Users of The Seattle Public Library’s Temporary Central Library, 800 Pike St., are invited to stop by the first-floor checkout desk between Saturday, March 1 and Friday, March 7 to pick up the first in a series of 10 colorful, collectible bookmarks that celebrate the Dewey decimal classification and commemorate how knowledge is organized.
The bookmarks, created by conceptual and visual artist Helen Lessick, are part of The Peephole Series sponsored by the Library and the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs (formerly the Seattle Arts Commission). The Peephole Series is funded by Arts & Cultural Affairs.
Like a peephole in a construction fence, the library-related temporary public art projects are intended to provide the public with insights into the development of the new Central Library and to promote discussion about the place a 21st century library holds in a democratic society. The artwork will be staged throughout 2003, leading up to the completion of the new library late in the year.
The new 362,987-square-foot Central Library was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas in a joint venture with Seattle-based LMN Architects. The building is currently under construction at 1000 Fourth Ave.
Lessick’s Decimal•Points is the first artwork in The Peephole Series. Based on the basic premise of Dewey’s classification system, Decimal•Points features 10 original works of research and visual art. The bookmarks reflect both the Library’s holdings and the construction countdown to the opening of the new Central Library.
Staff members at the first-floor checkout desk at the Temporary Central Library will distribute the bookmarks the first week of every month for 10 months, beginning Saturday, March 1. Each month, a total of 3,500 Decimal•Points bookmarks will be distributed free of charge on a first-come, first-served basis, during regular library hours.
The first bookmark, which represents 000: General Information, will be distributed from Saturday, March 1 to Friday, March 7 (or until supplies run out). The rest of the schedule is:
Library users are encouraged to collect the latest bookmark and view the changes as the Library prepares to move to the new Central Library. A limited number of each bookmark will be available at one of the opening ceremonies.
Lessick’s public art print projects include collectible baseball cards for Safeco Field, a bus riders’ treasure map for Pierce Transit, and an interactive card game for Bellevue Art Museum. The former Seattle resident moved to Los Angeles last fall.
“As a conceptual artist, I use observational systems as a lens with which to re-view everyday experience,” said Lessick, who been making artists books and textual projects for 25 years. “As a public artist, I work to create connection between art and the public through temporal and tactile experience. Literally, I aim to give the viewer something to take away from the work. “
Other artists who are part of The Peephole Series:
The Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, a city department working to increase public awareness of and support for the arts, is managing the Library’s public art program.
Voters approved the new Central Library in 1998 as part of the $196.4 million “Libraries for All” bond measure. The bond money, which can be used only for construction of libraries, will fund improvements to all 22 branches, build five new branches and build the new Central Library.
For more information about “Libraries for All,” visit the Library’s Web site at www.spl.org.
(For more information, call Caroline Young Ullmann, Library communications assistant, at 206-615-1627, or Karen L. Bystrom, communications director, Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, at 206-684-7306.)
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Content modified: 28 February 2003
12/30/2005
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