POSTSECRET’S FRANK WARREN TO APPEAR AT HCC SEPT. 10
Has International Following
PostSecret Exhibit on Display at Housatonic Museum of Art
For More Information, contact Robbin Zella at 203-332-5052 or
Maureen Dowdle at 203-332-5058
BRIDGEPORT— Frank Warren, creator of the PostSecret exhibit now on display at the Housatonic Museum of Art, will appear at Housatonic Community College Thursday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. in the Events Center in Beacon Hall.
Warren, the businessman who took the art world by storm with the exhibit, will speak and conduct a book signing. Warren, who has authored four PostSecret books that have made the New York Times best seller list, has built an international following. Fans from as far away as Slovenia are planning to attend his talk.
The exhibit, which has traveled the country since opening in Washington, D.C. in 2004, consists of anonymous postcards, many of them handmade, on which people have written their innermost secrets. Warren has culled some 400 postcards from the more than 250,000 he’s received for the exhibit.
“Warren’s exhibit taps into the universal stuff of being human, - the collective level of existence that defies age, culture, gender, and economics,” said Robbin Zella, director of the college’s Housatonic Museum of Art. “The cards reveal our deepest fears, desires, regrets, and obsessions.”
The cards, carefully and creatively constructed by hand, are made from cardboard, old photographs, wedding invitations and other personal items artfully decorated. They have been sent to Warren from all over the world.
“The exhibit brilliantly reveals that human emotion can be unique and universal at the same time,” Zella said. “The secrets in the cards are provocative and profound, and the cards themselves are works of art.”
Warren is a small business owner who started PostSecret.com as a community art project. The website won two Webby Awards in 2006 and this year was named Weblog of the Year.
Warren, an Arizona native now living in Maryland, began the project in 2003, handing out 3,000 postcards to strangers, asking them to write down their secrets anonymously, and return the cards to him. He requested that the secrets be true and things that hadn’t been shared with anyone else.
After the first exhibit, word of the project spread and these “artful secrets” began arriving from every continent. They continue to arrive at the rate of 1,000 per week.
Warren, who is author of four successful PostSecret books, has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, 20/20, CNN, MSNBC, CBC, NPR and Fox News says, “I have been asked many times why I started this. It still feels to me as though this project found me. All I try to do is make the right decisions every day to protect the integrity of the project – and learn to trust the journey.”
Admission to the talk is $15, payable to the Housatonic Community College Foundation. Reservations, which are strongly encouraged, can be made by calling all Robbin Zella at 203-332-5052
The college and museum are located on the campus of Housatonic Community College, 900 Lafayette Blvd, Bridgeport, less than 150 yards off I-95 (Exit 27) and Rte. 8 (Exit 1) in downtown Bridgeport, a block from the Arena at Harbor Yard. Free event parking is available in the HCC garage.