SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:

Towards the end of the year, an art exhibition is asking residents of a Maryland neighborhood to consider this question – what was lost and what was found in 2020? NPR’s Samantha Balaban visited the fence that houses the open air museum.

SAMANTHA BALABAN, BYLINE: It’s just a normal, old chain link fence covered with barbed wire and surrounding a parking lot, with the exception that there are ornate dioramas on the fence.

ANDREA JONES: You know, I’ve never done an outdoor exhibition like this, so I wanted to make sure I could see it, you know?

BALABAN: Andrea Jones lives next door and is the curator of the Community Lost and Found exhibition.

JONES: In my work, I talk a lot with museums about the potential of helping people deal with emotions.

BALABAN: Jones is a museum advisor working for the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum. A few months ago, she decided to do something that would help her reflect on this turbulent year.

JONES: You know, there are a lot of changes. And to really process what’s happening to us, I think it’s really useful to do things, you know, physically, you know, with your hands.

BALABAN: So Jones built seven wooden boxes – they’re a reef, she says, on top of the treasure chest you find in school or church – and asked her neighbors to decorate them.

JONES: Can we go over here? I can show you a little.

BALABAN: Jones goes to a box designed by Megan Abbot and Gary Hall who live across the street. They had a baby this year.

JONES: And what Megan and Gary found this year was their daughter. So this is a real bird’s nest that they put in this box.

BALABAN: She points to a pacifier hanging in a translucent globe.

JONES: And that kind of represents the bubble that you felt in at that moment.

CECILY HABIMANA: So my box is – the name is connection.

BALABAN: Cecily Habimana is co-owner of the Sew Creative Lounge sewing studio. When the pandemic started, they had to close their doors.

HABIMANA: And to this day we only have about 20% of our students back in our studio.

BALABAN: So Habimana decorated a box with brightly colored fabric patterns and strands of pearls that hung from the ceiling.

HABIMANA: And it basically shows that every person continues to work, continue to sew at home and for themselves, but none of them interact with each other and that this connection has been lost.

BALABAN: Andrea Jones wanted everyone to be able to take part in this exhibition, so she also left out some pens and made small wooden labels so that people who walk by could write on them and make contributions.

JONES: How to drink. Drinking – I gave up this year.

BALABAN: It’s a living installation.

JONES: There is a special one that is dedicated to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and on which these pearls are draped.

BALABAN: Some of the things that people wrote on the tags are funny. One person wrote under the body fat lost section. Others are poignant. A young child writes under found – how to play with my brother.

JONES: Here’s one that actually relates to the exhibition itself. I found these cutouts clattering in the wind against an otherwise silent and nondescript eyesore fence, and then smiled.

STEPHANIE VAUGHN: Oh, wow.

BALABAN: Stephanie Vaughn was leaving the parking lot when she pulled up in front of the fence.

VAUGHN: It’s really nice that the community took the time to tell their story during this time, because each of us has a story.

BALABAN: Vaughn works at a school in Baltimore County. It’s been a tough year. Her mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor in May. Her husband died in September. When she was in South Carolina helping her family, she needed a project to do with her nieces.

VAUGHN: All right. Let’s rate this positively.

BALABAN: When Vaughn picks up a label, she is writing about what she has learned.

VAUGHN: Found it – I’ve started crocheting again. I made baby blankets and tea towels. I enjoyed giving the gifts I gave to family, friends and strangers.

BALABAN: After telling her story and tying her label to the fence, Vaughn goes to the post office to send a package of her crochet in time for the holidays. Samantha Balaban, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Copyright © 2020 NPR. All rights reserved. For more information, see the Terms of Use and Permissions pages on our website at www.npr.org.

NPR transcripts are created in no time by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR programming is the audio recording.

The post It Used To Be Just A Fence. It Became A Tribute To Things Lost And Found In 2020 : NPR first appeared on DECKS AND FENCES DAILY.