Looking to increase your visibility as an artist or an organization? AADL is currently accepting applications to exhibit at the Downtown Library from June 1 to July 20 in the Multi Purpose Room and 3rd Floor exhibition areas. AADL is always a busy place, and the summer is particularly exciting. Your work could be on display as thousands of children and their families sign up for our annual Summer Reading Game in June and would remain on display through the Art Fairs in late July. For more information, and to download an application to exhibit, visit our Exhibits page. The next application deadline is March 31st.

Make candy sushi, create Pokemon pals, play impromptu battles on your Nintendo DS or Game Boy Advance and revel in Pokemon glory. Bring your trading cards for some spontaneous trades.

Spend the beginning of your school break at Malletts Creek Branch on Monday, February 25th form 1-3 PM for a poke-fun good time!

It’s time for the annual Ann Arbor Art Walk! AADL is participating for the first time—Downtown we’ll be showcasing photographs from the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair: The Original as well as children’s books from the UM Special Collections Library. Malletts Creek is currently displaying photographs from France by Sandy Schopbach.

Art Walk runs Friday, October 19 from 5-9pm (5-10 at most locations; the Library closes at 9pm on weekdays), and Saturday, October 20 from 12-5pm. Stop by the Downtown Library or any participating location to pick up the yearlong guide to local art with a special insert for this weekend’s event and a map to follow while you pound the pavement!

Get in on the action and try out some fun chemistry at EXPLODapalooza on Wednesday, August 15 at 2PM at the Malletts Creek Branch. Make your own Alka-Seltzer rocket and bask in the joy of a mentos fountain. It will be a glorious, exploding hour. Hope to see you there!

Program is for children in 4th grade and up. Please note that the program was incorrectly published as starting at 7 PM in a local publication.

Art Prints are on display from the 5th Annual Teen Graffiti Art Contest, held on July 20th at the downtown library. 50 artists turned out on a windy art fair day to paint a spontaneous piece of art.
1st Place - Andrea Herrero - "Untitled"
2nd Place - Tyler Vane - "The Shadow of the Sun"
3rd Place - Mina Hirzel & Nika Olzewski - "Bunny's Honey"
Titles overall ranged from "An Alaskan Wilderness" to "Hope is Green" to "Inspired"

Come check out these works of art at the downtown Library's 3rd floor gallery space and in the Multi-Purpose Room. The exhibit will last until August 31st.

Thanks to Jerzy Drozd a local published graphic artist, who judged this year's contest.

The urgent humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s western region of Darfur is the subject of a photo exhibit opening Friday at AADL’s Mallet’s Creek branch. Sponsored by a number of church and temple groups, the exhibit showcases the photographs of native Michigander Ryan Spencer Reed and is called Hands of a Displaced Sudan: The Cost of Silence. The grand opening of the exhibit is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Friday, May 4, when people will be able to meet the photographer and view the photographs he shot and smuggled out of Darfur. At AADL there are a number of good books about the Darfur crisis, including the new book The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing witness to the genocide in Darfur by Brian Steidle.

Stop by the Pittsfield Branch between 2 PM and 3 PM with your cups on Monday, April 9th and get a little practice in, working on your best time. We’ve got speed stacks to borrow if you don’t have your own or want to see what cup stacking is like.

We’ll run through some practice drills and for those that feel competitive, there will be a mini tournament with prizes for the top three winners in the light or heavy brackets. Come and have fun and relax during your spring break!
For Ages 9 +

Exhibit Showing through February 27
Be sure to stop by and see the talent of the 18 AADL staff members currently on display in the lower level exhibit cases at the Downtown Library. This year's show features a wide mix of media, including cell phone photos, painted kimonos, blown glass, welded scrap metal (shown here: "Kelper no. 2", by Anne Drozd), graphic novel illustrations, mixed media assemblage and digitally manipulated photographs.