Well it's been a while since I last wrote but that's because I've been quite busy the last two months getting every thing ready for this latest project. Man time can sure fly when you have a ton on your plate!
Yes, it's that time of year again! Summer is here and so is the CSLP Summer Reading program. This year's theme was All Together Now: Kindness/Friendship/Unity. I'll be honest, this was a particularly difficult year in terms of concept for me because with such a broad theme. The broader the theme, the more open-ended the interpretation. That may seem like an artist's dream, but I actually find it harder to come up with a cohesive design for all the decorations when given too broad of a concept than when I'm given a very narrow, specific topic to focus on.
That being said, I think I pulled it off fairly well. The designs may not be the most exciting of all the ones I've ever done (my favorite was of course the theme the year the library was closed for COVID lockdowns) but they came together in the end. I focused on hands a lot - multi colored hands for the main bulletin board, ASL to represent the school names, and a heart of hands on the back bulletin board. For the kindness aspect of course, we left a photo opportunity for kids to represent the 'I' in KIND on the back bulletin board. I also wanted to leave an opportunity open for kids to share with each other by creating a box in which they could leave tickets for one another with book recommendations. If someone is looking for a recommendation of what to read they can check the box, pull out a ticket and look for books based on other kids' suggestions. What better way than to spread a love of reading?
Finally, to incorporate some of the 'unity' theme I focused on Cinderella stories from around the world for the display window. I was able to find shoes at the thrift store that I felt fit the styles of the different cultures and doctored some of them to reflect the story from each country. I finally wised up and took some pictures before setting up the window so that you can see them better without the glare from the (freshly cleaned!) window. Now the game is... can you figure out which shoes are the mates to one another? I was able to use both shoes from all except two pairs of shoes to make up all the different countries. That's a money saving tip for anyone out there creating a similar display for your library! ;)
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