Kept Open
A book of letters for a retiring director
The ask
Our community music school's director is retiring. She started it in one rented room with two pianos. The board and faculty want to write to her by hand, and give her the letters in a form that lasts. Her old students write to her for years afterward, so leave space for theirs. About $1,500.
The gift
Each board member and teacher receives cotton writing paper, an archival pigment pen and a stamped return mailer. A hand bindery hinges every letter on its own paper guard, so nothing is trimmed or glued to the writing, and sews the guards into one cloth-bound volume. It rests in a cloth drop-spine box with a second well beside it, left empty for the letters that come later, unasked.
Why it's extraordinary
From the 1500s, friendship albums were sold blank and filled over decades. Musicians signed in notes: on October 15, 1747, Bach wrote a short canon into a theologian's album. Her teachers may answer in a few bars too.
The moment
The second well is empty on the day it is given. Former students write in their own time, and each letter goes in beside the book.
A curator replies within one business day.
