Art Lending Collection

The Art Lending Collection at Braddock Carnegie Library was created by the artist collective Transformazium (external link) during the 2013 Carnegie International as an alternative model for experiencing art. Accessing the collection is simple. Anyone with an Allegheny County library card can check out four pieces of art for up to three weeks, then renew the artworks like you would a book.

To start the collection, Transformazium facilitated donations from 30 Carnegie International artists, and debuted with over 100 pieces of internationally recognized works and local donations. The collection has grown to more than 160 pieces since then—picking up works and speed purely from community artists and collectors.

As an alternative lending program, the Art Lending Collection strives to foster a sense of community around intellectual and creative engagement. It also encourages neighborhood discourse by including the perspectives of its patrons, who are representatives of diverse cultural, educational, and class backgrounds in the nearby town of Braddock.

Related reading: Art on Loan: Inside Braddock’s Art Lending Collection (external link), on Storyboard (external link), the Carnegie Museum of Art’s digital journal.

Featured Artists

Contributing local, national, international artists include; Ei Arakawa, Phyllida Barlow, Yael Bartana, Sadie Benning, Bidoun Library, Nicole Eisenman, Lara Favaretto, Vincent Fecteau, Rodney Graham, Guo Fengyi, Wade Guyton, Rokni Haerizadeh, He An, Amar Kanwar, Jim Kidd, Dinh Q. Lê, Mark Leckey, Pierre Leguillon, Sarah Lucas, Tobias Madison, Paulina Olowska, Alice Patrick, Pedro Reyes, Raymond Seybert, Taryn Simon, Frances Stark, Joel Sternfeld, Mladen Stilinović, Zoe Strauss, Henry Taylor, Tezuka Architects, Erika Verzutti, and Alisha B. Wormsley.

For more information, call the Art Lending Collection at (412) 351-5356, or visit the Braddock Carnegie Library at 419 Library Street, Braddock, PA 15104.