A group of senior AP art students from Cranston East got together to design new bookmarks for The Other Book Group, one of many book groups open to the public through Cranston Libraries.

Presented in collaboration with the OneCranston Health Equity Zone, The Other Book Group caters to readers who enjoy a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction titles and want to learn more about socially created norms and unequal power distributions against people of color, women, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and more.

Meeting the second Tuesday of every month at 6:30 pm at Central Library on Sockanosset Crossroad, the group is run by Librarian Elena Rios.

“The group is for ages 12 and up,” Rios said. “I wanted to have some customizable merch and be able to basically give stuff away. One of those things was bookmarks.”

Rios said that she was raised in Cranston and has gone to Waterman, Park View and Cranston East. She knew there was a chance to give students, especially those of color, a chance to get their work out there and be recognized.

Visual Arts Program Supervisor Jill Cyr said that she was contacted by Rios in the fall. The Cranston High School East National Art Honor Society(CHSE NAHS) normally runs two fundraisers where they design and sell pins, one for Halloween and one for Valentine’s day, in order to raise money for a scholarship given to a graduating senior in the society.

“I knew that if I could do anything to help people in my community I was going to do it,” Rios said. “So I reached out to Jill Cyr.”

Unfortunately, explained Cyr, the student from whom the pin maker the school was using was borrowed had graduated. As a result the fundraisers were “in a bind,” Cyr said while describing how she and Rios had come into contact. Cyr explained that it the NAHS had a long standing relationship with the library, and while she was visiting one day she ran into Rios, who was herself a graduate of CHSE.

“We got to speaking, and she said ‘well you know I’m running this book club,”’ Cyr recalled. “She said that she’d love it if the kids were allowed to design bookmarks.”

From there, plans got underway with the idea of work beginning after the completion of their AP exams on May 3.

“I had 11 AP art Students,” Cyr said. “Six of them were 2D art and design students and five of them were 3D, I believe. They were made up of three juniors and the rest were seniors. I pretty much gave them the flyers and the information Elena had given me, and they took to it really quickly. It was something they felt really strongly about. It was relevant to who they are, their generation and what’s going on in the world.”

Cyr said that each student designed one or two options, with almost every single student working digitally to create their designs, and then they all went back as a group to review the creations and eventually choose three student’s designs to move forward with. A recent grant from the Rhode Island Department of Education, Cyr said, had helped to fund the implementation of digital media in all of Cranston’s schools which had allowed them to purchase iPads and the Procreate software that gave all of the students the option of working with the devices.

“So they designed the bookmarks for us,” Rios said. “We’re excited to be available in the library. They were purchased with the idea of being specifically for the book group, but if I’m capable of buying enough they may be there in the library for everyone. I don’t think they’d be available at all the branches though, for that I’d have to ask the other branch managers.”

Officially delivered on June 23, Rios was thrilled at the way the bookmarks turned out. With three unique designs from three different students, the bookmarks will help to put a spotlight on the themes and messages the book group embodies, Rios said she felt.

Cranston Library book groups are free and open to the public. That being said, space can fill up fast. Those looking to join in on the fun can register to join the group at www.cranstonlibrary.org/book-groups/, though registration for the group is currently closed, so keep your eyes open. Free, take-home copies of the monthly book will be available to pick up at the Circulation Desk of the Central branch.