Sabrina Valdes

When people connect with one another through shared experiences, they often find that they have much in common. We all, to varying degrees, experience love and loss, joy and fear, and the universality of these experiences grounds us and provides a sense of stability. It can be argued, though, that a vast portion of our society’s population is either struggling to connect with others as a result of the pandemic or striving to make their connections with others more meaningful. In the past, community art projects have promoted connection between participants. Serving as both an exhibition space and a growing database, the Archive of Shared Experiences uses various kinds of storytelling—written, auditory, and visual—to shed light on and foster human connection.