Opening artist reception: The Fortune Cookie Project
Photographer and educator Catherine Vanaria had a deceptively simple idea: to ask artists to respond to a prompt created by opening a fortune cookie. The resulting exhibition, “The Fortune Cookie Project” takes place at The Gallery at Still River Editions in Danbury from July 11 – September 25, 2026, with an opening reception on Saturday, July 11 from 2 pm – 4 pm. Both the exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.
After years of collecting fortunes after each Chinese takeout meal, she says “I felt that one of these days the fortunes could be used for something, but was never sure what….”
In 2025, after she retired from being a Professor of Art at WCSU, she found her collection of fortunes as she was cleaning out her office, and brought them back to her studio. She thought about using them as prompts for her own artwork.
She says, “It occurred to me that this might be an interesting project if I included others to do the same, so in November the process of inviting friends, colleagues and artists began. Each person who agreed was given a prepackaged fortune cookie with the following instructions:
Today, you have received your fortune cookie which includes a message inside. This message is your sole prompt. I am asking you to create a new piece of art that reinterprets, challenges, or literalizes the meaning of your fortune. The choice of medium is completely up to you.
The works created by the artists were made in a variety of media and will be presented as archival digital prints that include the fortunes that inspired them. A full-color, printed exhibition catalog will be available for purchase, and there will be a free online version on the gallery’s website.
The list of artists and their locations (Connecticut unless otherwise specified)
Venkateshwer Acharya(Barcelona, Spain), Frances Ashforth (New Canaan and Ketchum, ID), Moira Barrett (New England), Katie Bassett (Bethel), Judith Black (Cambridge, MA), Karen Bonanno (Torrington), Nicole Bricker (CT), Jennie Carr (Ridgefield), Richard Cooke, Shona Curtis (Litchfield County, CT), Bruce Dunbar (South Salem, NY), Alma Faham (Danbury, CT), Jim Felice (Bethel), Joan Fitzsimmons (Hamden), Elisa Flynn (Brooklyn, NY), Daisy Gesualdi (CT), Bill Gore (CT), Lys Guillorn (Shelton), David Haislip (Oxford), Violet Harlow (Milford), Beth Houghtaling (Brookfield), Laura Shahinian Kara (Brookfield), Bob Keating (Southbury), Mary Kenealy (Norwalk), Patrick Kennedy (Torrington), Richard Klein (Norwalk), Paula Kubisek (Worcester, MA), Martha Willette Lewis (New Haven), Anne Lloyd (Brookfield), Dan Makara (Redding), Megan Marden (CT), Maritza (Bethel), Sabrina Marques (Hamden), Janice Mauro (Redding), Brian McCarley (Bethel), Karen Neems (Stamford), Betty Nero (Danbury), orbithead (CT/CA/MA/NY), Vito Pasquale (Mount Kisco, NY), Rachel Peet (Barcelona, Spain/CT), Cynthia Rauschert (Bethel), Valerie Richardson (CT/Atlanta, GA), Lori Robeau (Torrington, Jim Rohan (Boston area, MA), Margaret Roleke (Easton), Nancy Ryan (Bethel, CT and Richfield Springs, NY) John Ryan (Boston, MA), Mark Savoia (New Fairfield), Ken Scaglia (Weston), Johanna Schulman (Cambridge, MA), Elyse Shapiro (Bethel), Barbara Shepard (New Haven), David Skora (Litchfield County, CT), Jack Tom (Shelton), Rita Valley (Southbury), Cathy Vanaria (New Fairfield), Tony Vanaria (Paris, France), John Walsh (Holmes, NY), Riley Weaver (Chestnut Ridge, NY), Elizabeth White (Bethel), Bruce George Wingate (New Haven), and Andrea Zimmermann (Newtown).
