Summary
Morgan O'Hara is a visual artist based in New York City. In January 2017, a time of stark political change in the United States, O'Hara felt the need to do something connected to her art practice which also addressed her political concerns and offered a sense of empowerment and encouragement to the community. Her practice of hand copying the Constitution of the United States - a document that is meant to protect the basic human rights of all American people - provided focus. Through hand copying, the writer absorbs information experientially, making room for reflection, new realizations, and an embodied understanding of the text. When done as a community, a sense of collaboration surfaces and nourishes.
HANDWRITING THE CONSTITUTION is not about learning by rote, but participation through writing. It is not about efficiency, but about taking time to contemplate meaning through the simple act of handwriting. As the writing flows, each person's gestures and choices give new form to the text, aligning the project with an art practice. It is also a social practice, a gathering in a public place for a collective effort. This project exists so people can know their rights, and resist negative thinking.
This project is not only intended for people in the United States. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was hand copied in an O'Hara exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan in April and May of 2017, and she will hand write The Magna Carta in Dublin, Ireland in 2018. It is the intention of this project to involve as many people as possible to discover and handwrite documents that protect the basic human rights of all people.
What We Need & What You Get
We are looking to fundraise $30,000 for:
- rental of space in which to work
- website hosting
- designer's work on the website www.handwritingtheconstitution.com
- website maintenance
- documentation of handwriting sessions (photo and video)
- outreach, daily correspondence, and collecting feedback from collaborators
- generation of national and international visibility, including writing press releases, interviews, and social media
Up to this point, we have volunteered time and skills, such as video and photo documentation, the design of invitations to handwriting sessions, gathering materials for sessions, researching human rights documents, and organizing handwriting sessions. We'd like to continue these efforts in order to bring this project to as many people as possible and, of course, the rent must be paid.
If we do not reach our entire goal, we will continue to the best of our ability. At its most basic, a handwriting session is simple and inexpensive: a few copies of the document being handwritten, paper, pens, and a group of people who decide to give their time to experience an important document. The time consuming aspect of the project is administrative.
Perks
$25 Donor name listed on website
$50 Handwritten personalized thank you from O’Hara and the New York HANDWRITERS plus donor name listed on website
$100 Set of 5 different WE THE PEOPLE postcards plus donor name listed on website
$250 Have your name added to a document WE THE PEOPLE HANDWRITING THE CONSTITUTION done in the calligraphic style of the U.S. Constitution by O’Hara and posted on the website
$1000 Dinner in New York with two members of the HANDWRITING THE CONSTITUTION team
$2500 A member of the HANDWRITING THE CONSTITUTION team will go to your town and organize a handwriting session in your place of choice
$5000 Morgan will go to your town, give a lecture on the project, and organize a handwriting session in your place of choice
$30,000 Own a complete original handwritten copy of the Constitution done by Morgan O'Hara, approximately 10 handwritten pages on handmade paper.
The Impact
The process of HANDWRITING THE CONSTITUTION is transformative. It generates calm in the face of a daily bombardment from the news channels and social media. Clarity and peace of mind are essential to rational thought and decisive action and this process has been very useful in this regard. If you look at the website we created www.handwritingtheconstitution.com under COLLABORATOR STATEMENTS you will get an idea of the impact the process has had on other individuals. What kind of impact will it have on you? There is only one way to find out.
Risks & Challenges
The biggest risk or obstacle is that the project will diminish in scope rather than grow, simply because of limited resources for covering rent and professional services. Eventually it could turn back into one person at a table HANDWRITING THE CONSTITUTION as a solo activity. That wouldn't be bad, but it would be much better if the process and inspiration the practice generates would spread and more people would participate. The more cognizant we are of our rights as citizens, the more prepared we will be to recognize and act if these rights are threatened. If many of us are aware, the atmosphere can only improve.
We did not anticipate that putting HANDWRITING THE CONSTITUTION together would create such national enthusiasm. It was recently featured in the New York Times, the Primo Levi Institute, Art Net, and The New York Observer. Letters and emails arrive daily describing collaborators initiating their own handwriting sessions across the country. It is of course, wonderful that the idea generates interest and a desire to participate, but the time it takes to manage all of this and to make it grow is considerable. It has become a full time commitment and we still need to pay living expenses, rent, and professional services to keep it going.
Other Ways You Can Help
1. Organize a HANDWRITING THE CONSTITUTION session in your town and send a few good images to handwritingtheconstitution@gmail.com
2. Write a few paragraphs about your take on the value of HANDWRITING THE CONSTITUTION
3. Get your local newspaper to post an article about the project
4. Use Indiegogo tools to promote the project
Thank you for becoming a part of the project and considering a donation.
- Morgan O'Hara and the Constitution Handwriters