Our 50th Exhibit

~ amykerrdrawsportraits

Things got a bit ugly at 9pm last night in the UHaul parking lot after Iain and I had traveled to The Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester, then home to Gloucester to reload, and then through Boston traffic to South Shore Plaza in Braintree to set up a new exhibit. We were returning the van rental and had to throw all of our moving stuff into our car…but it wouldn’t fit. We had to leave room to retrieve the dog, and the trolley, moving blankets, straps, and boxes WOULD NOT FIT. We were cold and exhausted, and while I contemplated having a good cry, Iain calmly strapped the trolley handles to his bike rack and shut the back. “This is why I married you,” I said. Now that we’ve survived our 50th exhibit moving day, let’s see how far we’ve come…

Very first opening at Ocean Alliance on unfinished brick walls and concrete floors poured that week
The early exhibits involved finding wall space anywhere there was a need, like a food pantry…
…or a space, like a health food market…
…or a community movie theater
In the first year, Gloucester City Hall was a highlight
The local hospital said their gallery wall was booked…but we could have everywhere else!
Gloucester High didn’t have a gallery, but they did have a trophy case…which we emptied
We’ve been in five public libraries…
…and four hospitals and treatment centers
North Shore Music Theatre was the first chance to try out our new display panels. Who needs walls?!
The unveiling of I Am More: Massachusetts in Worcester in 2019
In 2020 we had the first of 11 mall exhibits
Salem State University was our largest exhibit ever
In 2022 we visited our first retirement community
In January we finally made it into the Massachusetts State House after three years of waiting

Which brings us back to the UHaul parking lot last night. “We” is Iain and me, and most of these shiny colorful exhibits involve navigating dark empty parking lots, loading docks, and the bowels of shopping malls, with wind, rain, and snow or boiling heat, lots of traffic jams and troubleshooting, and when I want to cry in exhaustion after a 13-hour day, he calmly straps the excess moving equipment onto the back of the car and drives us home.

The 50th I Am More exhibit at South Shore Plaza

11 thoughts on “Our 50th Exhibit”

    1. I am just scratching the surface of this beautiful project!! I am overwhelmed with all the similarities and connections we share.I was privileged to meet Karen Nascembeni last night and she shared this vision and I have been elated ever since.I hope to be part of this in any aspect possible.

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