St. Petersburg Arts Alliance, local history and altered books

Thanks to a grant from the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance, Rose Marie Prins  will hold three workshops — one at Carter G. Woodson African American Museum, another at the St Petersburg Museum of History and a third at Creative Clay Cultural Arts Center — and at the end of those three workshops, she'll tell the stories she's learned through books. Not books that she, or the workshop participants, have written, but altered books, a kind of art.

The books will represent autobiographies from three generations of St. Pete residents. Prins told SPAA her goal was to have the books "represent, interpret and preserve St. Petersburg's history and to engage a broad and diverse audience through these activities."

And, of course, when people see these books, they'll learn about the city's history — as viewed through the lens of the workshop participants who created the books. 

This article appears in May 10-17, 2018.