The Allen County Public Library launched three new limited edition library cards featuring local art from artists already displayed around the city. WBOI’s Ella Abbott reports on the art that was chosen.
The cards feature work from Theoplis Smith, Bryan Ballinger and Tim Parsley and the pieces were chosen to reflect the diversity of materials, services and thought the ACPL aims to represent.
Tim Parsley’s mural homage to poet Walt Whitman, called ‘Arouse, for you must justify me!’ was chosen for one of the cards. He said when the nation was divided following the Civil War, Whitman had become a voice for the role art could play in reframing thought.
“We’re in a pretty divided time and so I like to think that he serves as a kind of example of what the artist – whether that’s a painter, a poet, a dancer, an actor – what we are able to bring into that to help either refresh or help us to see still the beauty, or perhaps to be challenged to think differently about the times that we live in," Parsley said.
Parsley’s mural was his first in partnership with Purdue Fort Wayne and Art This Way in 2018 and can be found on West Wayne Street downtown.
Other art depicted on the cards are Smith’s depiction of Rosa Parks and Ballinger’s mural ‘The Blue Birds.’
The cards are available to anyone who is getting a library card for the first time or would like to get a new library card. They’ll be available as long as the library has them, but they won’t be ordering more once they’re gone. Patrons can get a card from any ACPL location or by applying on their website.
