The Story ProjectEvery Object Holds a Story
Objects hold stories. They offer us the ability to recall our most important memories and reconnect to a specific time and place. That idea sits at the heart of The Story Project, a community storytelling platform Few designed and built for the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts.
Launched alongside the exhibition Whitfield Lovell: Passages, The Story Project invites Arkansans to share their life's moments through the objects that define their personal history — a grandmother's recipe book, a worn pocket watch, a chipped Beatles record. The platform extends the themes of Lovell's work beyond the gallery walls and gives the community a place in the Museum's story.
Strategy
Whitfield Lovell's work pairs portraits with found objects, exploring how everyday things carry memory and meaning. AMFA wanted a digital companion that did the same thing — but with the community as the artist.
The strategy centered on participation. Rather than building another exhibition microsite, Few designed The Story Project as a living archive: a simple submission flow on the front end, an easy moderation workflow for museum staff on the back, and a browsable collection that grows with every story. The barrier to entry had to be low — a photo, a memory, a name (or anonymity, if preferred) — so the platform could reflect the full breadth of the community AMFA serves.
Web Design
The design puts the objects first. A clean, gallery-style grid presents each submission as its own small exhibit — photo forward, with the storyteller's name and hometown as the caption. Category filters like Heirlooms, Food & Recipes, Music, and Travel let visitors wander the collection the same way they'd wander a gallery.
Individual story pages keep the focus on the narrative, pairing each photograph with the memory behind it. The visual language stays consistent with AMFA's brand system — calm, restrained, and warm — so the platform feels like a natural extension of the Museum rather than a standalone campaign.
Feature
Story Submission
A simple, welcoming submission flow invites anyone to contribute. Participants upload a photo of their object, write their memory, and choose whether to share their name or remain anonymous. The process was designed to feel personal, not transactional.
Feature
Browsable Archive
Stories are organized by category and presented in a responsive grid that works as well on a phone in the gallery as it does on a desktop at home. Each story links to its own dedicated page, giving every contribution room to breathe.
Results
The Story Project filled quickly with submissions from across Arkansas and beyond — pearl earrings, prayer beads, a stuffed orangutan, handwritten recipes, family photographs. What started as an exhibition companion became a portrait of a community, told one object at a time. It's the kind of project that captures what AMFA's transformation is all about: a museum that doesn't just display stories, but collects them from the people it serves.
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