MAY 2026 EXHIBIT HAS ENDED
The Strangers Project
A traveling “living museum” of handwritten human stories arrives in Santa Barbara for the first time.
Friends of State Street is proud to bring The Strangers Project to Santa Barbara during the inaugural Literary Festival — celebrating the writer in all of us. Every story matters.
A Living Museum of the Human Experience
For the first time, we brought the Strangers Project is to Santa Barbara. Founded in 2009 by artist Brandon Doman, the project is a traveling storytelling experience that has collected more than 100,000 anonymous handwritten stories from strangers around the world.
Visitors were welcomed to step inside a space filled with real stories shared by everyday people, moments of joy, heartbreak, reflection, and hope, and experience these voices through reading and reflection.
Do you ever see a stranger and wonder...
“What’s it Like Being You?”
I’ve been asking that question for the past seventeen years and have received more than 100,000 hand-written, honest, and anonymous answers.
Whether about love or loss, joy or fear, what they all have in common is an honest voice of the human experience. These stories offer a brief glimpse into the intimacies of everyday lives, bridging meaningful connections between strangers.
We’re living in a time where the differences between us are magnified. I believe that what starts as a simple act of listening can be a profoundly transformative experience.
By exploring the lives of those we share our spaces with, we uncover how beautifully human we all are.
These stories invite strangers of all ages and backgrounds to reflect, rejoice, heal, and connect through words.
By creating a space for these stories, we open space to better understand each other—and ourselves.
Space to Share: A Storytelling Installation on State Street
Presented as part of Friends of State Street’s Space to Share initiative, where businesses consider the idea of sharing space. We reserved the Art & Soul Gallery front gallery space for The Strangers Project, as a temporary installation, creating a powerful space for reflection and connection.
The back Atelier Gallery space of Art & Soul was an immersive experience of suspended Sea of Tears, curated by artist Emily Carey.
