A public art project at the Rochester Public Library next week will have participants coloring 2-by-2-inch white ceramic tiles for a mosaic display in the library skyway.
"They can create anything they want," said Ally Addison, a youth services librarian. "We're hoping for 500 to participate, but as many who would like to can come."
The library received a donation of more than 800 tiles for the project, Addison said. During library hours, 9:30 a.m. to a half-hour before the library's 9 p.m. closing time, Monday through Thursday, and until 4 p.m. on Friday, patrons can come in and color a tile in as many as 10 colors of permanent marker. Participation is free, and patrons are asked to limit their efforts to one tile.
The project stems from earlier public art projects organized in partnership with the Rochester Art Center. "We wanted one that was entirely run by the library," Addison said. "It's anything you want to draw." The library suggests designs on a summer theme, but "we don't want to limit what people can come up with — it's their creativity," she said.
The tiles will be put up on the walls in the library skyway within a few weeks, Addison said.
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The library has offered a handful of new projects with this year's Rochesterfest. Besides the tiles project, there has been an egg-drop activity, in which child participants designed containers to protect eggs from breaking in a six-story fall; "Busking for Books," a performance-art exhibition to be held outside the library over the lunch hour Monday and Thursday next week; and adult storytime on the Civic Center Drive stage before lunch-hour musical performances, at 11:15 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.
