the community mailbox experiment

community connection through handwritten letters

currently showing: with love, burien

oct-dec 2025: letter collection at Burien Community Center + Highline Heritage Museum
jan-mar 2026: exhibit at Highline Heritage Museum

with love, Burien is an interactive installation that invites analogue connection in two phases: collection + exhibition.

From October-December 2025, share your story. Using the materials located in artfully designed mailboxes at the Burien Community Center and Highline Heritage museum:

  • read the enclosed instructions + prompt to support your sharing

  • write or create (in any medium you choose!) a note, signed or anonymous, to the prompt or not

  • drop your pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelope in a post box or at your local post office

From January-March 2026, visit the Highline Heritage museum to see your story knit together with those of your community.

common questions:

  • mailboxes are refilled on a regular basis by the Burien Arts Association. If no cards are currently in the box, please check with the front desk, who may have info on when more are coming.

    & feel free, always, to create your own letter!

    • using any kind of paper available to you, write a note sharing your story. Perhaps begin with the line “this is what I want to tell you…”

    • package in envelope (or something else) and acquire postage

    • mail to:

      • Burien Arts Association
        PO Box 66574
        Burien, WA 98166

  • Please do! We welcome submissions in all kinds of artistic mediums, so long as they can be shipped via snail mail.

    once you’ve created your “story”:

    • package in envelope (or something else) and acquire postage

    • mail to:

      • Burien Arts Association
        PO Box 66574
        Burien, WA 98166

  • You sure can! We plan to have an audio component of the exhibit, and would love to hear your voice.

    • Create a memo using Voice Memos (iOS) or Voice Recorder (Android)

    • tap the … or + symbol and choose “share”

    • Email to memos@pidgepost.com | subject: with love, Burien memo

  • Great questions. I’m Anna, the human behind Pidge Post (the creative studio whose website you’re currently on) and the artist behind this project. with love, Burien is created in collaboration with Burien Arts Association. Your cards land in the Burien Arts PO Box, but I am the one who ultimately reads and shares your stories in the 2026 exhibit.

  • No worries! I welcome your stories however they come. Please feel free to remain anonymous and/or indicate on your note that you do not want your info/letter shared. I will honor that request!

not finding the answers you need? keep scrolling for more details or reach out!

more about the community mailbox experiment

Two years ago, I dreamed up a “community mailbox” that operates like a Little Free Library, inviting passersby to leave a card and/or take a card. The goal: to connect community through handwritten practice. In November 2024, I pitched this idea to the incredible folks at Happy Time Studio, as part of their winter exhibit on social media. Ali saw my vision and said “yes, bring that to life.”

From January - June 2025, the mailbox was posted (pun intended!) outside Happy Time, on Issaquah’s historic Front Street. I received dozens of letters, each one a thread in a beautiful, hopeful quilt of human experience.

The mailbox’s tenure was extended twice (an honor!). And Happy Time’s gallerist, in an act of extremely cool and optimistic experimentation, asked me to create a secondary exhibit highlighting the collective wisdom, wonder, and curiosity of the letters. Letters from Strangers ran May - June 2025.

Now the experiment lives and grows in new communities all over the country. If you’re interested in hosting a mailbox for your community / organization / campus: let me know!

 

mailbox #1: Burien Community Center atrium

 

mailbox #2: Highline Heritage Museum lobby

USPS "blue box" | drop your mail here!

USPS “blue box” | drop your mail here!

send me a letter! (any time!)

  • If you live by a current exhibit, stop by the mailbox and scoop a blank card with a pre-stamped, pre-addressed envelope. It has all the instructions you need, except for what’s missing, which is hopefully covered below. (If not, email me!)

  • Not sure how to send snail mail? You’re not alone! Follow this link to find a USPS “blue box.” Enter: your ZIP, location type: collection boxes > Search.

  • No cards in the box—or no exhibit nearby? Find a blank sheet of paper and write your story, a memory, a dream, a fear. Or don’t write—draw it out! Make it up! Let it be fun and weird and expectation-free. THEN stamp your envelope with a US Forever stamp or $.73 equivalent, and mail to:

    • PIDGE POST
      PO BOX 245
      NORTH BEND, WA 98045

For extra support, I’ve copied the original mailbox’s full instructions below. If I’m missing anything, let me know! Or send a letter about it.

full instructions

Here’s what’s enclosed in A TYPICAL box

Hi! I’m Anna, the creator of this experiment. I’m a North Bend-based writer, mom, and owner of a boutique creative practice centered on nourishing connection. Over the years, I’ve studied handwriting’s power to connect us—to ourselves, each other, and the planet. This mailbox is a community-centered exploration of exactly that.

Here's how it works:

  • Write me a letter! What’s your best memory from 2024? Your biggest, most harebrained dream for 2025? What keeps you up at night? Pour it onto the page!

  • If you need structure: set a 5-minute timer and write—without pausing, thinking, worrying about grammar/spelling, etc. Just write.

  • If you need freedom: use this card however you’d like. Doodle, paint, make it messy, make it up, remain anonymous!

  • If you need my address:

    • Pidge Post
      PO Box 245
      North Bend, WA 98045

    • Detailed instructions for addressing, stamping, and mailing a letter: here.

  • If you need postage: pick up a USPS Forever Stamp ($.73) at your local post office.

  • If you don’t want your words read, write “DO NOT READ” on the back of the envelope. I will burn your letter without reading.

  • If you’d like a pen pal, put your return address on the envelope! I’d love to connect snail mailers who seem like a good match.

  • If you’re not sure how to send a letter, scroll up for further instruction.

  • IMPORTANT: I may use some or all of your letter (minus identifying info) in future projects, including on my website, social media, etc. Please indicate in your letter if you do not want that.