Westcott House key to online Frank Lloyd Wright event

The Westcott House has presented PechaKucha sessions several times a year for the last decade in which people share information and slides in a short format. The Westcott House will co-present an online PechaKucha event to celebrate Frank Lloyd Wright’s 153rd birthday on Monday. Contributed photo

The Westcott House has presented PechaKucha sessions several times a year for the last decade in which people share information and slides in a short format. The Westcott House will co-present an online PechaKucha event to celebrate Frank Lloyd Wright’s 153rd birthday on Monday. Contributed photo

Springfield’s Westcott House will be featured along with other U.S. sights and one international location that celebrated architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed during a live online global event on Monday, June 8 to honor Wright’s 153rd birthday.

“Wright Sites x PechaKucha” will have presentations from curators at the various locations with representatives presenting in PechaKucha style, where they’ll show 20 image-based slides and have 400 total seconds to give their address.

The event is free and will begin at 9 p.m. and is presented by the Westcott House Foundation, Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and national Wright sights in conjunction with PechaKucha.

For Marta Wojcik, executive director and curator of the Westcott House, who will present with her husband, historian Kevin Rose, it’s a chance to learn about these unique structures in one event as all the representatives will be together virtually.

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“We couldn’t do it all from one place, so this is actually ideal to connect on Zoom,” she said.

The storytelling platform PechaKucha, which is Japanese for chitchat, is a unique format used in 140 countries. It has been described as the show and tell you’ve always dreamed of, simple and engaging.

The Wescott House has hosted community PechaKucha nights about four times a year for a decade at various locations around the city.

“It brings awareness around the globe, I was surprised at it,” said Wojcik. “People love it with its short presentation on diverse topics.”

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While the social setting is the preferred format for PechaKucha, the current reality from the recent coronavirus pandemic has meant more online and streaming. While limiting in one way, Wojcik also sees this as a way to increase awareness on a wider scale, including bringing in a couple who will do their presentation from Japan, where Wright also left his mark.

There will be 13 presenters, including a photographer committed to photographing Wright structures; a man who was a student who spent time at the Westcott House and other Wright locations whose experience influenced his architecture career; and the co-founder of PechaKucha.

While Wojcik looks forward to restarting local PechaKucha presentations, having this option could be the start of something different.

“Everyone can tune into this, it opens up new possibilities to share,” she said.

Details to gain access to the live event are at www.westcotthouse.org. The presentation will also be available roughly 24 hours after the live event.

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