# We are open for Art Walk
Celebrate our community's deep pool of creative talent with us on the first Wednesday of each month in Downtown Jacksonville! The Main Library stays open until 9 p.m. for the festivities! We are conveniently located directly across from James Weldon Johnson Park, one of Art Walk's two major hubs of activity. Not only that, there is usually local art on display, zinesters meeting and collaborating on the first floor, and sometimes special drop-in activities going on in the Teen Room.
# Bike Safety Mini-Event + Free Bicycle Helmets
This month, the City of Jacksonville Planning and Development Department will be at the Main Library to give out free bicycle helmets and other safety materials related to bike and pedestrian safety. Stop by their table in the Promenade on your way to the Gallery or other drop-in activities!
Don't forget to pick up a Map & Guide to the Main Library on your way in! You'll find public art, a huge vintage map collection and more!
# Drop-In Activities
# Zinester Meetup
Make, trade, read, and discuss zines with local zinesters and comic makers at our monthly Zinester Meetup in the "Zine Zone" from 6 - 8:30 p.m. (across from the first-floor gallery).
This month, make a collage comic with Five Card Nancy, a card game using cut-up panels from Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy - the long-running, 20th-century comic strip.
If you haven't already, this is also a good time to browse the Zine Collection (they are available for checkout!). If you have a zine or self-published comic to donate to the Library, bring it with you! For more about the Library's Zine Collection, visit jaxlibrary.org/zines.
# Game Night: Blood on the Clocktower
Can Good solve the mystery and find the demon in time? Or will Evil overrun this peaceful library? Join us for a game of lies, logic, and deception from 6-8 p.m. in the Lounge at 303 North (First Floor)
Blood on the Clocktower (BOTC) is a supernatural social deduction/bluffing game in the style of games like Among Us, Clue, Ultimate Werewolf, and the whodunit genre and can be enjoyed by anywhere between 5-20 courageous adult players.
We will be separated into teams of Good and Evil. The Good players must work together to deduce the true identity of a monster hiding in their midst and those who serve it. Evil players will conspire together to reduce the town population until only they remain—with one serving as the monster “killing” other players.
Note: Participation from beginning to end is not required and players can join/leave at any time.
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# Art Exhibits
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It's the final week for the 2024 Northeast Florida Scholastic Art Awards (NEFSAA) Gold Key Exhibition! There are hundreds of pieces of award-winning student art on display - so much so that you'll have to visit the first three floors and the Teen Room to see it all! Good thing we're open till 9 p.m.! The show will remain open through Jacksonville's annual Celebrate Reading Week festivities - including the Family Reading Day event at James Weldon Johnson Park on Saturday, March 9!
# Celebrating Creative Teens & Award-Winning Art
For 101 years, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have supported the future of creativity by offering millions of students in grades 7-12 the opportunity for recognition, exhibition, publication and scholarships. For the past 15 years, NEFSAA has been the regional visual art affiliate for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards -- offering recognition, celebration of, and college scholarship offers for visual art students in our area.
The 2024 NEFSAA season collected and adjudicated 3,476 student submissions from 1,663 students in eight counties including Baker, Clay, Duval, Flagler, Nassau, St. Johns, Union and Volusia.
# Gold Key Winners
This year 1,583 awards were distributed to 819 student winners including 280 Gold, 463 Silver, and 677 Honorable Mentions. In the last six years, regional award winners have earned $33 million in college scholarship offers from Savannah College of Art & Design, Jacksonville University, and the University of North Florida. Gold Key winners at the regional level automatically go on to the national competition.
This month's gallery exhibit is part of an ongoing partnership with Duval County Public Schools and their Fine Arts Department. In the coming months, Jacksonville Public Library will also host The Best of Elementary Art Show and The Best of Middle Art Exhibition.
We also work with local artists' groups. If you are interested in exhibiting your artwork at one of our libraries and you're already a member of The Art Center Cooperative, Inc. or Jacksonville Artists' Guild, please speak with your respective group about upcoming shows. You can also Request to Exhibit on your own. For more information, check out our Exhibit Policy or ask to speak with the manager at the library location that you're interested in working with.
