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The Sketchbook Project was a global, collaborative art project that invited anyone to order a blank sketchbook, fill it with their creativity, and send it back to become part of the world's largest collection of sketchbooks. Hosted by the Brooklyn Art Library, the project was a way to combine hands-on creativity with online technology. Participants' sketchbooks were cataloged and could be viewed in person at the library or online, and many were also included in a traveling exhibition. The project officially closed in 2023.
I heard of this project a few times and always wanted to participate, so I’m very proud of myself for completing this sketchbook and attending the 2012 traveling exhibit at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, IL. It was an amazing experience to not only check out my sketchbook, but to discover so many other creative interpretations of the theme.
Currently (according to the Brooklyn Art Library website), my sketchbook is most likely held at the Taube Museum of Art in Minot, North Dakota in their Sketchbook Project Art Collection.
For this project, I wanted to make a silly interactive encyclopedia full of random ordinary things full of hand written and hand illustrated words starting in the letter “J”. I also wanted an interactive element to the sketchbook, so i drew some of the elements in 3-D and attached a pair of 3-D glasses to the back, so anyone who randomly picked up my sketchbook could have fun watching the different elements pop off the pages as they flipped through the book. This project was a lot of work, but really fun and really rewarding. It was really cool to think it sat in a library in Brooklyn NY for a while, but it would be cool to visit it in North Dakota as well!