Call for Submissions: Create Art & Reconnect for Our Community Art Show

Posted on January 4, 2023 at 9:40 am

By Alison Johnson

We’re hosting a Community Art Show again this year! For 2023, the theme is all about reconnecting—with other people, places, and ourselves.

To go along with that theme, the canvas for all art in this year’s show are postcards.

During January, each of our libraries will have a postcard craft station with blank postcards for you to take home to create your artwork, or you can work on your postcard art with the supplies available, in limited quantities, at the craft stations.

Along with the postcard, you will need to fill out the brief information card with your name and the title of your artwork.

Everyone, of any age, in the community is invited to create a postcard for the art show.

To submit your art to the show, look for the submission box which will be located at the craft station or at the front desk of the library.

The submission deadline is January 29.

Note: We will only be accepting artwork on the provided postcards due to limited exhibition space at each library.

You can access the full Terms & Conditions for participating in the art show.

Wait… There’s More!

There’s an added bonus to go along with the theme of “Reconnecting” and the postcard!

Is there a certain person or place you would like to connect with in 2023? Each artist can provide an address (U.S. domestic addresses only) on the back of the postcard to a person or place they would like to send their art to and reconnect with this year.

The addressee on your postcard doesn’t have to be practical. It can be whimsical! For instance, maybe you want to get in touch with a unicorn, Jane Austen, Never Never Land, or Albert Einstein? Or maybe you are interested in reconnecting with a long-lost friend or a family member who lives far away. You could reconnect with a neighbor or your favorite restaurant.

If you’re reconnecting with yourself, you can even address the postcard to you!

At the end of the art show, the library will mail your postcard for you.

If you choose not to add an addressee to your postcard, then it will be recycled after the art show.

Art Show & Mailing Limits

The U.S. Postal Service has size and weight restrictions for mailing postcards. This means that your artwork needs to be in two dimensions, and you are not able to build onto or attach 3D art to the postcard.

You still have a variety of ways to create 2-dimensional art on your postcard using one or more of the following media:

• Paint – watercolors or acrylic
• Pencils – graphite or colored
• Markers
• Pastels
• Collage

For inspiration, you can check out books from our collections and explore online classes about art, crafts, and creativity:

• Check out these books found on our shelves
• Access arts & crafts eBooks from OverDrive and on the Libby app
• Explore online art and crafts classes with Creativebug

View the Art Show

The Community Art Show will be on display in libraries February 6–28.

We will also have a curated virtual art show at the same time, viewable on our Annual Art Show web page.

We encourage you stop into the library and visit online to see artwork from artists across Spokane County. And we hope you reconnect with someone or some place you have been missing these past few years!

Alison Johnson is an Education and Enrichment Librarian at Spokane County Library District and the community librarian for the Airway Heights Library. She creates library programming and events for children ages 8–18. This means she gets to play with many things, including messy paints and mini robots. When she has free time, Alison enjoys hiking trails with her dog, paddle boarding (on very calm waters), and reading while enjoying a cup of tea.

Tags: adults, all ages, art, art show, artists, books, community, crafts, create, creativebug, creativity, kids, overdrive, reconnect, reconnection, teens, tweens