Art Department

1901 Vine Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-686-5403

Upcoming Events

The Art Department maintains a comprehensive reference and circulating collection of over 60,000 books on the fine arts, architecture, garden design, interior design, fashion, graphic arts, crafts, collectibles, and photography. Books are available for loan on all these topics, including a large circulating collection of instructional books on all aspects of arts and crafts, including drawing, painting, sculpture, knitting, crochet, embroidery, papercrafts and photography.

The private library of John Frederick Lewis (1860-1932), an important Philadelphia collector and bibliophile, comprised of books on the arts from the 17th century until the early 20th Century is housed at the Regional Operations Center and available through the Art Department. 

Research files

The Art Department also holds an extensive selection of files on artists, architects, designers and collectors, and the art & architecture of Philadelphia. These include article clippings, gallery announcements, artist statements, exhibition catalogs, and other ephemera related to artists and art subjects. Please consult Art Department librarians for access. 

Databases

A broad selection of databases is available to all Free Library patrons. The following have a close focus on art and architecture subjects:

• Art Full Text: A comprehensive resource for art information featuring full-text articles dating back to 1995, high-quality indexing and abstracting dating as far back as 1984 as well as abstracting of over 13,000 art dissertations. Accessible from all Free Library locations and online after logging in with an active library card.
• Art Index Retrospective 1920-1984: Bibliographic database that cumulates citations to Art Index volumes 1-32 of the printed index published between 1929-1984.Accessible from Parkway Central Library and online after logging in with an active library card.
• Blouin Art Sales Index Database: Index of more than 2 million entries of fine art by 196,000 artists listed for sale by auction.  Please consult Art Department librarians for full access. 
• AskART: Extensive information about over 120,000 artists from around the world. Please consult Art Department librarians for full access. 
• Gordon's Art Datastore: In addition to pricing, provides access to print, poster, and photograph dealer directories and includes fine print, poster, and photography, bibliographies and a tri-language lexicon of art terms. Please consult Art Department librarians for full access. 
• JSTOR: Full text database of hundreds of academic journals, including 170 titles covering Art & Art History and 42 titles covering Architecture & Architectural History. Full access only from Free Library locations.
• Philadelphia Architects and Buildings: database that provides authoritative information on three centuries of Philadelphia buildings and designers, incorporating data and images from the collections of more than 25 Philadelphia-area repositories. Please consult Art Department librarians for full access. 

Periodicals

A significant collection of art periodicals may be used in the library. The Art Department currently subscribes to over 70 periodicals, listed here:

List of current periodicals in the Art Department by subject

Please consult Art Department librarians for access to current and recent issues of periodicals that are not on the magazine rack. 

Among these is small selection of popular magazines that are available to borrow. Circulating periodicals may be borrowed for up to three weeks and renewed. These include current and recent issues of American Craft, Antiques, Aperture, Architectural Digest, Art in America, Art News, Bead and Button, Digital Photo, Knitter’s Magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Quilting Arts, School Arts and This Old House.

Exhibitions and workshops

Exhibitions of work by local artist groups or material from our collections are always on display in our hallway gallery. The Art Department regularly hosts workshops with a focus on the book arts and an annual artists' book fair in partnership with the Philadelphia Center for the Book. 

Teacher resources

Are you an educator interested in bringing a class to the Art Department? You may contact us in advance by emailing ErefArt@freelibrary.org and let us know what kinds of library materials would best support your course and we will work with you to help you gather books and other materials on a given subject. Take a look at our growing number of topical book lists:

https://know.freelibrary.org/Community/users/Art/

The University of the Arts here in Philadelphia is a member of the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Educational Consortium and they have created several guides that teachers can use to prepare a class using digital resources made available by the Library of Congress along with physical materials in Philadelphia libraries and archives. They can be browsed and freely downloaded from the TPS-UArts site:

http://tps.uarts.edu/photoresourceguide

Pictures Worth Reading: A Teacher's Guide to Comics was developed in collaboration with the Art Department here at the Parkway Central Library. Take a look and contact us if you would like to bring your class and want us to gather these materials in advance for you:

https://www.uarts.edu/sites/default/files/2018-10/Comics%20Guide%20Web.pdf

Contact

Email eRefArt@freelibrary.org for information requests or to join our email list for future event notifications.