Sketchbook Project 2017: Don't Miss the Deadline to be Part of an International Phenomenon

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — The deadline is fast approaching (Thursday, Jan. 5) to sign up to participate in the Sketchbook Project 2017.

The Sketchbook Project is a decade-old annual international group project in which artists create their own sketchbooks, whether physical or digitized or both, to add to a collection of over 35,000 books.

It's sort of the perfect way to declare a New Year's resolution and hold yourself physically accountable for it, said Marissa Passi, assistant director of the Sketchbook Project.

The Sketchbook Project collects personal sketchbooks from people from over 135 countries, Passi said. Each sketchbook has a highly individualized theme and it can include drawings, writings, collages, prints, photographs, or even toys and 3-D objects.

The Sketchbook Project's physical library is located in Williamsburg, where it was recently relocated off the beaten path of N. 3rd Street to 28 Frost St., Passi said. It operates as a reference library, where you can't take the sketchbooks outside of the building. Many times people will sit reading and observing for hours and hours.

The Sketchbook Project began in Atlanta a decade ago and came to Brooklyn seven years ago, Passi said. The Brooklyn staff has witnessed it gentrify and change over the years, but the Sketchbook Project has remained a constant.

The project allures tourists and locals alike, Passi said. The company also offers field trips for students of all ages, for which it offers bulk discounts to schools.

One of Passi's favorite parts about the project is witnessing people come back years after they've catalogued their sketchbooks and observing that specific part of their past they captured.

"It's really fun to see, even 4th graders will come in and look at their books they made as 1st graders and make fun of themselves."

If you sign up to create your own book, it will become a part of the permanent collection at the Sketchbook Project. If you're not in Brooklyn, you can mail it to the library. Once you sign up to participate, you have until March 31, 2017 to complete your masterpiece.

The deadlines are not strict, Passi said, they're just a way for the project's small staff to be able to manage the large collection of sketchbooks more efficiently. They also want to encourage participants to grab a book by January so they can have enough time to actually fill the pages of their books.

It costs $28 to sign up to create a physical sketchbook and an extra $35 to digitize it.

You can always create a free account to sift through the digitized books on your own time and create folders of your favorite pieces to revisit.

Sketchbooks are far from exclusive to artists or creative types, Passi said. Even if you are not the type of person who's inclined to doodle on a piece of paper, Passi said making a sketchbook can be extremely eye-opening.

"I think there's something to be said for being a part of a large collaborative project like this. It's even poetic to see that on one single shelf, so many stories are represented. It's an experience that's hopefully a lot more accessible than a lot of other opportunities in the art world."

Find out the rules of the project and more information here.

Lead photo via Sketchbook Project Facebook