit on the calendar!
Q. I want to be more involved. How can I help?
A. There are plenty of ways you can be involved, such as hosting a “What is Your Story?” pop-up event or exhibit! Sharing “What is Your Story?” on your social media account is another great way to help us gain traction and increase awareness of "What is Your Story?" You can download images and copy on our resources page if you’d like!
Q. What really comprises “My story?”
A. “What is Your Story?” is an open invitation to share whatever you’d like. It can be your own creation, a personal confession, a moment articulating where you are in life, what you’re excited about, sorrowed by, a reflection looking back on life. We invite you to be honest, vulnerable, frank, angry, imaginative, happy, or whatever it is that you feel. Your stories are the living expressions that create the exhibition.
While your story can be as long as you’d like, we recommend writing no more than the open-faced two-page spread. From our experience, a few sentences are always better than many pages, because people passing through the exhibit have limited attention spans and gravitate toward stories that have less text.
Please don’t use full names when writing your story. We want to preserve anonymity. Avoid subjects that are discriminatory and/or harmful on sexual, racial, religious, national, or ethnic grounds.
Q. What happens after a story is written?
A. Each handwritten story is photographed, transcribed, tagged, and entered into a comprehensive database. Stories are categorized by overarching themes, such as, “coming out,” “mental health,” “homelessness,” “anxiety,” “motherhood,” “love,” etc. Your funding will help us streamline this process and help us hire additional staff for the processing of books.
Q. Where do books come from and What happens to them after a story is written?
A. All of the books received to date have been donated by friends, families, and libraries. We are currently identifying the best strategy to reuse donated books and preserve stories while still maintaining the interactive elements of the exhibit.
Q. What if I haven’t found the answer to my question?
A. Write to us at stories@sparkcorps.org.