Grants bring great artwork prints to local libraries

The libraries at Bartlett and Streamwood high schools recently received 40 laminated prints of famous American works of art through the Picturing America Grant, funded by the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Works depicted include paintings of Paul Revere by John Singleton Copley and Grant Wood, engravings by John James Audubon, photographs by Alexander Gardner and Dorothea Lange, and depictions of pottery, baskets, sterling silver and architecture.

Although the prints are covered with high-quality laminate, the entire package surprised staff at both schools as the prints came two-sided -- thus only totaling 20 actual pieces.

Further complicating matters was the fact that about 12 pieces had vertical orientation on one side and horizontal orientation on the other, posing problems on how to display them.

"We had grand designs of putting them over our bookcases, but because of the difference in orientation, we can't," said Bartlett librarian Colette Leeser-Freeman.

Bartlett intends to suspend seven of the vertically oriented posters over a set of low bookcases so that students will be able to see both sides. The rest will be mounted on cork strips on walls with only one side visible. Leeser-Freeman plans to have the artworks mounted by the end of the month.

At Streamwood, librarian Jill Kasper chose to display 15 of the laminated posters on bulletin boards in the library.

"Along with the art posters we added scanned book covers of both fiction and non-fiction titles that covered the same time period or place," Kasper said.

Accompanying the laminated prints is a teacher resource manual that gives background on each piece, as well as appropriate suggested activities for elementary, middle-school and high-school levels. The possibilities go beyond use in art classes.

Bartlett social studies instructor Jim Fash, who helped Leeser-Freeman write the grant along with career specialist Mary Van Slyck, foresees using the posters to spur discussion in his classes.

Similar activities are expected to occur at Streamwood.

"We've already had a teacher use the resource manual to plan a writing-prompt lesson for her English classes," Kasper said.

Assistant librarian Laura Collila helped Kasper write the grant for Streamwood.