Local History and the Public Domain

To kick off the new year, we decided to combine art and history with two new programs. How are we doing that? Oh, we’re so glad you asked!

We selected a few images from our Local History collection and customers can put their own spin on them. Maybe the image needs a rocket ship included or perhaps a daredevil or two.

Our remixed art class, where we’ll physically paint or draw on a print from the historical image database, filled up right away (thank you for being so excited!) but we’re holding a digital drawing program next week where you can use a (very easy to learn) computer program and a tablet to digitally add drawings to the image. Tarah, who will be leading the program, shared a before and after of the image she created (scroll to the end of this post to see her creativity!). You don’t have to be an art or digital expert - we’ll teach you what you need to know and we’ll all have a great time seeing what we add to the images!

Program details: Monday, January 22 at 6:30pm at Victoria Avenue. Register here: cal.nflibrary.ca/event/3773436

We chose this image from our Art Database, which you can browse on our website here: nfpl.historicniagara.ca/s/art/item (Did you know we have a bunch of cool Local History stuff on our site?)

But we can’t choose just any image for our programs. We have to make sure that the image we add our own spin to is in the public domain. The public domain is the term used to describe works (art, literary, film, music) that are not protected by copyright. Works become unprotected when the copyright expires. In Canada, the term of copyright is life plus 70 years. Some creators waive their right to copyright so that their work is in the public domain right away.

But why is it important for creative works to be released from copyright? Having these works available help inspire new work, add to our knowledge, and preserve cultural heritage.

Here are some cool examples of how public domain works can inspire new art:

Getty Artworks Re-created invited the public to use Getty's online collection of digitized art! Explore.

GIF It Up invited the public to use digital heritage content from a provided list of open sources, and make a GIF! Explore.