Not all libraries contain literary works. Some contain works of art. Or at least the Brooklyn Art Library does. For here resides a place where artists’ sketchbooks gather from all over the world as a means of documenting the human experience and providing inspiration to all who are lucky enough to gaze upon its collection.
According to Atlas Obscura:
“The Brooklyn Art Library houses the Sketchbook Project: a collaborative library of artists’ sketchbooks that’s grown every year since 2006. The Library opened in its current location in 2010 and soon featured more than 10,000 books from 104 countries on six continents.
Today the library is home to almost 34,000 separate sketchbooks, from some 70,000 contributors in over 135 countries. And the project is not only open for people to contribute to, but also for people to browse. For consideration in the project, prospective contributors can visit the library or the project’s website and sign up to receive a blank sketchbook.
When they are added to the library, each sketchbook is given a unique barcode and can be identified by artist, region, or even material. Visitors can come to the library and find amazingly unique, often improvised works from artists around the globe.”
But that’s not all. Each participating sketchbook can also be digitized for an added fee, ensuring that it can live on forever in ephemeral or digital form. The sketchbooks will also become something of a nomad, traveling around the globe while appearing in a minimum of at least three different cities at various popup exhibits, so that everyone, not just those who live in or visit Brooklyn, can enjoy their greatness. In fact, artists even get notified every time someone checks out their sketchbook, which as they say, is a hell of a lot more rewarding than just receiving a lonely like on a social media platform.
Personally, I think this is the one of the greatest ideas of all-time. Especially given the fact that anyone, even little old me, can contribute to it. There’s no criteria for submitting. No jury that you have to impress for inclusion. The suggested themes don’t even have to be adhered to. When it comes to sketching the only limits are those imposed by your own imagination.
As someone who has filled up dozens of notebooks with ideas it’s comforting to know that there’s a place where all of my random rants, ruminations, and ramblings along with all my doodles and drawings can be captured and appreciated by others. My biggest fear of having all of my knowledge lost before I had to chance to share it is now a non-factor. Soon the latest iteration of my vaunted Book of Ideas can join this impressive artistic collection where it can be immortalized, available for anyone to stumble upon or seek out for decades to come. In this way, the Sketchbook Project is like an Artistic Internet, a platform for underappreciated artists to get discovered and for regional techniques to find a wider audience. A free-flowing exchange of ideas and information. But more than providing a roadmap for where we’re going it’s also a way for us to see where we’ve been. A record of all the artistic renderings, sketches, markings, and meanderings of all those who came before us. A constantly shifting guide for all those who have yet to put pen to paper or brush to canvas, who have yet to make their mark.
I only wish that this project had always existed, stretching back for thousands of years. How great would it be if you could check out some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s codices, Shakespeare’s notes, or Jules Verne’s rough drafts. Or if the collection included patent drawings or movie storyboards for some of our most famous inventions or greatest movies. A definitive history of creativity, if such a place existed, would be a national treasure. More valuable than all the gold locked away in Fort Knox. Sadly, such a place can’t exist. But the next best thing can. A definitive guide to artistry since 2006. In a way, what this project is doing then, without even realizing it, is creating a time capsule of sorts. A way for us to save the inner workings of the human mind for posterity, for future anthropologists to study hundreds of years from now as they wonder what life was like for the people of the 21st century. What they’ll find, I’m sure, are lives filled with meaning. Lives worth living.
Is the Sketchbook Project the Greatest Idea Ever?
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