After 15 years of running The Sketchbook Project, we’ve accumulated over 50,000 sketchbooks that live in our permanent collection at Brooklyn Art Library. Our collection embodies the age old expression, “Don’t Judge a Book By It’s Cover!” Each kraft colored book that you pull down holds a story that is as unique as the individual. Part of the magic of our library is that you never know just what you’ll find as you explore the books throughout our shelves.
As employees of Brooklyn Art Library, our days are consumed with the collection. While our daily lives are surrounded by interacting with and preserving The Sketchbook Project, each book is only a glimpse of an artist’s experience frozen in time. It often makes us wonder…What is the impact of our project? Do our participants remember it often or is it something they send off and never think about again? Where are they now and how has their work evolved or lives changed after this experience?
These questions sparked our Founder and Managing Director, Steven Peterman and Associate Creative Director, Autumn Farina to explore the collection through getting to know the artists behind these stories. Like our collection, this podcast is versatile! Each episode features participants from our community as we discover the stories behind their books through different themes, formats and topics.
We hope you embark on this journey with us and become just as inspired as we are by the stories that unfold through each episode. Together, we will learn more about the collection from the eyes of the creators themselves and unveil what was really going on when they shared their story with The Sketchbook Project.