Thomas Memorial Library’s Community Art Boxes display exhibits and artwork created by community members united around a common idea or theme. By “walking the boxes” around town you can see a panoply of perspectives and unique interpretations of an idea, as well as the many forms creativity can take!
Walk the Boxes!
Visit all five Community Art Box locations:
- Thomas Memorial Library
- Cape Elizabeth Town Hall
- Cape Elizabeth Village Green
- Cape Elizabeth Police Department
- Cape Elizabeth Community Center
What's In the Boxes Now?
We are currently featuring photographs and information related to our 2026 Summer Reading Program in support of The Locker Project.
Stop by the boxes to get a glimpse of some of the amazing work of Maine farms that work with The Locker Project to share healthy food with families in need.
In keeping with our summer reading themes, we’re inviting you to make art related to Food, Farms, and Family–see below for information and inspiration!
Our Current Art Challenge
Food, Farms, and Family
Share your original artwork, or a display of objects related to food, cooking, growing your own food, farming, or sharing food with loved ones or the community. View some ideas for what you might create at right, or come up with your own unique idea! Any medium is welcome–painting, photography, fiber arts, sculpture, collage, etc. The only requirement is that your artwork should be able to fit into our art boxes (see the guidelines below.)
Download the submission form so you can include any information about your artwork that should accompany your piece, or stop by the library to pick up a flyer with the form on the back.
The deadline for this challenge
is August 1, 2026
Some Inspiration and Ideas for this Theme
-
- 21 Creative Painting Ideas for Your Food Cute Drawings
- Faux Food Crafts
- 3 Collages Using Thrifted Cookbooks | Surreal Collage Art Process
- Two Little Collage Type Pages Using Vintage Recipe Cards
- 49 Paper Mâché Food Ideas
- How to Make Paper Mâché Fruit
- 2 Ways to Display Family Recipes
- Making Apple Head Dolls
- 5 Free Knitted Fruit & Vegetable Patterns
- Felt Food Craft: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Started
- Food Painted Rocks: Easy Rock Painting Ideas
Come Make Art with Us!
Collage a Family Recipe
Workshop
Saturday, August 1
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Join Library Director Rachel Davis in creating a work of art out of a family or favorite recipe. Bring a printed copy of your recipe and any collage or found materials you may wish to use. We’ll have lots of images from discarded books and magazines that you can use to create a frameable collage to showcase your special recipe! If you like, your work could be displayed in our Community Art Boxes during the month of August.
This workshop is for adults and teens, but motivated children are welcome to attend with a caregiver.
Submitting Your Artwork
- Your artwork can be in any medium, two or three dimensions, but please keep in mind the following:
- The dimensions of the art box display space are: 24″ high x 21″ wide x 18″ deep. Your artwork must be able to fit inside the space.
- We will put most drawings, paintings, or collages into a glass-fronted frame or shadow-box. Sculptures will be placed directly in the boxes.
- Although we hope the boxes will be weather-proof, moisture can sometimes seep in. We will do our best to make sure your work is protected from the elements.
- We may place several different works of art in one art box.
- Depending on the number of submissions, artwork will be on display for 1 to 4 weeks. We will let you know when your work is on display!
- Please provide a completed submission form to accompany your artwork. If you don’t have a printer, you can fill out a copy of the form in the library.
- Please bring your submissions to the main desk on the upper level of the library.
- Submissions from all ages–adults, teens, and children–are welcome!
About the Project
The Thomas Memorial Library was one of twelve libraries in the country to receive a grant from the American Library Association, supported by The Estée Lauder Companies WRITING CHANGE initiative. The grant, which supported ALA’s Civic Imagination Station Pilot program, made it possible for librarian and artist teams to develop community-based art projects that encourage civic dialogue.
TML Director Rachel Davis teamed up with local artist Marie Ahearn to apply for the grant. Through a series of workshops and coaching sessions with the entire cohort, Davis and Ahearn developed our Community Art Box project, which consists of mini-galleries located around the Cape Elizabeth town center.
About the Writing Change Initiative and the Civic Imagination Stations Program
WRITING CHANGE is a three-year global, literacy initiative in partnership with Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, award-winning writer, and Estée Lauder Global Changemaker. Civic Imagination Station Teams were selected from a national application process conducted in June and July 2022. In August, the teams began participating together in workshops and coaching led by Civic Imagination Stations Lead Artists: Willa J. Taylor, Goodman Theatre’s Walter Director of Education and Engagement; and Michael Rohd, founding Artistic Director of Sojourn Theatre and Co-founder of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice. Through these workshops, Civic Imagination Station cohort teams have been developing their own unique arts-based projects rooted in their respective communities. ALA intends for the Civic Imagination Stations program to model processes by which other librarian/artist partnerships can work together to create locally appropriate and meaningful civic imagination projects.
The selected pilot cohort libraries are:
- Bowdoinham Public Library (Bowdoinham, ME)
- Brandon Free Library (Brandon, VT)
- Burnsville Public Library (Burnsville, WV)
- Chicago Public Library Thurgood Marshall Branch (Chicago, IL)
- Edith B. Siegrist Vermillion Public Library (Vermillion, SD)
- Fayetteville Public Library (Fayetteville, AR)
- IU Libraries: Neal Marshall Black Culture Center Library & Herman B. Wells Library (Bloomington, IN)
- Memphis Public Libraries Cossitt Branch (Memphis, TN)
- Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Library and Learning Commons, Mount Mary University (Milwaukee, WI)
- The People’s Library (Fox, AR)
- St. Louis Public Library (St. Louis, MO)
- Thomas Memorial Library (Cape Elizabeth, ME)