Little Free Art Galleries

A number of years ago, the phenomenon of "Little Free Libraries," appurtenances in people's front yards where people leave books for others to take, was created.

I thought they'd end up defaulting to a mean of "schlock fiction," but I was wrong.  Over the years, in many different places, I've found lots of important books on a range of topics.  I've seen them at libraries, museums, outside public buildings (in Essen, Germany), on transit (at the Highbury and Islington station on the London Underground, etc.

In fact, just last week in a little town in Idaho, I checked out their LFL only to find a newly published fiction book on my list to read.  But I've picked up books on airports, positive deviance theory, architecture, cooking, etc.

Since then variants have been created including Little Free Seed Libraries (article, Mother Earth News) and Little Free Food Pantries.  And many people divide the LFL into sections for adults and children.  The Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County library systems have seed library projects.

Wasatch Elementary is an arts-focused school in Salt Lake.  Like many of the schools in the district, they hold an annual fundraising event.  WE is unusual in that the items in the auction are exclusively artworks produced by students in the various classes, usually as group projects.

And now, Little Free Art Galleries ("Little free art galleries are popping up around the Bay Area," San Francisco Chronicle).  

In fact just last Friday at a local school fundraising auction, a LFAG was for sale.