Atlanta Public Library announces special community arts activities

[November 12, 2018]   Between November 2018 and March 2019, the Atlanta Public Library and Museum will host two unique community art-making events in conjunction with the Smithsonian Museums on Main Street exhibit, “Crossroads: Change in Rural America” scheduled to open at Union Hall in Atlanta on February 2, 2019.

The Atlanta Library/Museum is one of just six organizations throughout the State to be selected by the Smithsonian and Illinois Humanities to host the Smithsonian’s new Museums on Main Street exhibit.

On November 13, the Library/Museum will kick off its first-ever community mural project under the direction of Bloomington-Normal artist Regan King. King will lead community members in creating a thematic mural in the Union Hall Building that will celebrate local community life and serve as a welcome to visitors and tourists. She will present ideas for the mural and solicit input from the community on November 13 from 9-10AM at the Library as part of the Library’s This Golden Age program. Members of the community will be invited to sign up to help paint the mural over several weekends in November, December and January. No special training or talent is required—just an enthusiastic willingness to express and celebrate the spirit of community in Atlanta. More information will be available at the November 13th This Golden Age program, as well as at the Library, and everyone is invited to turn out and learn about this exciting project.

The Library/Museum is also working in partnership with Olympia High School to mount a formal gallery show to run concurrently with the Museums on Main Street exhibit. Both institutions are calling on members of the community to submit their own original work for this show.

Prizes will be awarded for first and second place in both the student and community divisions of the show—which is open to all current students at Olympia High School and to community members 18 and over who reside in the Olympia District.

All media is acceptable for the show, and there is no entry fee for submission. All two-dimensional work will be displayed and must be ready to hang. Three-dimensional work will be displayed on the basis of available space and size of the work. All work must be submitted with an artist tag securely attached to the back of the piece, as well as a price should the artist wish to include his/her work in the sale catalogue for the show. There will be no commission fee for the sale of any work. All submitted artwork should relate to reflections on rural America, the rural school experience, and/or rural community life.
 

The submission deadline is January 21, 2019. Entries should be delivered to the Atlanta Public Library on Tuesday/Thursday 10AM-7PM; Wednesday/Friday 10AM-4:30PM; or Saturday 9AM-3PM. OHS students may also deliver their work to Ms. Pitcher in the OHS art room.

For more information and an official entry form, artists should contact Cathy Maciariello at the Atlanta Library - [e-mail] phone [phone] or Ms. Sandra Pitcher at Olympia High School Sandra.pitcher@ olympia.org.

The gallery show will run from February 2-March 15, 2019 at Union Hall in downtown Atlanta.

[Catherine Maciariello]