Unbelievable. More to come... when I find the words.

Thank you.

Thank you for all who have pledged thus far! The clock is ticking and my anticipation is mounting every minute! The pledge period ends Friday at 11:59 pm eastern. At that point, the fate of the Folk Architecture Tour will be known.

To help me (and you!) get through these next couple nerve-filled days, I have created a motivational YouTube video compilation. Please feel free to join me in song and dance to the style of inspiration. INSPIRATION!

Navigate to the playlist here: ~ Motivational ~ Inspirational ~ Appreciative ~

Fingers crossed,
Delaney

Last Thursday I attended an event celebrating the success of the New York Makes a Book Kickstarter project. It was exciting observing each participant enter the room and receive their copy of the book they helped create. Each person’s page number was displayed on their name tag, and as people meandered through the bar, it was interesting to watch everyone flip open their books to view each others contributions. All of the present participants seemed very pleased... the necessary funding had been raised, an interesting book produced, and new obscure collaborative formed. I would declare the experiment a success!

I briefly spoke to Yancey Strickler (a Kickstarter’s founder and one of the New York Makes a Book project owners) about my project, the Folk Arch Tour’s progression. He asked how it felt to receive each new backer notification email and my immediate response was “amazing”. To elaborate, every time I see a new backer alert in my inbox, I am humbled by the generosity of others willing to support my goal to document, promote and protect a small slice of Americana. I believe it may be kin to winning the lottery.

Today, I am standing proud and steady with 45% of funding pledged and I wanted to once again thank each and every one of my backers. I also want to take a moment to remind everyone that not a single dime will be collected unless all $5,000 are pledged by October 16, 2009. With 25 more days to promote, I am reaching out for your support in passing my project idea on to others who may be interested in helping the underdogs of American vernacular architecture.

While doing my homework for the Folk Arch Tour, I found the very last paragraph in Dell Upton’s Architecture in the United States quite inspiring...
As it has been defined in American architecture, to be an artist is to impose a vision, to subject others to individual genius or inspiration. Art-architecture is the quintessential gesture of consumer culture, a commodity made for a passive customer. But the landscape is too important a stage for human symbolic action and lay people are too jealous of their own prerogatives to sacrifice them to such a narrow and self-serving agenda. This account of architecture in the Unites States opened with an eighteenth-century folk house and closes with a giant artichoke. They can serve as intimations of the variety and range of human landscape in the United States, reminders that it cannot be explained by a single theory, accounted for by a single history, or controlled by a single profession or a single vision. It is our common property and we are the better for that.

photo source: flickr.com/photos/brenbot

up and running!

Follow me at: http://twitter.com/FolkArchTour

Another milestone reached! 20% funding has been pledged! Thank you to all of my supporters, again, words cannot express the joy that fills my every pore as I receive each new backer email notification. Along with continuing to fundraise, I have been spending time reading up on folk art and architecture, googie architecture, roadside attractions and on and on. I started a reference document that can be viewed here. If you have further suggestions; books, articles, websites, please share.

I also made a little video to further share my ideas through the magic world of moving images. I will admit, it is not the highest quality of videos, and I am –by far- no movie maker. Perhaps PowerPoint is not the correct forum to utilize for this medium? Regardless, it adds a slight amount of pizzazz to my Folk Architecture Tour homepage, bling of the Bedazzler level quality. Thank you Creative Commons, Poladroid, and Big Mama Thornton , for “Bring It On Home”.

Thank you!

I am lacking more poetic words at the moment to justly describe the gratitude I am feeling towards all of my supporters. It is amazing to have reached 10% of my funding goal within the first 5 days. Thank all of you who have pledged, who have sent new site suggestions, and who have passed my project idea and funding pleas on; reposting on facebook or forwarding emails. My excitement has grown with every bit of encouragement. I'm planning and fundraising for the project everyday, and knowing that I have an ever-growing gaggle of supporters makes the work effortless.

Hooray!