Thu, 15 Apr 2010 04:00:00 -0400
window-stories

Starbux

Starbucks would love to hear your thoughts. That’s what the customer comment card says. And Christine Ferrera ’10, M.F.A. imaging and digital arts, took them up on their offer.

“I asked myself: ‘what would I naturally say to a friend?’ and began writing,” she said.

Fast forward five years, and you’ll find nearly 2,000 letters from Ferrera to Starbucks – one for every day of every year, ranging from fun and quirky to highly sensitive. In one, she asks, “Has anyone ever fallen in love at Starbucks?” In another, she discusses her pride in buying a new couch. In many she writes about the daily struggles of being an artist.

The project spurred when Ferrera was living in Richmond and taking classes at Virginia Commonwealth University. She was enrolled in an endurance art class and had to undertake a project for one year. The class was asked to do something out of their element, and since Ferrera was a painter, she chose writing.

“I never placed rules for what I’d write. The only loose rule I had was that this wasn’t going to be some kind of political statement,” she said. “After the year was over, I just started doing it out of habit.”

Within a month, Ferrera started receiving generic replies from Starbucks. Some enclosed coupons. But after six, they stopped sending them. Time went on, Ferrera kept writing and would hear from Starbucks sporadically. They would respond to many of her questions related to the business (saying yes – that some people had fallen in love at the coffee shop). But mostly, the replies were short.

After two years of writing, Ferrera moved to Korea. It was the only time she had to pay for postage. She didn’t hear from them that year, assuming they had lost her address. But when she returned to the states, a surprise was waiting her: a personal letter from a customer service representative at Starbucks, addressing her by name.

“The letter was so direct, so confrontational,” she said. “But it was nice and obvious that she had something to say to me. She had been reading my letters for years and had been touched by them.”

Although Ferrera was appreciative of the reply, part of the cycle was broken.

“Before, the project served as a diary for me, and it was almost like no one was reading,” she said. “This letter assured me that someone had been reading, that my words were out there.”

But that didn’t stop Ferrera. Her daily routine persisted, and she found herself continuing to write – despite knowing that someone was actually reading. Although she doesn’t want to be only recognized for her letters to Starbucks, she notes how important the project is in terms of today’s art.

“Starbucks – and other corporations – are part of our every day landscape. Artists need to react to the times in which they live,” she said. “There may be some kind of shift eventually, and maybe I’ll know when to stop writing the letters. But for now, it is part of my routine, and I’ll keep doing it until there’s a reason to stop.”

Ferrera has considered publishing her letters on a Web site or in a book and is currently weighing her options.

The Starbux diary project will be featured at the Imaging and Digital Arts M.F.A. Thesis Show, held April 8-24, at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture. Ferrera’s letters will be on display, and she will perform a reading of her letters on April 21, 10:30 a.m., and April 22, 3 p.m, both at CADVC. Work by six upcoming graduates will also be featured including videos, installations and live performances.

For more information about the show, click here.

Ferrera also did a reading of her letters at Baltimore’s Stoop Storytelling Series, an event that gathers seven storytellers who tell stories for seven minutes. Click here to listen.

Click on the thumbnails below to read a selection of Christine’s letters:

(4/2/10)