A poster for the In My Neighborhood project.

What happens when a public library, an elementary school, a university, and an architect collaborate in a mini-grant project? Sparks fly, imaginations soar, creativity blossoms, and the sky’s the limit. Herrin, IL, where I work as a children’s librarian at the Herrin City Library, is a small, rural town located in the southern tip of the state in the heart of coal country. In the late 1800s, “hardworking Italian immigrants came to work in the coal mines, bringing with them cultural traditions and a rich heritage that continues to influence the city,” as reporter Adam Testa wrote in the Southern Illinoisan newspaper on September 27, 2014. Herrin’s downtown was a busy place with extra wide streets, and a multitude of department stores, banks, and hotels. Our city has changed; mines have closed and big business is gone, but some of the old buildings with elaborate architectural Italianate elements remain. My application for a Mini Grant from the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation started with this thought. Why not look at the buildings and elements that make up a community while emulating the perspective of children’s author Ezra Jack Keats? The idea for the In My Neighborhood project was born. The stories about Peter and his neighborhood friends depicted in Keats’s Apt 3, Louie, Goggles, and Whistle for Willie caught my interest. Keats celebrates the world of children, urbanism, and multiculturalism. In My Dog is Lost, the main character is helped by children from Chinatown, Little Italy, Park Avenue, and Harlem—multicultural neighborhoods. I wanted to explore the concept of neighborhoods, question what is unusual or striking about our community, and take a second look at Herrin’s historical buildings, many named after the people who lived or worked there. Mary’s Restaurant is located in an old Victorian home; the Harrison House is a two-story brick structure with three-foot-thick walls, built in 1868 by the city’s founding father; Thatchcot is an English style cottage that was the home to newspaperman Hal Trovillion; the Art Deco Post Office building, and the many beautiful old Herrin churches are just a few example of the eclectic building styles in our downtown area. I also wanted an opportunity to incorporate literacy and learning into an enjoyable activity.

Fourth-grade art students with their Keats-inspired collages, created after a discussion focusing on local architecture and community.

The city library and the Unit 4 school district frequently collaborate on community projects, so I pitched the idea of an enrichment activity combining art, literature, and creative thinking. Children would participate in a Keats author study, explore the concept of neighborhoods, study architectural styles, and create a collage of Herrin’s neighborhoods. Herrin Elementary School art instructor Brad Moore saw this as an ideal project for his fourth-grade students. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale was our first go-to source for experts and volunteers.

An Ezra Jack Keats author study session.

Educational Outreach Coordinator Beth Spezia, who works for SIUC-WSIU Public Broadcasting Station, introduced us to students from the university’s film school and school of education. Spezia is affiliated with SIU’s college of mass communication. Three student teachers from SIUC hosted presentations to the entire fourth grade in the Herrin Unit 4 school district, focusing on the books, artistic style, and life of Ezra Jack Keats. Jon Davey, professor of architecture, at the SIUC college of applied science and arts, presented an “A to Z” intro to architecture through the ages, pointing out architectural elements in rose windows, Grecian columns, facades, and oddities like “duck buildings.”  Herrin has its very own "duck building”— the Veterans of Foreign Wars facility with a real army helicopter on the roof. Davey ended the lecture by talking about R. Buckminster Fuller, who taught at SIUC in the 1960s. His iconic geodesic dome home still stands in Carbondale, IL. Fourth graders also tried their hands at constructing a miniature geodesic dome— a bucky ball. Gail White, primary architect of White & Borgognoni  Architects in Carbondale, gave a PowerPoint presentation about historic downtown Herrin, pointing out three-cornered buildings, Italian influences such as red-clay tiled roofs, marble columns, and mosaics and focusing on the artistic marriage of art and functionality of the architecture field, all scaled to a fourth-grade learning level. SIUC cinematography students filmed the entire process (interviewing student teachers, professors, professionals, and children and documenting the resulting art work). After immersing in ancient and local history, architecture, and the creative output of Fuller and Keats, Herrin’s fourth graders were ready to tackle their own creative projects under Moore’s guidance in the form of colorful collages. The results were astounding. The students looked very closely at their community and raised questions about restoring historical buildings. The tiny project which began with the Ezra Jack Keats Mini Grant blossomed into an intergenerational community effort that benefited all participants. The children learned about architecture and created their own art to show off their talent. SIUC student teachers had an opportunity to polish their teaching skills with a unique project. SIUC cinematography student Kristopher Lewis filmed, edited, and produced a six-minute film, In My Neighborhood, for WSIU-PBS TV. Finished collages were prominently displayed during the week-long annual Memorial Day festival (Herrin Festa Italiana Art Exhibition). The Robert N Brewer Family Foundation, a local philanthropic organization that provides scholarships to area high school students, and the Herrin City Library also displayed the collages for public viewing. Watch the video about In My Neighborhood. Irena Just is children’s librarian at the Herrin City Library in Illinois.