Tom Fasano

Here’s a wonderful public art project from Everett, Washington, that brings vintage manual typewriters out of collectors’ homes and onto the streets. This was from eleven years ago, but the ideas are fresh.

“Word on the Street” placed ten manual typewriters at locations around downtown Everett during the summer. Each typewriter table was custom painted by local artists celebrating literary themes—Maya Angelou, favorite books, childhood fairy tales. Passersby were invited to sit down and type responses to daily questions posed by the city’s librarians.

It’s a brilliant way to introduce a new generation to the tactile pleasure of hitting keys and hearing that bell ring when you reach the end of a line. Some responses were displayed in storefront windows; others shared on social media.

This is what happens when a community values both the literary arts and hands-on creative expression.