Creative Journaling: The joy of collective creativity

We’ve been showing you a lot of the work we do in Preservation with collection materials. But sometimes we take bookbinding out of the basement and go public! Creative Journaling is an opportunity for students to indulge in a combination of bookbinding and creativity once a month in the Fishbowl Forum of D. H. Hill, Jr. Library.

Creative Journaling started as a collaboration between the Community Engagement department, the Studios and Preservation in the fall of 2023 when the Libraries started developing more programming directed at students’ well-being. The aim is to provide spaces for students to take a break from the rigors of their academic work, spend time with others, and engage their minds and hearts in a different way for a time. Our goal is to create a space of welcoming and inspiration.

And what happens is an explosion of creativity, where students gather to build and coil-bind their own journals, then sit together surrounded by collage and art materials to let their creative intuition take over.

Our work in Preservation intersects with the program in a truly fun and ultimately sustainable way. A lot of our work is rebinding books - replacing old beat up covers with new, long-lasting ones. But what do we do with those old covers, which are full of character and a history of use? For many years, they were simply trashed. But Creative Journaling offers an opportunity to reuse them! Our Preservation colleagues at UNC Chapel Hill are also chipping in, sending us their old book covers to find new life. 

Students are given these covers and a variety of papers to create a new journal. We cut all the boards and paper to the same size ahead of time so all the students have to do is think about the journal they want to create.

Once they gather their journal materials, they join us in the back corner where we are waiting with coil binding machines to help them put together their blank book.

Then it’s time to get creative! We have tables full of patterned paper, magazines, washi tape, stickers, stamps, ink pads, stencils and glue sticks. The students go to town finding the images and colors that speak to them. We even offer images from our own Special Collections that can make their journals truly NC State special.

As a person who craves creativity in my own life, this program genuinely makes my heart sing. The excitement in the room is palpable. Everyone is engrossed in following their creative instincts, finding unexpected combinations of paper and images, and sharing their delight of a finished journal page with their neighbors and friends. Being in a room with others who are also lit up by being surrounded by art materials is a highlight of my month.

Join us on October 2 and November 6 from 3-5 pm for the next Creative Journaling events in the Fishbowl Forum at Hill. You can also check this page for future dates as they are added.

If you have any questions or are interested in viewing Special Collections materials, please contact us at library_specialcollections@ncsu.edu or submit a request online. The Special Collections Research Center is open by appointment only. Appointments are available Monday–Friday, 9am–6pm and Saturday, 1pm–5pm. Requests for a Saturday appointment must be received no later than Tuesday of the same week.