Written by Mackenzie Manley, Content Specialist, Downtown Main Library
If you step into the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Rosenthal Education Center (REC), you’ll be met with Artist-in-Residence Karen Saunders’ playful installation, You and Me and the Space Between: Our Expedition Starts Now.
A multi-disciplinary artist based in Cincinnati, Karen earned a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an MA in Art Education from Miami University. For the past two decades, Karen has worked in places like the Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM), the Kennedy Heights Arts Center, and more.
Aimed at children ages three to 12, You and Me and the Space Between runs through Oct. 26 at the REC. And the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library (CHPL) had a piece in bringing Karen’s vibrant vision to life: She used the Downtown Main Library’s MakerSpace to print a large print of L.A. Robert’s Yosemite Valley, a landscape painting in CAM’s collection.
Bringing Art to Life via the MakerSpace
“I had this idea that I wanted it to be so big like a billboard that you could walk into it,” Karen said. “All the small things started popping out. It’s really interesting to look at.”
Like Yosemite Valley, Karen’s work is fantastical. Known for creating animated sculptures that move and inflate, You and Me and the Space Between speaks to this artistic practice: Strung along the ceiling are cloud-like pieces with bursts of color that rise and fall, mimicking nature.
Yosemite Valley anchors the installation, which was created using the MakerSpace’s large format vinyl printer and cutter. Also in the space are woven animals; crafted binoculars; and areas that invite imaginative play.
Removing Barriers
This isn’t the first time Karen has used the MakerSpace to bring her work to life. In fact, she currently has another piece at the Contemporary Arts Center’s UnMuseum. For that project, she used the MakerSpace’s equipment to create window clings that overlook Cincinnati’s cityscape.
Beyond providing equipment that would otherwise be inaccessible, Karen said that Library staff have also been paramount to bringing concepts to fruition.
“I often have these ideas, but I have no idea how they’re going to be done. I come in [to the MakerSpace] and say, ‘Well, I’d like to do this.’ It’s usually a conversation, and then they’ll recommend how I do it,” Karen said, adding that they also have walked her through how to use software to print her designs. 
Large format vinyl printers cost thousands, a price point that creates a barrier to access. The MakerSpace provides such equipment so that artists like Karen, hobbyists, small business owners, and more can use them as needed. (Vinyl at the MakerSpace costs $2 per linear foot.)
“The more you come here, the more you realize how many things there are to do with everything... It’s a vast place. Every time I come, I’m always talking to other people who are here and seeing their projects. We’re so lucky to have it in the city.”
Along with the Downtown Main Library, there are MakerSpaces at the Forest Park, Loveland, Madisonville, Reading, and St. Bernard branches. Each branch has varying equipment available.
Along with the vinyl printer, other equipment across branches includes 3-D printers, audio recording stations, button makers, digital creation stations, direct to garment printers, embroidery, an Espresso Book Machine, media conversion stations, sewing machines, and more.
Building Community
When asked what it means to use the MakerSpace to activate space at CAM, Karen said it’s very Cincinnati.
“We are really good [as a city] at pulling on our strengths of different places together,” Karen said. “Both the museum and the Library started back in the late 1800s. They’re both still so vibrant and vital.”
Karen will be at the REC every second Sunday from 1-3 p.m., along with various programming, through October. You and Me and the Space Between is free to explore.
We insist on being a library for all. All minds. All modes. All needs. More than 2.4 million visits are made to the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library each year from customers living in and working in our diverse, vibrant, and unique neighborhoods. Our series Meet a Library Customer, opens a new window shares the stories that minds of all kinds have each day at CHPL.
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