I just found out about this cool new thing in Seattle. The cool new thing is the Cooper Jounal and they have started an art library where people can go and sign up and get free art! The art is lent to the public…much like a library book…and must be returned. Once you sign up you even get an art library card. Enjoy!

The below information is from Cooper Jounal click to visit

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The idea is simple:

1) CHECK-OUT: Every 3 months a library will be created in the cultural arts center. The public will be invited to register for membership in the form of a library card. The librarians will create library cards and records of each participant including a photograph and appropriate paperwork to track members. Once membership is granted patrons will be invited to select one piece of work to be checked out in their name for a 3-month period.

5) INSTALLATION: Librarians will install the artwork at each patron’s home. At the time of checkout a date will be established when librarians will visit the patron’s home and secure the artwork in a suitable location.  All we require is that the work be touched solely by the Librarians.  If a patron wants a piece moved we will return to the home and re-install it.

6) RETURN: Librarians accompanied by a documentarian will visit the patron’s home to remove the work and return it to the library for future circulation. Additionally, the documentarian will photograph the artwork, and patron, if desired, as a running portrayal of the artwork as it travels from home to home

More about Cooper Journal:

Cooper Artist Housing is a 36 unit building in Seattle where artists live and work. A project of  DNDA (Delridge Neighborhood Development Association), Cooper is a federally subsidized housing project designated specifically for artists. To live here, you have to be an artist in some shape or form (writer, painter, jewelry maker, poet, dancer, etc.) and your income must be within 30-60% of the national average. People of all ages live here, including families, dogs and cats. We aren’t your average apartment building; Cooper is more of a contained neighborhood where everyone knows each other.

Before its current incarnation, this building had a long year life as Cooper School, an eight-grade school built in 1917.  The school gradually became a “bad school” and by 1989 the Seattle School District saw no other option than to board up the building. After 16 dormant years, DNDA led the building through the elaborate renovation process, taking efforts to maintain the building’s historic integrity while also making the spaces livable. The building opened in 2006, with Cooper Artist Housing on the top three floors and Youngstown Cultural Arts Center on the ground floor.

I was checking out City Arts Magazine website today when I got a message from one of our artists Jeremy Gregory. Turns out that City Arts is featuring the evolution of Jeremy’s work for the magazine. City Arts Magazine is great and it features issues in Tacoma, Seattle and the Eastside. Anyway, Jeremy has a very cool illustration style that is ever changing and expanding. To check out the evolution of Jeremy’s work click here!

Artwork by Jeremy Gregory