Art is Alive at the Library!

Faces from all nations gaze at the viewer from within the frame of Norman Rockwell’s The Golden Rule. The warm glow of a restaurant patio invites the viewer to sit and visit for a while in Café Terrace at Night by Van Gogh and a brightly lit street enjoys a moment of quiet in Edward Hopper’s Sun on Prospect Street.

These pictures wouldn’t be out of place on the walls of a famous museum, but these artworks can be a part of your home, simply by using your Clark County Public Library card to check them out of our framed art collection at the Main Library. With your library card, up to three pieces of art can be borrowed for three months at a time. We’ve had many customers tell us that the use the artwork not only to freshen up a space in their home, but also to stage a home in preparation for sale, or to change up the look of a dorm room or office space.

From art for your walls, to art for your soul, the library also has many art related resources available in both digital and traditional formats.

The Great Courses Library Collection is a streaming, video on demand service, featuring in-depth videos by the world’s greatest professors. Explore courses on the Fundamentals of Photography, taught by National Geographic award-winning photographer, Joel Sartore. Discover more hands-on skills like How to Draw and How Colors Affect You. Or take a visually rich trip around the globe to learn about Masterpieces of the Ancient World.

Kanopy, gives library card holders free access to over 30,000 documentaries, classic and indie films. Arts related films reach from architecture and design to performing arts to fashion, with titles like Dior and I: Inside the World of the Christian Dior Fashion House, I Am Big Bird: The Carrol Spinney Story, Wagonmasters: A Celebration of the American Station Wagon and Ken Burns: The Brooklyn Bridge. Watch these and more, all at no cost with your Clark County Public Library card.

The library’s Gale Courses subscription allows card holders’ access to a wide range of highly interactive, instructor led courses that you can take entirely online. Courses run for six weeks and new sessions begin every month. Sessions include classes on interior design, beginning drawing, writing, graphic design and photography and are offered at no cost to our library patrons.

Browsing the shelves in our libraries, you’ll run across a varied collection of books about art – from the making of it, to the study of it, to the history of it! Everything from a visual exploration of the renowned glass artist, Dale Chihuly, in World of Glass by Jan Greenburg, to the fascinating history of rock and roll posters in The Art of Rock: Posters from Presley to Punk by Paul Grushkin, to making art out of your own old books in Book Art: Creative Ideas to Transform Your Books--Decorations, Stationery, Display Scenes, and More by Clare Youngs. There is plenty of inspiration living on our shelves just waiting to be discovered.

If music is more your thing, the library not only houses thousands of CDs in our collection, from rock to jazz to country and more, but we also offer our customers a wide catalog of music available via the digital media service Hoopla. Hoopla allows you to borrow music, movies, audiobooks, ebooks, comics and TV shows to enjoy on your computer, tablet, or phone – and even your TV! With no waiting, titles can be streamed immediately, or downloaded to phones or tablets for offline enjoyment later. There are hundreds of thousands of titles to choose from, with more being added daily. Hoopla is like having your public library at your fingertips. Anytime. Anywhere.

All of these resources (and more) are available for your use right now with a Clark County Public Library card! Don’t have a card? Stop by any of our five locations and fill out and application for a card today, or request a digital library card (for use of our online services only) by emailing ebooks@ccpl.lib.oh.us to get started.
Further information on all of these resources can be found on the library’s website at www.ccplohio.org or by calling the library at (937) 328-6903.