{"id":29704,"date":"2021-07-22T23:53:02","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T03:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29704"},"modified":"2021-07-22T23:58:46","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T03:58:46","slug":"community-artists-make-bold-statement-on-librarys-everything-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/community-artists-make-bold-statement-on-librarys-everything-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Community artists make bold statement on Library\u2019s \u201cEverything Wall\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s not every day where taking a writing implement and expressing yourself on a wall is anything but frowned upon, but with a piece of chalk in hand, the Aurora Public Library is encouraging you to express yourself on its \u201cEverything Wall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On now through the end of July, the Library has launched their \u201cEverything Wall\u201d in partnership with the Town of Aurora, one where all you need is a piece of chalk, a bit of imagination, and, if you want to take it really seriously, a camera to show off your work on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initiative has seen large blackboards installed on Church Street fencing around the Aurora Town Square building project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s inspired by Drew Hayden Taylor\u2019s novel, Chasing Painted Horses, the Library\u2019s 2021 One Book One Aurora selection where one such wall plays a pivotal part in the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the book, the mom invites neighbourhood kids to come and draw something on the wall,\u201d explains Reccia Mandelcorn, Manager of Community Collaboration for the Library. \u201cShe puts a chalkboard up every week and every week the kids are invited to come by and put something on the wall. Then there\u2019s a vote as to what the best artwork is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne Book One Aurora (OBOA), which we have been hosting at the Library since 2014, has always been an adult book because usually when you do a community read, just because of the substance and reach, it is an adult book and there has never been an opportunity to have any of the events that are part of OBOA extend to the whole community, including children. But, in this particular book, there was the option to be able to have an evolving community art project where little kids and grandparents can participate in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success of the OBOA project is its ability to extend beyond Library walls and into the entire community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they happened upon this idea, the Library reached out to Phil Rose, Project Manager for the Town Square development, to collaborate \u2013 an opportunity that he and the Town jumped at, getting their hands dirty painting the chalkboards and making sure they\u2019re secure for the community to let their creativity fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one primary difference from the book, however, is the Library is not going to pick what is \u201cbest\u201d from contributions submitted to them via email or social media; rather, the winner is selected by random draw each week through to the end of the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the most special things to me about Chasing Painted Horses and the idea of the Everything Wall is Drew captures the creative process \u2013 it is not the finished project that matters very much to the young protagonist, Danielle, but the process in bringing the book to life. In that respect, something like the Everything Wall where anybody \u2013 children, grandparents, any ages \u2013 can draw and go through the process of contributing to something that is seen by the community. It doesn\u2019t stay there forever as we only have two large spaces, it is not like a finished project that is hung on your wall or your refrigerator forever, but it is an evolving creative expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that speaks to part of the story in the book about the artistic process, the artistic process of our community, whether they are three years old, eight years old, or 89 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To take part in the Everything Wall project, all you need to do is go up to the Library\u2019s temporary Church Street entrance, ask for a piece of chalk, let your imagination run wild \u2013 keeping in mind community standards, of course \u2013 and, when you\u2019re done, snap a picture and send it to LFrechette@aurorapl.ca<\/a>. In light of COVID-19, there is no need to return the chalk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can express yourself in any way,\u201d says Ms. Mandelcorn. \u201cWe hope people will send in their pictures so we will be able to post them and have a record. It\u2019s an activity you can do outside, it\u2019s safe, you can have social distance, say what you want, draw what you want, and be a part of an evolving community project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust enjoy and be a part of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not every day where taking a writing implement and expressing yourself on a wall is anything but frowned upon, but with a piece of chalk in hand, the Aurora Public Library is encouraging you to express yourself on its \u201cEverything Wall.\u201d On now through the end of July, the Library has launched their \u201cEverything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/2021-07-22-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7J6","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 12:03:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}