The UB Art Galleries is calling on the Buffalo community to help preserve the stories of women who were once patients at the former Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, now the site of the historic Richardson Olmsted Campus.

Organizers are encouraging residents to share personal objects and stories connected to female relatives who spent time at the institution as part of the Buffalo Remembrance Project: Community Documentation Day.

“We're asking the public to bring a memento from a family member in order to share more about their relative. These objects, however small, are powerful witnesses to individual lives that deserve to be seen and acknowledged,” says Anna Wager, curator of exhibitions.

The collection event will take place from noon to 6 p.m. Nov. 21 at the UB Anderson Gallery, 1 Martha Jackson Place, near the UB South Campus.

Community members are invited to bring such items as letters, photographs, clothing, combs, wallets or other mementos belonging to a woman who was once confined to the asylum. Items will be professionally documented and photographed, and participants will receive a free 8-by-10 print at a later date. Participants are not required to leave their objects behind.

Images captured during the event will become part of a 2026 exhibition at the Lipsey Architecture Center Buffalo, located on the Richardson Olmsted Campus. The installation will run in tandem with Ohio-based artist Kimberly Chapman’s exhibition, “Eighty-Six Reasons for Asylum Admission,” now on view at the UB Anderson Gallery through Feb. 28.

The Buffalo Remembrance Project: Community Documentation Day is free and open to all. Those with questions can contact Wager by email or by phone at 716-645-0570.