The Terrazas Branch Austin Public Library recently had a two month long program on altering books. The teen librarian, Joanna Nigrelli sent out their flickr album link http://www.flickr.com/photos/aplteens/sets/72157594326521707/ to the YALSA listserve today and I just love seeing all the different pieces. It just seems like such a fun program to do. She remarked that it was a very successful event. They held a total of twenty workshops between October and November.
I think collage art in general would be a wonderful activity for a teen program. It’s so intuitive, theraputic and it gives teens a chance to be creative and artsy without actually having to possess what is thought of as traditional artistic skill. Teens spend so much time in a school environment where final grades and test scores are ultimately what matters most. Not only that but many public schools are often faced with budget issues and art/music programs are typically the first to feel the effects. Libraries can help fill in the gaps by offering creative art/music programs and encourage an environment where teens don’t have to feel pressured. Art and music can teach teens how the process of creating or learning something is just as important as the outcome.
I think this kind of thing would work well as an ongoing everyday after school program. However, rather than focusing soley on altered books, you could just do a general altered art program. You can pretty much alter anything, from books , journals , postcards , playing cards , cd’s , boxes …then provide them with the general supplies: paint, markers, pastels, assortmant of paper/collage paper, yarn/ribbon, found objects. You can, of course, get real fancy with stamps and such but I think it would be best to start with the basics and see if it takes off before investing in the expensive stuff.
There’s also a lot of potential for this to go beyond just a basic craft program. Take the Found Art project for example. Post/playcards can be altered to include quotes from a favorite book and then placed in another book for a reader to be pleasently suprised with. If you include the author and the title of the book on the card then it could potentially function as a niffty little readers advisory tool, something which teens may find a little more intriguing as opposed to a traditional book talk. Perhaps this could be a TAG project of some sort. Teens providing readers advisory to other teens.
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