Map Your Memories, Art Project Asks Strangers to Personalize a Blank Map of Their Locale

Back in 2009, New Yorker Rebecca Cooper launched “Map Your Memories,” a collaborative art project that asked New Yorkers of all stripes to fill in a blank map of Manhattan with their own personal map. To start the project, Cooper walked the length of Manhattan handing out self-addressed maps to 1,000 strangers. Shortly thereafter she began receiving the maps by return mail, some elaborately illustrated by children, others filled with personal notes by older New Yorkers. She has since expanded the project to Boston’s Harvard Square, and hopes to distribute maps in Paris and Berlin as well. A selection of Manhattan maps, including some commissioned from notable New Yorkers, will be featured in her upcoming book, Mapping Manhattan. For more on the project, see this New York Times article.