We work with organizations & individuals to help people tell their own stories

Hire us for expert consultation, to facilitate cultural documentation & research services, or for community workshops!

‍We work alongside communities to help shift narratives, improve historical memory, and build resilience. We love adding capacity to your storytelling projects by bringing our research skills and technical know-how. We focus our efforts on the needs that the community brings to us. We can play the role of story steward, facilitator, and convener - providing a space to come together, to document and share new stories of who we are and how we want to live together.

Our work is highly collaborative & experimental

We use a variety of formats - live storytelling, theatre, community conversations, podcasts, video and audio production, exhibits, and more. We love collaborating to increase our collective impact. We are a worker-self directed nonprofit with two paid staff and many collaborators (both paid and volunteer) who bring their unique skills to help further our mission. Our collaborators include multimedia storytellers, artists, academics, community organizers, and other organizations doing good work locally. Our Board is made up of a diverse group of community members who serve as guides, generators of possibilities, a sounding board for staff, and connectors to people, places, and ideas to strengthen programs and increase impact.

With us, you can

• Learn community-based oral history practices to document and share your family or community history
• Practice deep listening and oral history interviewing skills
• Gain knowledge, skills, and media literacy using accessible recording technologies
• Honor the wisdom of people all around us - our family, community members, and peers - who are all knowledge-holders and educators
• Connect with others, be curious, and build community by listening and sharing true stories
• Activate public histories through interactive and creative community engagement projects.

If you are interested in partnering with Window Seat, please send us a message through the site or contact Elaine Vradenburgh or Meg Rosenberg.

‍Our Services

Cultural Documentation & Research

We bring our background in ethnography, folklore, and journalism to support public history, cultural documentation, and participatory action research projects. Let us bring our research skills, processes, and technical know-how to your next project.

City of Olympia - Indie Music History Project

The City of Olympia hired us to facilitate a two-year research project, documenting important locations, ideas, and influences, and preserving the stories of Olympia's late 20th-century “Indie” independent music scene from the 1980s to the early 2000s. We teamed up with local librarian, Kelsey Smith, of Lefty Copyrighting and Research Services, to carry out this work. View project

The Evergreen State College – Oral History Project

The Evergreen State College hired us to conduct oral history interviews with founding faculty and staff as part of a multi-year oral history project at the college. View project

Center for Washington Cultural Traditions - Cultural Traditions Survey

The Center for Washington Cultural Traditions hired us to conduct a yearlong field research project with "tradition bearers" in the Twin Harbors region of the Washington State coast for their Cultural Traditions Survey. We produced short media products from the interviews, available on the Center's online publication, Rites of Green, and for use by those featured in the videos. View stories

Asset-Based Storytelling for Nonprofits & Organizations

Our background in nonprofit fundraising, public administration, oral history, media literacy, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and theatre makes us uniquely positioned to produce compelling stories with ethical and artistic integrity. We produce video and multimedia stories in conjunction with our other services to assist in asset-based community building and storytelling.

Brave Practice Playback Theatre Collective

Invite Brave Practice, our group of theatre teaching artists, to facilitate a Playback Theatre workshop or performance with your organization. Playback is an original form of improv theatre where people tell true stories from their lives and others enact them on the spot. Together, we'll practice bravery in community through deep listening and storytelling so that we are more prepared to be courageous in our everyday lives. View project

Our Stories | Nuestras Historias

"I loved this project - so deep and satisfying, with so much potential." - Project participant

We partnered with CIELO Centro Integral Educativo Latino de Olympia to design a participatory storytelling project – Our Stories | Nuestras Historias - where Window Seat trained a small group of CIELO staff, volunteers and clients to interview each other. We edited the interviews into short audio stories for use on their website and communications campaigns. View stories

Community Storytelling Circles

"I liked the deep sharing amongst the participants" -Circle participant

Using the model of our ongoing Community Narratives project, "Ordinary People Living Extraordinary Lives," invite us to facilitate community storytelling circles with your organization or group. This activity is perfect for a staff meeting or retreat where you want to make space for personal storytelling and building community. We work together to choose a theme and adapt the structure to fit your group. We can also teach you the structure so you can facilitate future community storytelling circles on your own. View project

Preserving Working Farms

We partnered with the Thurston Conservation District, the Community Farmland Trust, and several local farmers to produce a series of videos helping raise funds to preserve working farmland, educate eaters about the challenges farmers face when producing food for local markets, and educate farmers about tools to protect their land from development. We gathered this collection of stories between 2015-17. View video collection

Workshops for Groups, Individuals, & Educators

We offer workshops, consulting, and capacity-building in oral history, organizational storytelling, community-building, and media literacy. All of our workshops are custom-designed to meet your needs.

When you work with us, you can

• Document the stories of your family or community through an oral history workshop - Youth & Adults
• Incorporate an oral history project into your classroom curriculum through consultation or training. We are an OSPI-certified Washington Educator Clock Hour Provider - Teachers & Educators
• Use storytelling and theatre as tools for empathy, belonging, building community, and personal reflection at your next staff meeting, retreat, conference, or event - Groups, Organizations, & Boards
• Improve organizational storytelling and strategic planning to help staff, volunteers, and Boards be more effective organizational ambassadors - Public Service, Government Agency, & Nonprofit Professionals
• Learn how to produce your own ethical and artistic stories for web or social media through a media literacy workshop, technical training, or coaching - Individuals & Professionals
• Learn what goes into telling your own story and explore personal narrative through a chosen medium or multimedia format - Individuals & Groups