Little Libraries 2017
We are excited to announce that United Way of Central Ohio has funded another two little free libraries for our Libraries Everywhere program!
This year we are collaborating with the King Arts Complex to honor artist Aminah Robinson. We project to have the little free library in place at King Arts by early autumn, and we’re thrilled to be working with artist and former Robinson mentee, Bryan Christopher Moss, to paint Aminah’s portrait on the library.
Our second UWCO-funded little free library will go into Columbus’ Milo-Grogan neighborhood. We are currently in discussion with resident and Melanincholy Fest Founder Apollo Akembe to bring to life a unique library honoring a special, long-time resident of the area, his grandmother.
For both libraries, we will partner again with Rebuilding Together Central Ohio and Half Price Books. We are also excited for a new collaboration with The Conscious Connect to ensure we continue to provide diverse materials for a diverse audience.
Last July, we featured some amazing little libraries and community leaders who helped create them. Our Street Art Library was born from a partnership with Transit Columbus and Placemakes for their Cherry Street project. We are excited for our Street Art Library to be placed near The Lookout Shop starting this August.
We also started mapping little libraries beyond what is recorded at LittleFreeLibrary.org, and we encourage others to continue to add to our Little Library Google Map.
This year, we had an incredible experience at Columbus, Ohio’s Community Festival (ComFest). We are honored that our Eco Library was chosen to receive funding from ComFest among such important community peers like Camp Lionheart and others.
We had an estimated 500+ conversations with festival participants, and we reached thousands who walked by or viewed our online posts. We were touched by the stories that participants shared with us like how the book Double Fudge transformed a young man’s life and how a being born and raised (BAR) by a black single mother (BAR) inspired another man.
In addition to the grant, the Eco Library was made possible by the generosity and a ton of sweat equity by Half Price Books (Jeff Heydinger), The Lookout Shop (Justin Withrow), Lucida Dynamics (Doug Houdeshell) and Rebuilding Together Central Ohio (their entire amazing staff).
We are thrilled that the Eco Library’s permanent home is now with 934 Gallery. The gallery focuses on bringing a fresh perspective to contemporary art through exciting and thought-provoking exhibitions, installations, performances and public art projects. Come meet Cbus Libraries’ co-founder, Bryan Loar, at this year’s 934 Fest on July 22 as we dedicate the library in honor of Daniel Sebastian Loper.
We are humbled by the overwhelmingly positive response to our little libraries, and we are inspired by the creativity and personal stories of our communities. We hope to see you soon!
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