Take a book, leave a book or just browse: The Tiny Libraries project on State Street encourages the Santa Barbara community to share books and promotes public art with artist Douglas Lochner’s creative bookcase designs.
The question mark, exclamation point and other grammatically-shaped sculptures have been stocked by the Santa Barbara Public Library and donating community members since they were installed over the summer.
They'll stay downtown through mid-October and then tour the country, traveling to large libraries where they will be placed near schools, community centers and neighborhood clinics, according to Sarah York Rubin, executive director of the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture.
Then the plan is for the colorful bookshelves to return to Santa Barbara in spring 2020 for a longer run.
“This is an exciting opportunity to energize downtown, engage residents, promote literacy, celebrate local literary heritage and advance public art,” Rubin said.
Jessica Cadiente, director of the Santa Barbara Public Library, added, “The library is committed to supporting education in the community through classes and our collections. We hope people will find a book that sparks their interest, whether they are an avid reader or haven’t opened a book in awhile.”
The books provided by the library and the sculptures themselves are meant to appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds, said Lochner, who designed and built the Tiny Libraries.
“That is one of the coolest things about this project: It targets everyone," he said. "The sculptures are friendly and engaging across all ages and cultures.”
“I found the shapes interesting and compelling, and I thought people of all ages would find them intriguing, hopefully beckoning the passerby to stop and examine their contents, and perhaps to find something to read and explore.”
Upcoming events associated with the project include poetry readings during the Oct. 1 First Thursday Art Walk, and literary vignettes from works such as "Romeo and Juliet" performed by State Street Ballet's students at the new Arts Fest downtown on Oct. 12.
— Noozhawk intern Jessica Reincke can be reached at jreincke@noozhawk.com.
