Catawba County News

Join Our ARTT – Selfie Project

Published: September 03, 2020

In honor of author Jacqueline Woodson’s virtual program for the Lenoir-Rhyne University Visiting Writers Series on October 8 and to celebrate her novel, Harbor Me, the Catawba County Library is hosting an ARTT show featuring selfies from kids and youth grades 5 and up.

Woodson’s New York Times' best-selling novel tells the story of six students who meet weekly to talk, congregating in a former art room (known as the ARTT, an abbreviation for A Room To Talk). Conversations touch on race, immigration, family, and identity as the students discuss their lives, their thoughts and perspectives, and the emotions and dreams they harbor within themselves.

Since the narrative revolves around the concept of identity, the library is exploring that theme by inviting youngsters to create selfies. The idea of a selfie is widely open to interpretation, so it can be a smartphone selfie, an essay, a poem, or a self-portrait created in any medium: paint, photography, sculpture, pencil, charcoal, pastels, and so on. It's totally up to the person who produces it. Moreover, youngsters are not required to have read the book to participate.

The overarching goal of the project is to celebrate kids and their art work and to invite them to talk about their lives through the selfies they create, sharing what matters to them through their artistic choices.

Selfie submissions will be accepted from September 7-30, either in person at any library branch or digitally at kidshare@catawbacountync.gov. Please include the person's name, age, email, and/or phone number with each entry.

Once submissions have been received, the library will host a virtual art show online – as well as an in-person exhibit at the Main Library in Newton – from October 1 through 31. While supplies last, artists submitting the earliest selfies will receive a copy of one of Woodson’s novels.

To view a video invitation for the project, click here.