Postcards 'from the heart' on display

LISMORE City Council social planner Christine Minkov has been asking people over 50 to write a 'postcard from the heart' to their 16-year-old selves.

FOR the past three months Lismore City Council social planner Christine Minkov has been asking people over 50 to write a 'postcard from the heart' to their 16-year-old selves.

Over 150 people have responded to date and the cards and their inspirational, thoughtful, occasionally humorous and at times, extremely harrowing messages will be displayed in a week-long exhibition at the Lismore Art in the Heart gallery at 56 Magellan Street from 19-23 March.

The Postcards from the Heart project will be launched by Lismore Mayor Jenny Dowell on Monday, March 19 at 10am complete with morning tea and a performance by the CWA choir.

The wider community is invited to attend the launch and visitors to the exhibition can create their own cards and write their own messages throughout the week.

The project is an initiative of Lismore City Council in partnership with the Art in the Heart scheme and is part of the NSW Government 2012 Seniors Week program.

Organiser Christine Minkov said the project is also about connecting younger people with older people through the sharing of personal reflections.

"One the one hand it has been a wonderful process for the over-50s to review the course of their lives and to think back to how they were as teenagers," Ms Minkov said.

"On the other, the Postcard Project has the potential to really connect with today's youth. They'll be able to see that older people were exactly like them and hopefully, this will result in improved communications and insight between the two groups."

Cr Dowell said she is delighted that the project helps open the way for the sharing of knowledge between older and younger people.

"Especially when it can put a young person's mind at ease by giving them the chance to see that other people may have felt the same way they do, or perhaps that the big issues of today won't necessarily seem so overpowering in a few years."

Audio recordings of the postcard messages will also be available for people who are blind or vision impaired.

For more information, phone Council's Customer Contact Centre on 1300 87 83 87.

Originally published as Postcards 'from the heart' on display