The Sketchbook Project
The Sketchbook Project is the world’s largest collection of artist sketchbooks. Since its inception in 2006, it has been a beloved part of the art world. Contributions range from love letters and diary entries to graphic novels and intricately detailed masterpieces, all inside the pages of five-by-seven-inch, paper-bound books. The non-profit hosting the project and collection closed in 2022 and the sketchbooks were offered to other museums and institutions to preserve the collection. In 2023, much of the collection, numbering 28,000 books created by thousands of artists representing approximately 100 countries, was gifted to the Taube Museum of Art.Unlike most exhibitions, this one is meant to be touched. Please take the time to look through the pages, feel the textures, and become engrossed in the life that the artist poured into the pages.
History of the Collection
The Sketchbook Project was founded by Savanah College of Art and
Design graduates Shane Zucker and Steven Peterman in Atlanta, GA in
2006. It was conceived as a way of combining hand-made traditions
with new web-based technologies and was open to anyone to
participate. Individual artists would order a sketchbook, complete
it according to a prompt in their preferred method or mediums, and
return it. After a move to New York in 2009, the Brooklyn Art
Library was founded to house the collection and continue the
project.
Over the years, the collection grew to include
50,000 sketchbooks contributed from creators in over 135 countries
and became the world’s largest collection of sketchbooks. Artists
were invited to complete sketchbooks with different prompts, located
on the back of the book. Contributions range from love letters and
diary entries to graphic novels and intricately detailed
masterpieces, all inside the pages of five-by-seven-inch,
paper-bound books.
In 2022, during a transition to a new
location in Florida, a fire in the transport vehicle damaged a
portion of the collection. This prompted the Brooklyn Art Library to
seek new locations for to preserve to collection. In 2023, the
Sketchbook Collection Network was developed, and the majority of
books were relocated to the Taube Museum of Art in Minot, North
Dakota. There they have been put on display in a permanent location
of the museum, making it accessible to the public year-round.
Books in this collection were created with the intention that
they be accessible to the public. They are meant to be picked up,
flipped through, and experienced!
Acknowledgements
This exhibition is sponsored by the Taube Museum of Art, and by the North Dakota Art Gallery Association (NDAGA), a statewide service organization for non-profit museums & galleries, and supported in part by a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts, which receives funding from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.