A couple of weeks ago I was in Denver for vacation and we stopped at the Denver Art Museum. In addition to all the traditional art one expects to see in a museum they also had some patron contribution displays. Throughout the museum notebooks were set out and patrons could record their thoughts and feelings about the art. They could take the pages or leave them. There were poems about art and belief and creativity painted on the walls that were taken from another patron display. My favorite exhibit was this one, in the picture, the wall simple said “Art is….” and there were sticky notes and pencils. They were so widely ranging in definition is was amazing and through provoking. I’d love to see a library do this with “library is….” in fact I pitched it to my director today, he’s thinking maybe National Library Week. I think it would be a great way to get an informal sampling of what your patrons think your library is and want it to be. Have any other libraries done anything like this?
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