Awesome Omni Con!

We just hosted Omni Con at Martin Library and it was really fun and awesome! A con is a big event that people gather to and participate in, a few examples in case you are unfamiliar are: Comic- Con and CatCon for Omni Con, we collaborated with other libraries and librarians within the system to organize different workshops and crafts. For workshops we had face painting, comic drawing, crochet, and an author talk with Jessica Eppley. For crafts we had Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) with artist Kate Hufnagel, fuzzy tails, yarn beards, bottle cap pins, and a coloring contest with rejected Pokemon drawn by our staff member Ross.

Read on to see some of the great photos from the event!

Art Club: Artist Trading Cards

Artist trading cards or ATC as they are called for short, are tiny works of art that people make and trade with each other. This is based on the idea of other cards that have been traded for things like sports or animated characters, only these cars are for artists. The teens and I got to experience making artist trading cards thanks to Kate Hufnagel, a fantastic artist.

To make Art Club more interesting for the summer I decided to bring in some guest artists. This also ties in with our Summer Reading theme of heroes because I wanted to have the teens possibly think about how artists can be heroes. Kate came with an amazing array of supplies and was helpful and instrumental in getting the teens to make art and trade it! http://www.flipsidepa.com/ci_25685212/artist-trading-cards-are-focus-new-york-art

A way to make this program happen in you library is to see if the artistic community in your area would be willing to make a few cards with the teens and get them started trading and making. Or you could simply start it within the teen group at your library. Or partner with another community organization outside of the library (senior center and teen group trading cards?) There are lots of possibilities with this program, so go big! For supplies you need various papers, images (old magazines will do), paper towels, table coverings, brushes. glue, and some card stock cut to trading card size. Most likely this stuff is already in your library! So gather it up, get a group, and make some art! Email me for questions and information! dstates@yorklibraries.org

Dawn states: Vincent Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists. Who is yours? Leave a comment!