Art Department, Free Library of Philadelphia

Back in March we were forced to cancel one of the book arts workshops in the program series made possible through our decade+ collaboration with the Philadelphia Center for the Book. We're pleased to say we were able to offer it in a virtual incarnation this past Saturday to those who were originally signed up to attend. Teresa Silva led us through a wonderful introduction to the history of Asian stab bindings and patiently guided everyone through the assembly of books in different styles along with useful models for future use. Thank you for an instructive and most enjoyable 3 hours of bookbinding Teresa! . We have one more Philadelphia Center for the Book class left to reschedule! Registration will open next week: look for an announcement here and at Philadelphia Center for the Book

Borrow some magazines from us! The Art Department has over 500 issues from a dozen titles published in the last few years on hand. You'll have to contact us directly by email in order to place a hold on a specific issue that you can pick up to borrow: [email protected] . Let's start by looking at Aperture: individual issues available for immediate loan range from 2016 to the most recent number arrived today: the Native America issue. You can also read the most recent fo...ur issues of this magazine through our RBdigital database using your library card. . N.240 Sounds N.225 On Feminism N.226 American Destiny N.228 Elements of Style N.230 Prison Nation N.233 Family N.236 Mexico City N.238 House and Home N.239 Ballads[Nan Goldin] N.240 Native America . Issues 236 through 240 are also fully available digitally through our RBdigital database using your library card: https://libwww.freelibrary.org/databases/ . Is there another specific issue between 2016 and 2020 not listed here you'd like to borrow? We can still help you place a future hold if it is currently out on loan. https://catalog.freelibrary.org/Record/967645 Aperture N.240 page spread artists in order pictured: Alan Michelson, Kimowan Metchewais, Karen Miranda Rivadeneira, Jacqueline Cleveland

DEADLINE EXTENDED: September 19! The Philadelphia Center for the Book wants to know: how have you responded to These Times? What work, in book form or not, have you made since the start of 2020? To join and submit entries: http://www.philadelphiacenterforthebook.org/these-times-ph/

Thank you Thomas F. Donatucci Sr. Library (Free Library of Philadelphia) for documenting Tuesday's Mutual Aid Fair at our library! Lots of events like these happening outside neighborhood Free Library locations all over the city!

It's Library Book Bike Week! Check this post from the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services - ABOS with a picture of the Art & Literature's Rasheem Clinton getting ready to ride to the University of the Arts’ annual UArts Day to meet librarian Sam Perduta for a day of outreach last fall.

Today's the day! Email submissions of artwork by young artists who wish to participate in this temporary street art project to: [email protected]. We'll add them to this installation in front of Whitman Library - Free Library of Philadelphia

Do you have young artists at home who want to express themselves through visual arts and maybe need a form of stress-relief at home? Check out the art club put together by our friends at Joseph E. Coleman Northwest Regional Library Children's Department that offers a new step-by-step art project every Thursday. See their event shared here too for more details.

It's been good to see so much of Philadelphia's arts and culture community soberly reflect on systemic inequality and join demonstrators in collective grieving for lost African American lives this past week. We as Philadelphians continue to use our libraries as sources of free information and ongoing self-education. . This is a detail of an image from the Free Library's collections held in Print and Picture Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia. It's part of a larger set o...f photos taken by Charles Higgins documenting a protest march in 1960s Philadelphia while a staff photographer for the Bulletin and the curator of that collection tells us that more information was just in the process of being added before we closed our buildings to stall the spread of COVID-19. We might read the signs, many still relevant today, and guess that this is 1968 in the wake of MLK's death. See more photographs by Higgins in that collection here: https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/search/ See more

DEADLINE EXTENDED! Submit artwork by June 12, 2020 As part of our month-long Community Cultural Exchange with local artist Beth Heinly and the Logan neighborhood library, the Art Department is collaborating with four neighborhood libraries of the Free Library of Philadelphia to collect digital submissions of art from children and teens who live near: Cecil B.Moore Library - 2320 Cecil B. Moore Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19121-2927 ... Cecil B. Moore Library Logan Library - 1333 Wagner Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19141-2916 (Wagner Ave. & Old York Rd.) Logan Branch Library (Free Library of Philadelphia) South Philadelphia Library - 1700 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19145-2392 (Broad & Morris Sts.) South Philly Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia Whitman Library - 200 Snyder Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19148-2620 (2nd St. & Snyder Ave.) Whitman Library - Free Library of Philadelphia Artwork will be installed on the sidewalks around these libraries and the Hatfield House for a short street art project that illustrates social distancing guidelines. The art will be installed with wheatpaste outdoors, so it will only be visible until the weather wears it away. We'll share images of the installed art on social media and it can be seen by families taking short walks in their own neighborhood. Other neighborhood library locations to follow in near future. The subject matter of the artwork is up to the artists: it could illustrate how life has recently changed or simply be an image that is important to them. To submit photos or scans of artwork as JPG files or ask questions, email us: [email protected]

Announcing our second Art Book Club online: Sketchbook More details here: https://libwww.freelibrary.org/calendar/event/100873 Image: Sketchbook spread by Lilian Ling

We are collaborating with four neighborhood libraries of the Free Library of Philadelphia to collect digital submissions of art from children and teens who live near:South Philly Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Whitman Library - Free Library of Philadelphia, Logan Branch Library (Free Library of Philadelphia) and Cecil B. Moore Library Artwork will be installed on the sidewalks around these libraries and the Hatfield House for a short street art project. Deadline: May 27th! The subject matter of your artwork is up to the artist: It could illustrate how your life has recently changed or simply be an image that is important to them. Other neighborhood library locations to follow in near future. To submit or request details email us: [email protected]

And here are three more organizations doing critical work in Philadelphia that we engaged to individually and collectively support during this time of crisis as part of the Community Cultural Exchange group led by local artist Beth Heinly Please take a look at the links below for Philadelphia Share's website to see what you too can do to help food safely reach those most in need during this time, Step Up to the Plate, a collaboration between Broad Street Ministry, Project HOM...E, and Prevention Point Philadelphia to ensure access to food and medical care for Philadelphians experiencing homelessness and Valley Youth House to support young people in need: https://sharefoodprogram.org/ https://e.givesmart.com/events/hbE/ https://www.valleyyouthhouse.org/get-involved/donate/ Would you like to join this group that will meet every Monday for the remainder of the month of May to discuss meaningful action in social art practice and collaborate on projects proposed by Heinly? Get in touch via email at: [email protected] #communityculturalexchange #globaldayofgiving

The Community Cultural Exchange group led by local artist Beth Heinly met for the first time this week to discuss meaningful action in social art practice and we engaged to individually and collectively support these organizations doing critical work in Philadelphia in this time of crisis. . Please take a look at the Jump Start Philly Fund created by the @PhilaSchoolPartnership to see what you too can do to help meet the needs of Philadelphia's low income schools and families... during the closure, the PHL COVID-19 Fund site to see what you too can do to support more Philadelphia organizations that directly serve at-risk populations and Project HOME to see what you too can do to support this provider of essential services to Philadelphia's most vulnerable residents, an organization with a long history of collaborative work with the Free Library: phlcovid19fund.org philaschoolpartnership.org/donate https://www.projecthome.org/covid-19-support #communityculturalexchange #globaldayofgiving