The question posed at the table is: “Was it religious persecution, famine, economics, love, war, slavery? Or perhaps your family is Native American and was always here.  Please share with us the story of your people and why they came to this land.”

The Owing to Circumstances Project is an ongoing dialog among audience members, artists, children and parents and organizations.  The core of Owing to Circumstances is a series of interactive installations in which audience members write about how and why their families, or their communities, came to be in the United States. Those stories are then reproduced in the original handwriting and honored by hanging the drawings in a series of installations, and projections. They form the basis of a dialog among the various participant communities. A visitor to one installation could see their own story represented and engage in an ongoing web dialog about why they and their families are here in the U.S.  Each installation may evolve and be unique to the participants involved.

This installation of The Owing to Circumstances Project was in 2017 at the Mezzanine Gallery of the Delaware State Building in downtown Wilmington.

Students from Lancashire Elementary, a public school in Wilmington, are contributing writing to The Owing to Circumstances Project. Students visited the artist’s studio, discussed the project and how they would contribute to it.

Owing to Circumstances press:

Delaware Today:http://www.delawaretoday.com/Delaware-Today/Calendar/index.php/name/Owing-to-Circumstances-by-Jennifer-Borders/event/22852//Owing-to-Circumstances-by-Jennifer-Borders/event/22852/