art

Zine Workshop

The San Diego County Library held a zine workshop during our library's art festival, where each participant created a page related to the loose theme of "Art."

The library provided all the materials on a large table, including pre-cut paper, markers, colored pencils, stamps, weeded illustrated books and magazines for collaging, glue and scissors. After the program, all the pages were compiled and formatted into a DIY magazine (a.k.a. "zine"). Finally, the zine was cataloged and entered into the library's collection as a reference item so the contributors could admire their work.

Creative Engagement with Youth

This six-session pilot program encourages creativity — and interest in library services — for elementary- and middle school-aged children through open-ended art projects such as Watercolor Resist Paintings and Continuous Line Monsters.

We offered this program in collaboration with the organization Phoenix Family, which provided us with access to their existing after-school program and art supplies.

Beginning Street Art

Creating street art using stencils and paint

Beginning Street Art was an active companion program to Banksy Booked @KHPCL, the theme for a number of active and passive programs to coincide with a six-week exhibit of Banksy’s "Haight Street Rat" street art.

MegaMania

Cosplayers in costume, holding light sabers

MegaMania is an annual event that aims to bring educational aspects of comic book and cosplay culture to youth who may not otherwise have access to large comic cons. Though planned primarily for teens, people of all ages are welcome to attend and explore cosplay opportunities, gaming demonstrations, local author panels, art workshops and more.

Female Veterans Art Therapy Program

Illustration of a person in a green shirt painting. There is a watercolor American flag in the background.

Sacramento Public Library held a virtual art therapy program for female veterans in partnership with Women Veterans Alliance. This four-week program met once a week for an hour.

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Inspiration Place: Spring Fantasy Hybrid Art Program

Photograph shows librarian conducting the virtual portion of the program on Zoom.

Inspiration Place is an adult craft series that met exclusively on Zoom from May 2020 to January 2022 and averaged 15 attendees per session. April 2022 was the first time a hybrid option was offered, allowing patrons the choice of attending on Zoom or in-person. Out of the 20 registered, 3 attended in-person and 17 virtually.

Read more about Inspiration Place: Spring Fantasy Hybrid Art Program

Community Art Swap

A Community Art Swap is an event where new and gently used art materials are exchanged. Community members are encouraged to trade secondhand supplies, all of which are available for free.

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ALA's LTC Engagement Grant Presents - Branching Out: Amplifying Voices Through Public Performance and Art

Albany Public Library was the recipient of ALA’s 2021 Libraries Transform Communities Engagement Grant for its Branching Out program, a community initiative intended to uplift local Black voices in music and art.

Read more about ALA's LTC Engagement Grant Presents - Branching Out: Amplifying Voices Through Public Performance and Art

Libraries and Curated Learning Initiatives: The Bridge Between Instruction and Programming

Three posters for Columbia College Library's programs. Left to right: Beautiful Monstrosities From She-Beasts to Final Girls, Tattoo: Ink, Art & Object, Future Tense: Imagined Worlds from the Margins

Often, those of us who work in academic libraries (or maybe it’s ALL libraries) get asked the question of whether or not libraries are even a thing anymore.

Fall for Fine Arts 2: African American Artists

Fall for Fine Arts 2: African American Artists is an artist appreciation and art-making Zoom class followed by a mini art exhibit of submitted class work on our Instagram.

This program is based on the first Fall for Fine Arts series, which was offered in October 2020 to help celebrate National Arts and Humanities Month and fall traditions.

Read more about Fall for Fine Arts 2: African American Artists

Stuffed Animal Taxidermy

Stuffed Animal Taxidermy is a fun program for kids and teens. Using old, thrifted stuffed animals, kids can give their faux furry friends a new "life" by turning them into a DIY home decoration.

Thanks to community donations and Amazon purchases, our youth had a blast at this in-person program.

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Fall for Fine Arts

For over six years before the pandemic, our branch offered successful hands-on arts/crafts/DIY programs for families on Thursdays at 4 p.m. During the pandemic, I continued these types of programs in innovative ways online.

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Virtual Art Show

Since it's become clear that we won't be having in-person events at our library this summer, I wanted to find a way for the library to uplift community spirit from a distance.

The Spring 2020 Art Show is a digital display of art presentening works by Boyertown community members, open to all ages and media, inclusive of all ages and abilities. The art show can serve as a reminder to the community that, even under challenging conditions, we are capable of creativity, a hopeful spirit and uplifting one another.

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Libraries Rock

If you weren't already familiar with the craze for painting rocks and hiding them, you might be living under, well … a large boulder.

Tile Art: A Creative Program for All Ages

A program participant holds up their finished tile art project

The L.P. Fisher Public Library in Woodstock, New Brunswick, likes to periodically hold Family Art Nights. It is a process-oriented, intergenerational program that allows people of all ages, whether they think of themselves as “artistic” or not, to try their hand at something creative. There is no defined outcome, so people can experiment and enjoy the process of play, something that is very good for relieving stress.

Book Art: Re-purposing Is the New Recycling

Book standing up open with the pages folded to form a triangle fan with black paper cut and pasted to the open pages to look like two people walking by a street lamp.

Every librarian faces the question of what to do with the old, outdated, unused or damaged books weeded from their shelves. Give them away? Recycle them? Throw them out? One fun possibility is to repurpose old books into book art, allowing the pages of an old book to transform into something new.

Reading Rocks

Waxahachie has a social group called Rocks-a-Hachie, which paints and hides rocks all over town for others to find and re-hide. The 12-year-old founder of this group and her mother came to Nicholas P. Sims Library (NPSL) wanting to do a book-themed rock-hiding project that would get families excited about reading. Several group members painted all the rocks and wrote "return to library" on the back.

Read more about Reading Rocks

Let Out the Banksy in You

Let Out the Banksy in You was a passive companion program to Banksy Booked @KHPCL, the theme for a number of active and passive programs to coincide with a six-week exhibit of Banksy’s “Haight Street Rat” street art.

Banksy Booked @KHCPL made the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library (KHCPL) the first library in the world to host a Banksy.

In this passive program, we simply used primed plywood and markers to invite patrons to try their own hands at street art.

Read more about Let Out the Banksy in You

Indiana Library Displays Art by Banksy

A piece of artwork by Banksy will be displayed at an Indiana library

The Kokomo-Howard County Public Library (IN) will become what is thought to be the first library in the world to host a piece of art by the street artist Banksy. Update: Banksy's "Haight Street Rat" was unveiled at the library on Aug. 4; a line stretched from the artwork to the library's back door.

Paper Monsters: Literacy Attacks!

Ask most boys today if they want to play with paper dolls and you might get a scrunched-up face in response, but paper dolls haven't always been seen as such a gendered activity. In fact, paper dolls have existed since paper was invented and come from many different cultures around the world.

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