Don’t Forget How to Read
Worried that people were, indeed, forgetting how to read, Modern Art set up a cozy, comfortable, quiet, but highly visible, nook for local volunteers to sit and read in shifts in the front window.
Community members were invited to sign up to do something in public that’s become surprisingly uncommon—sitting and reading. Volunteers brought a favorite title or borrowed one from Modern Art's bookshelf, wrote its name on a chalkboard, settled into a comfortable chair, and simply...read.
Readers were encouraged to arrive in their favorite book-reading clothes, bring a friend and a snack if they liked, leave their phones behind in one of Modern Art's "Phonotel" rooms, then read without interruption. We kept an ongoing list of readers’ book reviews and recommendations in the window for all to see. The installation transformed the act of reading into a public performance of private attention. Passers-by’s lingering glances suggested what we hoped they might be thinking: That looks like a wonderful way to spend an hour! It’s a quiet, but effective public service announcement., a reminder that it’s not that you HAVE to read, it’s that you GET to read.
As a trustee of the Lancaster Public Library, I organized a fundraiser inspired by all the reading called “Read Around the Block” during Lancaster’s ExtraGive (a community-wide day of giving) where library patrons, board members and staff volunteered to read in local businesses and public spaces around the city to highlight the joys of the public library.
And how lovely to be reminded that a fleeting pleasure could be reclaimed with nothing more than a comfortable chair, a good book, and a an hour (or tow, or three) set aside.
Keep an eye out for the next chance to not forget how to read, coming in January 2027. For now, take a look into our virtual window into the project below:
——— DECEMBER 2021 ———
——— JANUARY 2026 ———
