Muncie, Indiana's story is America's hometown story.
Muncie, Indiana has been a national bellwether for life in America's hometowns for 100 years through the Middletown Studies.
After all these years: In 2025, what is a good life in Muncie, Indiana?
The Facing Project (J.R. Jamison and Aimee Robertson-West) and the Center for Middletown Studies (Dr. Jennifer Erickson and Dr. Jim Connolly) and a growing list of community is working to produce a book of unvarnished first-person histories with the people of Muncie and working with an award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Rani Deigh Crowe, to produce a community-compilation documentary as a 100-year mile marker of the Middletown Studies.
'Facing Middletown' aims to capture how a city, personified by 66,000 people, stands in 2025; creating space to archive the honest lives of Muncie's people and places, one story at a time, through the book and documentary: 'Facing Middletown'.
Become a part of Muncie's history.
Share your story.
There are three big ways to participate in the book project and documentary 'Facing Middletown'
Go on the record
Show up to our community callout sessions throughout Muncie, participate in documentary interviews, ask and answer important unanswered to examine Muncie's footprint in 2025. Please sign an appearance release to give us permission to film or photograph you. Want to be interviewed? Please sign an actor release. Will you have minors under the age of 18 with you? Please sign a minor release. Thanks!
Become a writer or storyteller
Do you have something to say about life in Muncie? Tell Muncie's story by understanding and sharing someone else's.
Become a storyteller or writer using the Facing Project's empathy-building model.
After storyteller/writers have been paired in late summer, we will ask them to complete releases for their stories.
Become a Middletown Documenter
Uncover the stories hiding in plain sight: contribute your own video clips and photographs; ask questions and invite curiosity into your places and lives.
Before submitting any content, please sign our release. Are there minors under 18 years of age in your content? Please sign a minor release form. Thank you!
Consent to Participate in Facing Middletown
This is where our journey begins.
Facing Middletown: Consent to Participate
In order to ensure everyone involved in the Facing Middletown (Project) has the same understanding of how content will be used now and into the future, and to understand ownership of rights, The Facing Project, the Center for Middletown Studies, and its partners require participants to sign a release form for each part of the Project in which they are involved. Please carefully read the roles listed below, and click on the hyperlink to be taken to the
appropriate form(s).
Facing Middletown Event Photography and Audio/Visual Appearance Release
Consent to be photographed and/or filmed in connection with the Project. In addition, actors/participants involved in the public launch of Facing Middletown must sign this release.
Middletown Documenter Photographer, Artist, Videographer, Actor, and Content Producer Release
Consent to use materials provided by you to Facing Middletown, such as photos, video, original artwork, or other non-writing content that may appear in the documentary or book.
Facing Middletown Event and Middletown Documenter Minor Release
If a participant under the age of 18 attends filmed/photographed 'Facing Middletown' event or a Middletown Documenter's content contains minor images a parent or legal guardian MUST provide consent in addition to the completion of the above forms.
'Facing Middletown' Book Project
When the book phase begins in late summer 2025, and storytellers and writers are paired, both must complete the following releases.
Consent to use a story based on your lived experiences, written in
collaboration with an assigned writer, for the Facing Middletown book.
Consent to use a story written by you, in collaboration with an assigned
storyteller based on their lived experiences, for the Facing Middletown book.
Please contact us at facingmiddletown@facingproject.com with any questions.
Thank you for your participation!
Very truly yours,
The Facing Project and the Center for Middletown Studies
We're glad you're here.
Peter Kageyama, Urbanist and Author of ‘Love Where you Live’, ‘For the Love of Cities, Revisited’ and “Emotional Infrastructure of Places’ sees ‘Facing Middletown’ as way for Muncie to reflect upon its identity as a place for all American places to understand themselves.
“To know others is knowledge. To know yourself is wisdom. Facing Middletown is a rare and wonderful opportunity for a community to look in the mirror, and not just the mirror today, but the mirror of history; to learn about itself and share that wisdom with others around the world.”
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About us
'Facing Middletown' is dedicated to preserving and acknowledging the many communities, histories, and identities of Middletown, USA for a truthful understanding of American small cities.