Arts and Crafts
Projects and Promotions
Cathy Belben, Librarian
Burlington-Edison High School
Collaborate
with the arts teachers at your school to host an evening gallery exhibit of student
and/or community art in your library.
Contact
your arts teachers about hosting an ongoing exhibit of student art in the
library along with a display or relevant library books.
Promote
the arts in your collection:
Create
an “Art Makes You Smart” bulletin board and display featuring artists and books
about their art
Create
a black and white bulletin board focusing on photographers; include some photos
from your school’s photo class
Be
an art supporter—when you prepare a book/materials order, ask your arts
teachers for ideas about books and materials they would like you to add.
Sponsor
an art and photo contest in collaboration with the art and photo teachers (see
additional handouts); post winning entries in the library
Sponsor
a trivia contest about art and artists:
post questions around the school and offer prizes for those who
correctly document the greatest number of answers
What’s
going on in the sewing class? Find a way to feature this forgotten art—maybe a
display of students’ sewing projects along with any books you have about sewing
and other needlecraft.
Place
an announcement in the bulletin asking students who do arts and crafts outside
of school (quilting, knitting, etc) to bring their work to school to share in
the library display case.
Need
supplies? Put an announcement in your parent newsletter requesting specific
donations (scissors, glue sticks, paper, etc.)—see separate page about funding
ideas.
What
about those old discarded books? If your district doesn’t prohibit it, these
are perfect for the new art of altered books!
Share this idea with teachers, purchase a few guides to creating altered
books, and you’re on your way.
If
you need a service project for a club, how about a card-making fundraiser or a
card-making party in the library? Cards that are made can be sold for profit or
taken to a local hospital for distribution to patients (see bib for card-making
titles).
Do a
little background research into simple arts and crafts done in other
cultures—especially cultures whose languages are taught in your school—share
the information with world languages teachers, and collaborate to create the
items in the library—you provide the research opportunities, and the kids have
fun while learning valuable information about the culture. This can also work
with any social studies class studying another culture.
Tagging
on to the previous idea, invite a Spanish class in or offer a lunchtime or
after school opportunity for students to research “calaveras,” Mexican shrines, and the colorful “loteria” cards
that are a popular part of Mexican culture.
Use these items to promote a display of books about Mexican culture.
Making
books can be easy—sponsor a book making session in your library. Start with
something simple, like an accordion book. Collaborate with the creative writing
teacher to have students create books for their own poetry or stories. (I did a
mini-unit with the creative writing teacher in our school and it was great—the
library offers lots of space for book-makers to spread out, and I was able to
introduce a little bit of bookbinding history—see my PowerPoint at http://www.be.wednet.edu/Hs/library/books_and_bookmaking.htm)
Bring
in artists from the community to do demos in the library and recommend their
favorite arts and crafts books. Don’t
know any? Put an announcement in the parent newsletter or call local craft
stores for ideas.
Keep
an arts and crafts station set up in your library where students can access basic
supplies at any time—paper, scissors, glue sticks, etc.
Host
after school card-making parties just before Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s
Day, and Mother’s Day. Advertise in the
school newspaper and bulletin. Charge a
small fee ($1-2) to pay for the fees. Play music and serve snacks. Have a few sample cards around to get kids
started.
Teach
a crafts class in your library for staff members (I did this once and it was a
big hit); see about making clock hours available, and incorporate ideas for
teachers so they can use the material in their classes.
Have
a book-cover design contest. Find older books with work or unattractive covers
and either collaborate with an art teacher or sponsor a contest on your own to
design new covers for old books.
Publish
photos of student art work on the library web page.
Provide
bibliographies of books about artists, fiction about art and artists, and arts
and crafts books available in your library.
Create
a web page on your library web site that recognizes the arts and links students
to more information and virtual museums.
Collaborate
with another teacher on an art project that uses your library resources—either
technological or print.
Have
a bookmark designing contest—everybody wins!
Make color copies of the bookmarks submitted and hand them out to
students.
Find
some skilled student artists to do decorative signs for sections of your
library—Dewey sections, fiction sections, etc.
Provide
ideas about art and send the message that you value and support the arts by
subscribing to magazines about art. If
funding is an issue, see if you can get parents to “adopt” magazines and pay
for subscriptions.
Sponsor
a contest in which participants are encouraged to make art or useful products
from recycled items—what a great way to encourage creative thinking! See ReadyMade magazine for ideas—they
sponsor six contests a year (one every issue).
Scrapbooking
is BIG right now—collaborate with a teacher to put together a lesson in which
students create a mini-scrapbook for a topic they are studying in class. They
can research the topic using library books and Internet resources, and they can
also go online for scrapbook layout ideas.