The Homemade Exchange, a socially engaged craft project, will be hosting a community book release and celebration is set for 6-8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 28, at The Harlow, 100 Water St. in Hallowell.

Over the past year, with support from the Kindling Fund, Juliette Walker, a ceramic artist, and Devin Shepherd, a writer, have traveled to communities around Maine to talk to people about what home means to them. Walker’s ceramic mugs made from a coastal Maine clay deposit at the nearby ceramic residency center, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, were traded for these stories about home.

Participants in this project were invited to provide audio narratives and/or written reflections or drawings about home. Together, the transcriptions, words and images gathered from all over Maine have been crafted into a book that is meant to be an invitation to readers to reflect upon and share their own story about home in Maine.

This event marks the release of The Homemade Exchange book and provides an opportunity for attendees to share stories or simply enjoy a warm drink, homemade treats and community. Hallowell is Shepherd’s hometown and given the recent construction and re-homing of The Harlow, this seemed the perfect locale to host this event.

The book will be available at the event, all proceeds will benefit The Harlow and SPACE gallery. Copies also are will be sent to libraries across the state and will be available digitally to make these stories accessible to Mainers everywhere.

Support for The Homemade Exchange is provided by The Kindling Fund, a grant program administered by SPACE gallery as a part of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Regional Regranting Network.

For more information about the Homemade Exchange project, visit thehomemadeexchange.com.

For more information, visit harlowgallery.org or call 622-3813.

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