We caught up with the brilliant and insightful John Noltner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi John, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
A Peace of My Mind is a storytelling project I started in 2009 as a small little side project but has now become my life’s work. In an increasingly divided world, A Peace of My Mind uses storytelling and art to rediscover the common humanity that connects us.
John, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’ve spent my career shooting projects fr national magazines and Fortune 500 companies. I’ve shot travel projects across the country and around the world and eventually, I realized that it was my job to find beauty in unexpected places. It was my job to see good where others might struggle to recognize it.
That was my job as a photographer, but in many ways, that is what we do with A Peace of My Mind. We help communities recognize their strengths and see their potential to create change.
We install our exhibits in public spaces; company headquarters, college campuses, community libraries and professional conferences. We use the stories in those exhibits to lead workshops and programming. We gather local stories from the communities we visit and reflect them back in a way that helps them to see themselves and their peers in new and transformative ways.
A Peace of My Mind’s work reckons with the real challenges we face in the world, but always with a focus on people who are finding creative solutions to those challenges.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
After a decade of working on A Peace of My Mind, we had built an effective model of fee-for-service programming that allowed us to be self-sustaining. Our exhibit leasing fees and lecture fees and book sales supported the ongoing mission of bridging divides and building community through storytelling and art. Of course, all that ended abruptly with the pandemic when we could no longer gather in public spaces.
We struggled with finding a path forward to continue this work that we had seen impact communities in positive ways. But then we were encouraged to turn A Peace f My Mind into a non-profit organization. We had a committed group of followers who believed in the project. They had seen the way we impacted and encouraged communities. And we built a donor base to support the work.
Now that programing has returned, our programming fees again support our ongoing work, but it is our donor base that allows us to go out and find new stories that need to be told, and expand our reach into new communities.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
Sometimes we hesitate to act until we think we can see and understand every step of the journey. It certainly can be helpful to think through a process, but sometimes we get paralyzed when we can’t see all those steps or understand how they will come together. I am convinced that sometimes you just have to start moving. That once you are in motion, the rest of the path will become clear and if needed, you can change course along the way. If my creative journey has taught me anything, it is to trust that small voice that is encouraging you toward a bigger vision. That even if you cannot yet see the entire path, it is worth walking down it to see what will unfold. 
Contact Info:
- Website: https://apomm.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apommstories/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/A-Peace-of-My-Mind/100047615214322/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-noltner-a6b13b14/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/apeaceofmymind1
- Other: https://linktr.ee/apomm
Image Credits
John Noltner / A Peace of My Mind