What do an Alaskan fishing village, an Alternatives Federal Credit Union in Ithaca, N.Y. and a western North Carolina town have in common?
All are sources of grassroots activism-and as such, they are all part of "Indivisible: Stories of American Community," the Center for Documentary Studies' latest and largest project.
"Indivisible" explores the spirits of 12 American communities through a unique combination of visual and oral documentary.
The $2.4 million project is not just a photo exhibit-it consists of a touring museum exhibition, a major trade book, traveling exhibits that will give out free postcards and a website (www.indivisible.org).
"One of our missions was to get this project out to as many people as possible, not to do just an elite museum exhibition," said Elana Hadler, "Indivisible" project coordinator.
"Indivisible" is a joint project between the CDS and the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography, and is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
The Handmade in America Small Town Revitalization project in North Carolina, a subject of the exhibit, was explored by Jeff Whetstone, Trinity '90.
"The theme is grassroots community action involving everyday citizens, people who are living the issues that they are dealing with," said Trudy Wilner Stack, curator of exhibitions and collections at the CCP and co-project director. "They identify the situations and problems and conceive solutions and activities to better the place they live."
By sending a photographer and interviewer to every community, "Indivisible" aims to capture the real picture of grassroots democracy at work in America.
"Usually I produce documentaries where I take the tape and edit the material," said Dan Collison, one of the interviewers. "But this was straight oral history. The main goal was to get people to tell the story of their involvement."
Collison went to Chicago for three weeks and spoke with at least three dozen people in the community.
"We would communicate-if I got a good story, I would make sure that [Dawoud Bey, the Chicago photographer] got a picture," Collison said. "The pictures captured a part of the essence of the person, and paired with their story, in text or better yet, hearing their voice on the CD, adds another dimension."
Tom Rankin, executive director of CDS and co-director of "Indivisible," said the interviewers and photographers "take the pulse of the community" and reflect on what happens there.
"The hope is that 'Indivisible' will instill in people a certain respect for grassroots activism that occurs in communities and challenge the notion that nobody does anything to improve their place," Rankin said.
The idea for the project originated in 1998 at Pew, which then contacted Wilner Stack at the Center for Creative Photography.
Stack brought in CDS, which was then awarded a $2.4 million grant from Pew to start the project in the beginning of 1999.
"I advised Pew to broaden the scope to not only photographs but also to include oral history," Stack said. "CDS had established programs-they already had that marriage. We brought in CDS because of the history of their work."
Although the University of Arizona was involved with the project before Duke, Pew awarded the grant to CDS, and most of the work was done there, with the CCP as a partner.
"Pew Trust was looking for an interdisciplinary center that had experience with both photography and oral history, publishing and exhibits," Rankin said. "'Indivisible' is the biggest project the center has ever done."
The project, which began in 1999 and will conclude in 2002, kicked off its first exhibition Oct. 6 at the Terra Museum of Art in Chicago. The exhibit will show at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh Oct. 21, 2001 through Jan. 6, 2002.
"I don't think anyone's ever done a program like this," Hadler said. "All parts of the project have an incredibly strong audio component, we combine photographs with oral history with broadcast quality audio."
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