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We have an opening tonight! Come see some incredible photography work by UCF Daytona Advanced Editorial Photography students as part of the Maintaining Paradise project. Students took photos and conducted interviews with people working to maintain paradise for others.

Opening: 5:00-7:00pm

Gallery 202 at UCF Daytona, located on the second floor of the Photography building (#530).

1200 W. International Speedway Blvd. Daytona Beach, FL 32114

A few installation shots from the November exhibition at Harris House. Throughout the month of October, we worked closely with Tina Curry’s photography students at New Smyrna Beach High School. The students contributed o the Maintaining Paradise project by photographing and interviewing people working to maintain the area as a destination for others. Really great work! Our project, education model, and exhibition design was inspired by the long running Foxfire publication.

An few installation shots from the October exhibition at Harris House.

We were blown away by UCF Daytona photography students’ work during critiques last week! High quality work! Can’t wait for the Maintaining Paradise photo exhibitions in later November/early December!

We selected snippets from some of our interviews and commissioned custom airbrushed t-shirts. We chose their most popular designs as the backdrop.

We were interviewed by the folks at Hometown News!

NEW SMYRNA BEACH – For those who live in a seaside town, have you ever wondered what it takes to maintain this "paradise" for others? That's what the Community Artists in Residence and serial collaborators Erin Charpentier and Travis Neel are investigating as part of the Community Artists in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach titled ‘Maintaining Paradise.’In its third year of supporting this type of project, Ren Morrison, director of Community Programs at ACA, said, "we believe it engages and benefits the local community and offers a different perspective.""We researched New Smyrna online and consistently came across the word ‘paradise’ but had never been here," Neel said.So, Charpentier and Neel drove here from Portland, Oregon, in August and for the next four months, they will reside at the Harris House."Our goal is to talk with and interview people who work in a variety of occupations such as life guards, palm tree trimmers, rental unit cleaners, golf course workers, retail and healthcare providers (not business owners) about their experiences from an employee perspective," Neel said."We're heading to the beach every day, watching the dolphin and manatee in the river, taking hikes to Turtle Mound and in the Doris Leper Preserve, and even witnessed a shark-feeding frenzy north of Sapphire Beach," Charpentier said, noting they are learning about the area from a vistor's perspecitve.Soaking up the atmosphere provides this team with an insight to ask questions when they talk to those working to make this a positive experience for visitors and short-term residents. The interviews should take between 20-45 minutes and will be conducted on site or at the Harris House. They encourage people to, "find us on the beach, give us a call (386-410-3745) or send us an email at [email protected]."Culminating in a number of exhibitions and the creation of a small publication by the end of December, Morrison said, "We're particularly excited about Erin and Travis’s project because, among the many things it does, it will offer a different perspective on this “paradise” we live in and will also serve as a form of time capsule that will archive a slice history that is so rarely recorded."

Daytona Beach News Journal wrote an article about our project!

We’ve been having lots of meetings and doing lots of outreach in the past week or so. Our UCF photo student collaborators have begun their assignment to interview and photograph workers who maintains paradise. We also began interviewing folks this week! Also, look out for a little story on the project in the Our Town section of the Daytona Beach News Journal.

On Tuesday September 8th, we visited UCF professors Steve Spencer and Patricia Lois Nuss’ senior editorial photography class. Students will be collaborating with us on Maintaining Paradise. Each student will conduct a short interview and take a series of environmental portraits of people working to maintain paradise. We’re so excited about this collaboration!

What better way to spend Labor day than with union folks? We spent monday doing outreach about our project with AFL-CIO organizers and members at their Labor Day picnic in Daytona.

We’ve been really busy the past couple of days! Our opening reception on Saturday went really well. We met lots of people and had lots of great conversation. We’re still trying to get the word out about the project and locate people interested talking with us about what they do and how they feel about it. You can reach us at [email protected] with any leads!

Call for participation! Do you or someone you know work in maintenance, landscaping, food service, retail, or hospitality? We’re interested in speaking to people whose job is it to construct or maintain New Smyrna Beach as a destination for others. Please contact us if you’d like to talk about what you do all day and how you feel about it. These short interviews are casual, no experience is necessary!

We are gearing up for our first opening as Community Artists in Residence. We’ve crafted an exhibition of past projects and current research for our project Maintaining Paradise. Please stop by the Harris House Saturday September 5th from 4-7pm.

We spent quite a bit of time at the New Smyrna Museum of History archives. We found a lot of vintage promotional brochures. Like this, Paradise Beach Homes!

We’ve been experiencing New Smyrna Beach as tourists for the past week. Working on our tans at the beach and visiting souvenir shops. We would definitely like to interview someone that works at a place like this for Maintaining Paradise.

Fisherman’s Paradise!

More archival material from the Museum. Publication design inspiration--Great wave inspired line breaks!

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