Vote For Upper East Side Branch In NYC's Library Display Contest

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side library branch is in the running for a citywide contest that will crown the most elaborate book displays across the five boroughs.

The 96th Street location is among 130 branches across the city's three library systems that have set up displays celebrating arts and culture for the contest, which run through the Culture Pass initiative that gives library cardholders access to cultural institutions.

New Yorkers can vote on their favorite displays starting this week until Nov. 12, when the set-ups with the most votes will move to a final round of judging, organizers said.

Located between Lexington and Third avenues, the 96th Street Branch "straddles the Upper East Side and East Harlem" and sits a few blocks east of Museum Mile, library staff wrote in a description of their project.

"We used three display cases to highlight the beauty of the neighborhood as well as the many cultural institutions nearby - The Guggenheim, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of the City of New York, and the Jewish Museum," they wrote. "We also interspersed a few portraits of neighborhood residents past and present such as Joan Didion, Tupac Shakur, Lady Gaga."

All libraries' setups can be found online. After New Yorkers vote for their favorites, a panel of judges will select first place and runner-up winners for each library system and an overall best-of-show display, organizers said.

The judging panel includes New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Gonzalo Casals, Artist and Founder of The Free Black Women's Library Ola RonkeAkinmowo, Children's Book Author and Illustrator Pat Cummings, Charles H. Revson Foundation President Julie Sandorf, and Improv Everywhere Founder Charlie Todd.

Culture Pass, a joint initiative across all three library systems, has given out more than 100,000 free passes to library cardholders since its start in 2018. It is funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), Charles H. Revson Foundation, The New York Community Trust, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Patch reporter Anna Quinn contributed.