Mudlarking: Letort Stories
2024
A mudlarking excursion and companion exhibits organized by the CALC Collaborative in collaboration with visiting artist Mia Cinelli, whose exhibit "Working Backwards" imagined the next 100 years of discarded objects and ephemera. Found objects from Letort Creek were displayed at Cumberland County Historical Society and Bosler Memorial Library.
A “mudlark” is someone who scavenges in riverbanks for objects of value. Historically, this refers to people who searched the Thames River foreshore in London, England, where one now needs a permit to go mudlarking. Today, anyone anywhere can go mudlarking in effort to collect distinct discarded objects.
On June 29, 2024, Carlisle residents gathered at Letort park for a community mudlarking expedition and creek clean-up. Over the course of a few hours, trash and recyclables were pulled from the river and its banks – found items were properly disposed of or carefully sorted and catalogued. What remained was a curated collection of unique objects classified into distinct categories: food and drink, play and recreation, and tools and technology. What can these recovered artifacts tell us about who we are and what we value?
Messages from the Future
As part of the Summer 2024 CONNECT program, students worked with Visiting Artist Mia Cinelli to make ephemera from the future. In a two-day artist-led workshop, students created alternative timelines using ideas from the “futures cone,” and then brainstormed their own ephemera from the future. Their creations took the form of stickers, posters, and postcards, and all of their projects are included in this collection pack.