This modest sketchbook was the first thing Hannah Stanchfield purchased for college in 2019. It has since kept her company through many long nights spent in the art studio where she specializes in visual design and portraiture. Her professional artist portfolio includes many works that began in this sketchbook. The quality of her portfolio earned her lucrative internships and co-op positions at places like the Hamilton County Planning and Development Office, College Hill CURC, Northside NEST, and Homebase Cincinnati, where she worked on community-funded affordable housing. Throughout all those different positions, the notebook has kept track of her work, including sketches, meeting notes, and her creative work. Many have an object of importance that spans past its utilitarian use. Hannah’s sketchbook serves the same role — becoming a part of her growth as a student and a person.
Listen to Hannah’s story below:
This object is part of the “Transitions” section of the Artifacts of Experience exhibition designed by University of Cincinnati students in the “Introduction to Public History” course in 2023.
We encourage you to explore the other objects in our collection.
Transcript
Kanah Johnson [KJ]: My name is Kanah Johnson and I’m here with…
Hannah Stanchfield [HS]: Hannah Stanchfield.
[KJ]: For the object lessons assignment, we are doing her green sketchbook. And just to get right into it, why did you choose the sketchbook as your object today?
[HS]: So, this sketchbook has been my most used item in school as well as my co-op career, in the School of Planning at DAAP. It goes back to the very first day of freshman year, and I’m now a fifth-year planning student.
[KJ]: Okay, so what does the sketchbook mean to you?
[HS]: This sketchbook holds all of my memories from school. It goes, like I said, back to freshman year, and I’ve used it for all of my studio classes as well as my coops. And it’s very evident that I have learned so much in the field of planning just from this notebook.
[KJ]: Right, when you look at the object, what memories does it conjure for you?
[HS]: So, my notebook is full of notes and sketches. And the sketches remind me of all of the communities that I’ve been to specifically College Hill has been my favorite community that I’ve studied as well as worked in. So, in the spring of this year, I worked for College Hills Community, urban redevelopment Corporation, and I was able to learn so much about the community from that Co Op experience. And in my summer semester studio, we actually studied that neighborhood. So, I was able to use my sketches to present to my previous staff members, College Hill CRC and make recommendations for the communities. And they’re actually planning on implementing some of the trail design sketches that I made in the future.
[KJ]: Are those sketches then in the sketchbook itself?
[HS]: Yes, yes, there are several sketches. And my favorite sketches in the notebook are actually all the buildings and business designs that I have here at the end of the sketchbook.
[KJ]: Yeah, I see that some of the sketches are like, the Dixon. Building. And what’s this one? The funeral home?
[HS]: Yeah, I don’t know much about the funeral home. But the Dixon building is one of the buildings that my work purchased. It’s naturally occurring, affordable housing, so we bought the building. And then we did renovations that we fundraise money from the community for and then we were able to redo like the floors, the walls, new painting, and all the units. And there are several other affordable housing projects as well that you can see in some of the sketches here, Marlow court is affordable senior living. The night building is the upstairs is housing. And then on the bottom, there’s commercial space that we renovated. And then the Hollywood apartments here is the biggest affordable housing project we did. And we raised $600,000 directly from the community. And we’re able to redo the courtyard and renovate the entire building. After we purchased it.
[KJ]: That’s really cool. So, you kind of already discussed it, I guess, and you know, talking about your memories, but is there a particular favorite story you have about the object?
[HS]: Um, so, going back to the sketches, that’s obviously what I’m very passionate about. I have visual arts background and in planning, I try to use that as much as I can. So, these sketches have landed me most of my co-op positions. I’ve done some renderings at Hamilton County that have been used and implemented for different facilities like a car dealership, a trail way, there are several things. But College Hill was my favorite experience with these sketches. And I was actually able to use those skills to paint a mural for one of the businesses in the neighborhood. So that was probably my favorite part of of my notebook sketches.
[KJ]: Alright, thank you. HS: Yeah, of course. Thank you.