Explore: art

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Philadelphia's Centaur Book Shop and Press, 1921-1942

The Centaur Book Shop was opened on 1224 Chancellor Street in Philadelphia by Harold Mason. Initial funding was partially supplied by John Frederick Lewis, the Philadelphia bibliophile and philantrophist whose important contributions to…

Get Ready for ... Cartoonapalooza!

Now that the Free Library has wrapped up its annual Comic Con , we're proud to offer fans of serial art an additional chance to meet some of their favorite artists. The cartoonists of the National Cartoonists Society are gathering…

Napoleon's Return (to the Children's Department at Parkway Central Library)

As you walk through the Children’s Department at Parkway Central Library , we hope you’ll stop and admire our newly-returned statue, The Young Bonaparte . We’re happy to have Napoleon back, inspiring our visitors to…

Embrace the Sacred and Interstellar Through the Art and Poetry of Stellar Masses

Yolanda Wisher is back! She left us in 2017 as the first Poet Laureate since the Free Library assumed responsibility for nurturing our city's chief word smith. On May 9, 2018 at 6:30 p.m., she's returning as curator with…

The Return of the Free Library of Comic Con!

The 4th annual Free Library of Comic Con will descend upon the Parkway Central Library on May 12, 2018! There’s so much going on at this year’s event that we don’t even know if we can fit all of our excitement into one…

Black Artists from the Stacks: The Libraries Are Appreciated

Take a deep dive into the Free Library’s resources on African American artists at The Libraries Are Appreciated , an exhibition from the Parkway Central’s Art Department . Borrowing its name from the 1943 painting by Jacob…

The City of Arborly Love: Flora, Fauna, and Free Trees at Parkway Central Library!

Throughout Spring and Summer, every corner of the Free Library of Philadelphia will be taking inspiration from In Our Nature: Flora and Fauna of the Americas - an exhibition taking place in our Rare Book Department's Dietrich…

Free Library of Comic Con Returns to Parkway Central Library on May 12, 2018!

For the fourth year in a row, the Free Library of Philadelphia will be hosting our very own Comic Con ! If you’re not sure what a “comic con” is, just imagine all of the amazing nerdy things you love balled up into one…

Celebrating History's Unsung Creative Couples

On February 7, we opened a new exhibition celebrating the art and achievements of romantic couples, from the powerful royalty of the 16th century to cinema stars of Old Hollywood to local artists creating together today. Of Two…

Art of the Nature Printed Book

Nature printing is a term that encompasses several different printmaking processes for making direct reproductions of natural objects. The simplest and most direct of these is something most people will recognize: a plant, ideally one…

Take Your Broken Heart, Make It Into Art

We lost a lot of important things and people last year, and it looks like we’re on track for more losses and heartbreaks in the coming years. But, I guess we knew what we signed up for, eh? One of the more memorable statements to…

The Free Library Welcomes the Philadelphia Poet Laureate Program

We didn’t think we could love poetry any more than we already do here at the Free Library … but we were wrong. The City of Philadelphia Poet Laureate program —which has flourished in the five years since it was…

The Free Library Wants Your Art!

Do you know any local artists (and by that, we also mean writers, musicians, performers…) who are seeking a wider audience for their work and would like to get paid for it? The Free Library is trying out a new concept:…

Grandfather's Papers: The Jacques Wissler Collection

The Print and Picture Collection (PIX) in Parkway Central Library is home to diverse collections of fine art prints, photographs, drawings, and artists’ books, as well as extensive research collections of Philadelphia images, both…

The Art of Katherine Milhous

Katherine Milhous (1894-1977) wore many hats in her time: a supervisor for the Federal Art Project ; an artist for the Pennsylvania Art Project (a subsidiary of the Federal Art Project, which itself was formed under the…

Free Library of Comic Con

At long last, the time has come... If you’ve been longing to get out of the house after a long snow and ice bound end to winter, Free Library of Comic Con ( FLoCC ) is a great chance to go out and get your geek on! This year's…

Abraham Lincoln: Fashion Trendsetter or Patent Pioneer?

So, what’s the story with Abraham Lincoln wearing a leather biker jacket? If you’ve ever entered or exited Parkway Central Library through the back door on Wood Street, you might have seen the picture in question. It gets…

Philadelphia-Based Artist Selected for Public Art Commission at Parkway Central Library

The Free Library, along with the Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy (OACCE) ’s Percent for Art program , has announced a new site-specific public art commission to be carried out by Philadelphia-based public artist…

Fur and Feathers: A New Exhibition in the Print and Picture Collection Hallway

Cat lovers and bird lovers unite! While cats and birds have a contentious relationship in nature, images of them have been living harmoniously side-by-side in the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Print and Picture Collection . Fur…

Prince

Prince . One word. One being. Thousands of songs. Millions of fans . A purple pop polymath. That guitar SOUND! And now, he's left this mortal coil (as if he could ever be contained by it in the first place). Try as they might, words…

The Picture Book Masterclass: A Six-Month Intensive Workshop (Part III)

“The Picture Book Masterclass” is an intensive mentoring program for intermediate to advanced illustrators who wish to develop their manuscript into a submission-ready dummy in six months. This Workshop series is…

Tripod : People, Places, Portraits

Drexel University , Canon Solutions America , and Canon USA have collaborated to introduce an innovative year-long project series with Writers Room and Mighty Writers called Tripod . During the 2017-2018 school year, six groups of three…

The Arborists of Philadelphia's Parks & Recreation

An Exhibition in the Business Resource and Innovation Center (2nd floor) April 24 - September 15, 2018 Throughout Spring and Summer every corner of the Free Library of Philadelphia will be taking inspiration from In Our Nature: Flora…

In Our Nature: Flora and Fauna of the Americas

An Exhibition in the Rare Book Department's William B. Dietrich Gallery (3rd floor) April 9 - September 15, 2018 The ecology of the Western Hemisphere has been shaped by human intervention. Landscapes and wildlife have been helped,…