Some thoughts on public art and the community

It would be wonderful to approach the town of Ching Shui and a native Taiwanese papermaker from the area to teach local people how to make paper from the plants native to their region. In Taichung, there are plans in place to finish building the first national children's museum dedicated wholly to children. Here's the new idea - while I continue working on my own family memoir project - while the stories certainly speak to children, family, and the notion of filial piety/devotion - it is still my project. To bring the project more into the community and to really push the interactive component - I am picturing that perhaps the local children (in the museum, in Ching Shui) could be taught how to make their own ox-plow books as scrapbooks/notebooks within which they can document their own favorite family stories/tales of Ching Shui. Further, several children/community members could collaborate on the making of one 16-panel ox-plow book, thus reflecting a diversity of experience and the community and many different types of stories. Further - if this project's outgrowth became more of a public art type of experience - the ox-plow books could be exhibited in community settings AND if they wanted to digitally reproduce this work, i.e. in a public place, in lieu of a wall mural, as a wall mural - these tile-like/patchwork panels could be illustrative of the town collective, deeply personal oral histories capturing the spirit of a place. The historical society and archives could get involved by contributing photographs of past eras to the project, etc. Ahhhhhh!