The Williamsburg Regional Library is hosting a collaborative community art project that captures the realities of life under quarantine.
In partnership with William & Mary Libraries, the Muscarelle Museum of Art and CultureFix VA, the Williamsburg Regional Library will host “Our Town: Williamsburg 2020 Community Art Project” at the Stryker Center beginning Saturday through the end of October.
The exhibition comes after the Williamsburg Regional Library involved the community in April to participate in an art and memory project that captures life under quarantine. Since then more than 130 items including photographs, poems, artwork and journals have been submitted to the collection.
“Libraries are the place where people from across the community connect, and the Our Town: Williamsburg 2020 Community Art Project is an opportunity to have that shared experience in a different and very powerful way,” said Betsy Fowler, library director, in a news release. “We are excited by the opportunity to collaborate and help showcase the expertise of the Muscarelle Museum of Art and William and Mary Libraries, and the energy and creativity of CultureFix.”
The exhibition will be mounted on the windows of the Stryker Center facing Boundary Street and City Square. It will be visible from the outside at all times so people can enjoy the exhibition in the open air to allow for social distancing and a “dynamic street art experience.”
There will also be a digital display that features scrolling poetry and other written material.
Submissions to the libraries were curated and mounted by staff from both the Muscarelle Museum of Art and William & Mary Libraries.
The exhibition will also include the community wine bottle sculpture project from CultureFix titled “Stay at Home.” The project started in May and asked people to collect, decorate and donate wine bottles in order to make one large sculpture. Now there are more than 250 painted wine bottles that have been collected and will be displayed in a stylized house frame.
There will also be CultureFix volunteers staffing the Stryker Center from 5-7 p.m. on Tuesdays for guests who want to view the art up close.
The opening of the exhibition will be celebrated with live music from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and soft drinks will be available.
For more information, visit the Williamsburg Regional Library online.
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