Bess Paupeck’s medium is ‘stuff’ - notably, other people’s stuff. Bess enjoys the process of discovering the collections of her neighbors, the long conversations that emerge through these discoveries, and the profound moments that are created when light can shine on these treasures. Through her large scale projects, also known as installation-exhibitions, Bess collaborates with her community, borrowing their things and building interactive spaces that usually take the form of a gallery show or museum exhibition, often with a side of playfulness, storytelling and curiosity. Once the project is complete, the community is welcomed in to proudly visit their stuff, explore the stuff of their friends and neighbors, and share the stories surrounding their things, and the histories inside these everyday object that connect us all. Every object is returned at the close of the project - each installation-exhibition is ephemeral, and can only happen with the partnership of the community.

A museum professional by training, Bess imagines the city limits as the boundaries of a massive collections storage unit. Each home within the city is it’s own storage room for that family, individual or community collection of objects. Within our homes we carry our stories, our families, our travels, and memories that connect us to one another. To find the objects for these projects, Bess puts out a community call around a specific idea, and folks then select from their own homes what to loan to the show. It is in this way that Bess is working on the model of community curation, in that the community members select the objects they will put into her shows, thus curating the objects and experience the public will have. She has been working on and honing this partnership curation model since 2019, but it has been an idea and a dream for much longer.

The community curated shows have included the 2019 exhibition Our Stories, Our Stuff, Our Somerville at the Somerville Museum, the 2023 show Borrowed Time: A Community Sourced Time Machine at the Washington Street Art Center, and, coming up in early 2028, her next show Come As You Are will be at the Somerville Museum, and will feature beloved and meaningful clothing from people's lives.