Meetinghouse Arts will present a Photography and Writing Workshop, at the Freeport Community Library on Thursday May 9^th at 6:00PM, featuring photographer Sharyn Peavey and writer Jefferson Navicky. View the website for Our Town here.

Meetinghouse Arts is proud to bring this free workshop with Sharyn and Jefferson to the Library as the first of three photo and writing workshops in support of Our Town: A Community Self Portrait; a community arts documentary project funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Self Portrait is a two-week initiative (May 25^th-June 8) that invites all residents of Freeport to capture and describe the town’s essence through photography and words. Exhibitions of participants’ work will be held at the end of October at the Meetinghouse Arts Gallery, the Freeport Historical Society, Freeport Community Services, Visit Freeport and the Freeport Community Library.

In Sharyn and Jefferson’s workshop, A Day in the Life: Photography and Poetry Capture the Quotidien, they pose the question: “How often do we let slip by the small things of everyday life? The nesting of a family of bluebirds; the way the sun strikes wet pavement on an early spring day; the pile of muddied clothes after your child's forest adventure.” This workshop invites participants to work to capture the stuff of daily life through photography and poetry. Sharyn and Jefferson will provide exercises and demonstrations to enhance and inspire your abilities to document daily life for Freeport's upcoming Our Town NEA grant. No prior experience needed; please bring something to write on/with, your sense of adventure, and your artistic eye. This event is free and open to Freeporters of all ages and walks of life. 

Sharyn Peavey is a professional photographer with a studio at Pineland Farms. She began her career in 1994 after receiving a BFA in Photography from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Other formal training includes Parsons School of Design, NYC; Pratt Institute, NYC; International Center for Photography (ICP), NYC; Walnut Hill School for the Arts and Wesleyan University Summer Arts & Dance Program. https://www.sharynpeavey.com

Jefferson Navicky is the author of four books, most recently the novel-in-prose-poems, Head of Island Beautification for the Rural Outlands (2023), as well as Antique Densities: Modern Parables & Other Experiments in Short Prose (2021), which won the 2022 Maine Literary Award for Poetry. He is the archivist for the Maine Women Writers Collection.  https://www.jeffersonnavicky.com