Community read programs (CRPs) have been popping up across the United States for years as a means of bringing communities together in discussion around a set of shared ideas and themes.
Christina Baker Kline
This year, West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC)’s “One Book, One Campus, One Community Reads” program has raised the bar in terms of integrative programming. This CRP began as a campus reading program, but has since expanded to include local libraries and lower schools. In addition to encouraging greater Paducah, KY, to read Christina Baker Kline‘s Orphan Train and attend Ms. Kline’s two-day campus visit on March 31st and April 1st, WKCTC’s Paducah School of Art and Design is sponsoring an art competition and exhibition inspired by Orphan Train to complement the CRP.
The art contest is free to enter and open to the public. It is open to 2-Dimensional works in all media. Participants are encouraged to create 2-Dimensional works in any/all media that relate to Orphan Train, which documents a historical period spanning 1859-1929 and details the U.S. orphan train movement that brought thousands of parent-less children from northern cities to the Midwest for adoption or hard labor.
Readers are encouraged to “illustrate a favorite scene from the book; create a portrait study from imagination of one of the characters; render or illustrate some aspect of train travel during the period; or any number of other sources of inspiration generated by the book”. Entries must be made by February 18.
