The pilot exhibit of the First Person Museum at the Painted Bride Art Center is now closed but the online gallery is always open!

Keep visiting this page for updates about future live storytelling events where you can share your story. Or join our our mailing list.

Ordinary things can capture extraordinary stories. Your child’s beloved baby blanket. The salad bowl used by your mother every night at dinner. Your first passport. The “things” we treasure are more than just objects; they are vessels for our stories, memories, and experiences.

The First Person Museum is a way to share those objects, along with the stories behind them, both online and in live multi-media exhibitions.

Throughout the summer of 2010, First Person Arts invited people from all over Philadelphia to “show and tell” events called StoryCircles. Everyday people brought things that mattered to them and told their story about the object.

Their personal stories and objects were on display in the fall of 2010 at the pilot First Person Museum exhibit at the Painted Bride Art Center, displayed via pictures, film, sound, and words. The live exhibit was a part of the 9th Annual First Person Festival of Memoir and Documentary Art. View pictures from the opening night reception here.

Stay tuned as the First Person Museum project continues to evolve. Leave feedback in the comments section of this page. Upload your story to the online gallery. Sign up for our mailing list so you can have updates delivered right to you.

Scenes from Summer StoryCircles (Clockwise from top left: Village of Arts and Humanities, First Person Arts, Ayuda Community Center, First Person Arts)

The First Person Museum is made possible by the Engage 2020 Innovation Grant and The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Heritage Philadelphia Program. The Engage 2020 Innovation Grants Program is supported by The Wallace Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts and The Philadelphia Foundation, and is a program of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance’s research and marketing initiative Engage 2020. The Heritage Philadelphia Program is a program of The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, funded by Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by The University of the Arts.