By Kate Domenichella
Anna Schuleit Haber is a visual artist collaborating with the Fitchburg Museum of Art and the Sentinel and Enterprise newspaper this summer. She is looking for pieces about Leominster and Fitchburg and its people, history, and events to be featured on the Sentinel and Enterprise for The Alphabet Project.
The Alphabet Project is being supported by the National Endowment for Artswill Our Town Grant, which supports creative placemaking projects that will help in transforming communities into beautiful places with arts at their core. This grant funds local efforts to enhance the quality of life and opportunity for existing residents, create a sense of place, and increase the creative activity in the society. Want to learn more about grants from NEA? Visit their website.
Why is the alphabet the base of Haber’s project? Haber answers that question in her artist statement on the Fitchburg Art Museum website, “The alphabet, in the most general sense, is nothing less than our most ubiquitous means of record-talking, of concrete and abstract thinking, of telling and sharing. The alphabet is the miracle of written language: a series of moveable, flexible marks that contain the entire universe, the foundation of all civic experience. Without the alphabet, our cities would be mute and our societies could not engage in self-definition, reflection, and change… I propose to use the alphabet therefore as a natural and emotionally neutral parameter to celebrate the newspaper, the tradition of printing and typography, the uniqueness of Fitchburg and Leominster, and the variety and breadth of local storytelling, by creating a series of 26 daily chapters.”
The Alphabet Project began in late March by finding interns and searching for quality content. Haber is working with a group of talented interns from Fitchburg State and surrounding schools, along with Elise Takehana, an assistant professor at Fitchburg State University to create the consecutive 26 day front page spread from July 13 to August 11. The interns will be working as designers, reporters, and assistants.
Although the writing interns are contributing their own stories about the Fitchburg and Leominster area, Haber would also like outside submissions. Is there anything fascinating or strange that you want to share about your town? Do you have stories about the buildings you love, the streets you walk or ride every day, or stores and restaurants you want to feature? This is your chance to become involved in a great project and have your name featured in the Sentinel and Enterprise. The content can be in any form– poetry, fiction, interest pieces, drawings, etc.
If you live in the Fitchburg/Leominster area, be sure to keep an eye out July 13 through August 11 to see The Alphabet Project. The prints will be put on exhibition in the Fitchburg Art Museum. 
Interested in sending in submissions to The Alphabet Project? Contact Fitchburg Art Museum Director of Marketing and Community Relations Eugene Finney at [email protected]. 
Want more information on The Alphabet Project? Click here. 
Curious to learn more about Anna Schuleit Haber? Visit her personal website.