I’ve been following The Brooklyn Art Library on Twitter and IG for a while now. But I hadn’t visited them until a few weekends ago. This is inexcusable because it is located within walking distance of my apartment. I am shamed by this. But I’ve been there now and it’s a true wonderland. Let me explain.
The Brooklyn Art Library is home of The Sketchbook Project – The world’s largest collection of sketchbooks (over 36,000!) It’s a beautiful thing to walk into a space where every inch of wall is covered in sketchbooks. They have a searchable system where one can look up books by country, medium, artist and other tags.
From their website
Our walls are lined with shelves that hold the tens of thousands of sketchbooks currently in the collection, created by artists from around the world. The library serves as a reading room where you can get cozy and spend an afternoon enjoying artwork in a hands-on experience with the help of our librarians.
I was so excited that I just sat at a table and started leafing through some random sketchbooks that were on a table, waiting to be re-shelved.
I’m a sucker for (and participant/organizer of) community-based art projects. And that’s just what The Sketchbook project is – a worldwide, participatory, community art project. They even have a digital archive.
But the Sketchbook Project isn’t the only thing they have going. They’ve done multiple projects over the years, including their new challenge, The Canvas Project.
If you find yourself in Brooklyn, I can’t recommend it enough. And if you don’t find yourself in the area, check out the aforementioned digital archive.
Image via Twitter feed of The Sketchbook Project
