Another Public Art Project

"Turns out libraries have nothing at all to do with silence:" Santa Cruz Public Libraries Inside Out Community Art Project.

This participatory public art project features portraits of the people who use the library, and celebrates this institution as a vibrant, active part of the community, made relevant by the relationships it fosters. While distinctly unique to Santa Cruz, the project also links to a global public art project initiated in 2010 by TED Prize winner (tedprize.org) and street artist JR. The global Inside Out project transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world. From a unique image posted in a window to large-scale installations on urban walls, Inside Out exhibitions are being documented, archived and viewable online at (insideoutproject.net).

I happened to be downtown this afternoon while they were installing the huge portraits on the walls of the library. What a marvelous happy project, bringing smiles to the faces of everyone passing by. There are also large images hanging inside, and, yes, I'm in there (just not in this photograph).