articles

ARTT Selfie Project

Submit your "Selfie" to this fun Youth Art Show

September 3, 2020

Inspired by author Jacqueline Woodson’s virtual program for the Lenoir-Rhyne University Visiting Writers Series on October 8 – and to celebrate her novel, Harbor Me – the Catawba County Library is hosting an ARTT show featuring selfies from kids and youth grades 5 and up.

Woodson’s New York Times' best-selling novel tells the story of six students who meet weekly to talk, congregating in a former art room (known as the ARTT, an abbreviation for A Room To Talk). Conversations touch on race, immigration, family, and identity as the students discuss their lives, their thoughts and perspectives, and the emotions and dreams they harbor within themselves.

Since the narrative revolves around the concept of identity, the library is exploring that theme by inviting young people to create their own selfies in the form of a traditional smartphone selfie, an essay, a poem, or a self-portrait created in any medium: paint, photography, sculpture, pencil, etc. The project is not a contest but an opportunity for young people to express themselves and share their talents. While reading Harbor Me is recommended, it is not required for participation.

The overarching goal of the project is to celebrate young people and their artwork and to invite them to share their lives and what matters to them through the selfies they create.

Selfie submissions will be accepted through September 30, either in person at any library branch or digitally at kidshare@catawbacountync.gov. Please include contact information with each entry, including email and/or phone number, as well as the artist’s name and age.

Once submissions have been received, the library will host a virtual art show online – as well as an in-person exhibit at the Main Library in Newton – from October 1 through 31. While supplies last, youth submitting the earliest selfies will receive a copy of one of Woodson’s novels.

For more information about the Catawba County Library, visit www.catawbacountync.gov/library, call 828.465.8665, email mylibrary@catawbacountync.gov, or visit www.facebook.com/catawbacountylibrarysystem.