In central Indiana, a refurbished phone booth is unifying a city.
“Lebanon is primarily a blue-collar town,” says Joe LePage, Lebanon, Indiana’s Communication and Community Development Director. In this city of 17,000, residents like LePage wanted to find more opportunities for fun, alongside function.
He noticed nearby towns with dedicated arts districts offering entertainment, belonging, and community pride. LePage imagined something similar in Lebanon, he says, “to create something fun in our community and provide a space where—no matter your age or persuasion—there would be a place.”
After meeting with the Indiana Arts Commission (IAC), LePage saw that a full arts district was still a few years away. But the IAC asked Lebanon to host Creative Convergence, a two-day workshop with the Indiana Communities Institute at Ball State, designed to integrate arts and culture into more Indiana cities.
As one of the 10 cities selected to participate in the workshop, LePage and teammates Corey Kutz, Missy Krulik, and Anita Gordon brainstormed ideas to inspire a more creative, unified community.
“Missy mentioned seeing an .mp3 recorder in an old rotary phone at a wedding, for folks to share stories for the couple,” LePage recalls. “That was the jumping-off point. How could this be presented within our community?”
Backed by a grant from the IAC, they tracked down an old-fashioned phone booth and fitted it with a recorder. They dubbed it the Lebanon Story Booth and unveiled it at public events—farmers markets, a community holiday party, a LEGO event at the library—with different prompts: What brought you to Lebanon? What’s your favorite thing to do here?
“The whole goal is to have folks know they have more in common than they think,” says LePage.
Unity and connection are top of mind for many in Lebanon. The story booth aims to “let people know they matter, no matter where they’re at,” says LePage. “It’s trying to soften that [division], and add injections of arts and culture all across town.”
Despite some initial trepidation, a little encouragement (and free merch) persuaded residents to pick up the phone and experience what LePage calls “a time-machine effect.”
“They have that wall up, and then that melts away,” he says. “You see the softness in their eyes. No one’s trying to get anything from them, [we’re] just trying to share a story.”
One longtime resident told LePage that her story wasn’t worth telling, but in the booth, she revealed extensive knowledge about her family’s history in the area, tracing back generations. “The smile on her face after she shared . . . it was like, ‘They seem to care,’” he recalls.
Research shows that the act of telling our story—and listening to others tell theirs—is good for our brains and strengthens our bonds with others.
With more than 200 recordings from 2025, LePage and his team created videos for social media, pairing the footage with pictures. A recurring theme among responses was, “That’s my story, too!”
“That’s a win from this project,” says LePage. “[People] really drew that connective tissue with someone: ‘You’ve got other brothers and sisters here that have a similar story.’”