Fine Arts Work Center resident seeks Provincetown love stories for art project

Provincetown, a place where artists, creatives and members of the LGBTQ+ community flock to and where some, if they’re lucky enough, stumble upon love. With such a rich queer history, Provincetown caught the attention of Fine Arts Work Center resident, Miguel Braceli, who is seeking love stories made in Provincetown.

As part of his seven-month-long residency at the Center, Braceli is looking for love stories for a community-based art project, “Map of Love.” With those stories, Braceli plans to create a large-scale map of the town dotted with places where people fell in love. Whether it be a one-night stand, a summer fling or a long-term relationship, Braceli hopes to memorialize those stories and share the beauty of queer love.

“I came (to Provincetown) with the idea to do a queer project because it's something that I owe to myself and I thought that Provincetown will be a good environment for that,” he said.

Fine Arts Work Center resident seeks Provincetown love stories for community-based art project

Growing up in Venezuela, Braceli said he wasn’t exposed to queer love. He hopes this project not only provides exposure to queer love for younger generations but gives him access to love stories he didn’t have in his youth.

“It's an intimate project where I'm rebuilding the stories that (I) would have learned that I didn't learn, especially in my home country in Venezuela, which is a totally different environment,” he said. “While I'm navigating this project about love, it’s related to my own story but at the same time learning from different stories.”

Provincetown captivated him not only because of the residency offered by the center but also how in his months of living in the town, the community has embraced him into its fantasy-esque world.

“I am obsessed about how this place is like a fairy tale,” Braceli said. “Not only for the environment and architecture but especially because of the community. It's (a) very welcoming community with its own logic, universe, way of being and way of relating to each other. That led me to love.”

In his project, Braceli hopes to capture the fairy-tale nature of the town through its love stories giving younger people exposure to queer love.

“A fairy tale is a learning tool,” he said. “It's (a) way different way that you relate with the world ― as a kid, to be inspired by other stories. For me, Provincetown is a place that also can inspire different stories and where you can grow up with different role models.”

He also hopes by sharing more queer stories, it continues to facilitate conversation both nationally and internationally about the treatment of queer people and the need for these stories to be shared, especially for younger generations.

“There is a lack of these stories,” he said. “Even In the present, there are challenges, especially in the US where you can see this debate — like people trying to ban these stories from school, from education (and) ban drag queens. I think it's politically inserted in the current climate of the US, but at the same time, it's kind of the current climate of the world. At least here, we're having this discussion. But in other places, there is not even room for that.”

Stories can be submitted via an online form — www.miguelbraceli.com/map-of-love/ — and will be taken until Jan. 22. “Map of Love” will debut Mar. 15 to 29 at the Hudson D. Walker Gallery at the Fine Arts Work Center as part of “True Love’s Kiss: A Queer Fairy Tale,” a multi-pronged art project inspired by Provincetown’s queer history and legacy.

“I'm more interested in a diversity of love stories. I'm interested in learning in what different ways people have experienced love and also reframe those stories so there is more than one role model idealized story about romance.”

Frankie Rowley covers entertainment and things to do. Contact her at frowley@capecodonline.com.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: 'Map of Love,' an art project about falling in love in Provincetown