09/19/2026
Pittsburg Arts Council + ArtWalk is TODAY! Come see us at 202 W. 4th St., just a block west of TOAST. Here's a little blog about what we have in store for you.
Making Memories Last
Ticket stubs, boarding passes, post cards, postage stamps, notes, advertisements, newspaper articles—the minor documents that clutter everyday life--all of these things are meant to be temporary, fleeting in a moment. But, kept in an intentional way, they become history, memory.
Such items are called ephemera. Some of them are highly collectible, and others will have meaning to only a few. Angel recently inherited a stack of old documents from her grandmother, ranging from bank books and driver’s licenses to Valentine’s cards, and she’s been enjoying going through scrapbooks. Our display at the gallery through October will showcase some of her treasures, as well as some vintage books and prints from my collection from my own grandmother and artwork inspired by both.
We can help you find a way to showcase your own collection, whether binding it into a book for the first time or repairing a book you already have. Cookbooks, family memoirs, and children’s books are some of our most popular items, along with Bibles. I am currently working on a cookbook for my stepson James, which will include recipes from his mother and father as well as the original text. And Angel is rebinding a household management book from the 1880s that she found in the attic. She’s also looking forward to restoring her mother’s favorite cookbook. Her favorite memories are cooking with family—and there is nothing more ephemeral than Sunday dinner.
The best ephemera comes from your own history. If you search for ephemera on the Internet, you’ll most likely come up with digital reproductions. They’re great for scrapbooking—we use them ourselves. But they don’t have the emotional resonance of the real thing—the ticket stub your grandmother saved from her first movie date, or the menu from your sister’s wedding, or a scrapbook kept by someone you didn’t know, but feel connected to anyway.
Our opening event will be ArtWalk, this Saturday (Sept. 19), from 3-9. Come in to see what we have to show, to sell, and to savor. Tell us a story about your heritage and see if we can help you preserve it. Or pick up a piece of artwork that tells a new story you find inspiring.
On our recent trip to Ireland, we heard old tales and new; we took a boat across the Kenmare Harbor to Beara Peninsula for lunch at Helen’s pub and discovered that it was the ancient homeland of the Sullivans—until the British wiped them out in 1602. That’s part of the Irish story—we thrive, we’re wiped out, we start over. We’re ephemera. We’re a scrapbook of the immigrant story from one of many perspectives, and our memories help make up America.
From our trip, we brought back poems, prints, shells, stones, and other bits and pieces—even some sheep’s wool. We didn’t save our boarding passes, but we saved a bookmark from the Di**le Book Shop, which features Irish writers in English and Gaelic. We saved stickers and business cards and T-shirts. And we saved memoires and stories and songs we heard in pubs. We get to spend the next year turning these bits and pieces into art, from ephemera to memory. Just the way we like it.
For more information about the history of ephemera, visit Ephemera - Wikipedia. And then come visit us!
