CALÂ Art Library Project
The Art Library Project serves the UC Berkeley campus community, art students, and gallery visitors by providing an accessible and expansive platform for art history, theory, literature, and research materials useful to artists. The library also functions as a community gathering space and a destination for reading and pleasure. The library encourages visitors to interact with the available texts and media, and features curated exhibitions of special collections. Crucial to our mission is to include diverse perspectives that reflect our contemporary artmaking and art viewing public and to challenge canonical art historical narratives.
did not have a public library of its own. Despite the UC Berkeley Library system having an excellent collection of art books, there was a lack of an immediate physical space where students can do research and interact with one another.
exhibition.
Browse our collection online via Librarika.
History
The Art Library Project was started by 12 undergraduate and graduate level students under guidance of Farley Gwazda in Fall 2018. The Art Library opened to the public on November 28th, 2018 in the Worth Ryder Art Gallery.
It was made possible by a Creative Discovery Grant from the UC Berkeley Arts + Design Initiative.
Our Mission
The Art Library Project is intended to be a community center that facilitates arts research and encourages connections between students, faculty, and artists. It was created in response to the fact that the Art Practice Department did not have a public library of its own. Despite the UC Berkeley Library system having an excellent collection of art books, there was a lack of an immediate physical space where students can do research and interact with one another.
more than just books
Our library is more than a collection of books about art – it reflects the way artists do their research. As such, the library features books on a wide ranging variety of topics from neuroscience, to ethnic studies, to materials engineering, as well as a collection of novels and science fiction. This encourages the kind of serendipitous, horizon-broadening discoveries that are one of the great pleasures of library spaces.
Get in Touch
Kroeber Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA