Small Town, Big Talk March 12 – May 28

Sat, Apr 10th @ 10:00am ZOOM Presentation

David M. Hunt Library & School Association 63 Main Street/ P O Box 217

The exhibition SMALL TOWN, BIG TALK is aimed at creating and strengthening relationships among the residents of the second-smallest town in the Nutmeg state. This civic art project will feature portrait photography by Rebecca Bloomfield, paired with insightful quotes from interviews conducted by Adam Sher. Supported by a grant from Bridging Divides, Healing Communities–a fund of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, the exhibition is free and open to the public during library operating hours and online at huntlibrary.org/art-wall. 

With the advent of ever-present social media, actual real-world

civic engagement among neighbors has diminished in every community and made

worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. Falls Village residents Rebecca

Bloomfield, Adam Sher, and Meg Sher were eager to re-engage their fellow

townsfolk and forge new friendships and understanding across social, racial,

and class divides. To move beyond small talk, a series of “big talk”

questions was developed to engage subjects’ world views and personal

philosophies. A public call for subjects was made and respondents were

scheduled for socially distanced outdoor photo and interview sessions.

Rebecca Bloomfield, the project’s photographer, found that she

was thinking a lot about vulnerability while the interviews were being conducted. “It’s

so rare that we get past small talk with our neighbors, and I think it’s rare

because it’s vulnerable to ask the questions in the first place, let alone open

up and answer them.”

Interviewer Adam Sher, an educator and community organizer, says,

“There is a lot of talk about unity these days, but even in small towns

unity is elusive, and perhaps impossible without experiencing our diversity of

thought and feeling.”

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