Impact: visual communication of information, an exhibit that focused on the diversity of visual communication created by students, faculty, and staff across the university.  Photo: Jett Witlin/Kennedy Library

Kennedy Library’s Creative Works department supports alternative approaches to scholarship with a commitment to amplify underrepresented topics and voices. We do this by shaping, sharing, and fueling stories with collaborators in art, exhibits, and digital publishing. We do this on the lands of yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini, the Northern Chumash tribe, upon which we are grateful guests.

Programs

The Creative Works department at Kennedy Library supports community, curiosity based scholarship of a variety of forms. This core principle of the Creative Works Program aligns with the library’s purpose and values. The intent of these program areas steadfastly considers the focus of Cal Poly students and faculty research areas, enabling the library to offer up-to-date support to the scholarship of our campus community. Areas include but are not limited to:

• University Art Collection: Management of and facilitating access to the University Art Collection is part of the portfolio of the Robert E. Kennedy Library resources. Creative Works provides educational access to the collection, coordinates art acquisition proposals, and oversees storage and preservation of the collections in order to ensure that the program remains in compliance with policy and meets the purpose and needs of the University.The program also provides experiential learning opportunities with the university art collection (including an internship program, access to the collection through an online catalog, and course integration). 
• Faculty Exhibit Program: collaborative faculty-driven exhibits; and adaptable gallery spaces for students and faculty to showcase their scholarly and creative work in a variety of ways. The program includes a publishing component through the production of visually rich digital exhibit catalogs.
• Library Community Galleries: These spaces offer the campus community self-curated public venues to share projects and artwork in a relatively informal setting. 
• Digital Publishing Program: aims to enhance access to Cal Poly scholarship through a digitally immersive, interactive system that focuses on collaboration, accessible approaches, and recognition of individuals’ places within structural systems.  This structural solution brings inclusive practices, equity, and justice to the forefront of scholarly publishing at Cal Poly centering historically underrepresented identities, perspectives and creativity.

Collaborations

• Culturally Responsive Cataloging Working Group
  Robert E. Kennedy Library, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif. 
• Central Coast Public Humanities Collaborative and Central Coast Snapshots
  San Luis Obispo and Northern Santa Barbara Counties, CA http://centralcoastsnapshots.online
• ASPIRE
  Center for the Applied Study of Place-based Indigeneity, Race, and Ethnicity California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
• Capstone CSC 402, AY 2020-21
  California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif. https://users.csc.calpoly.edu/~bcdasilv/capstone.html
• LibGuides LORDS
  LibGuides Open Review Discussion Sessions
  California State University System Consortium, Calif.

Contact: ude.yloplacnull@yrarbil