DANVILLE - The ability to create and affect the world through hands, minds and hearts is the key to growing as individuals in a growing society.
That's the impact award-winning photographer Sally Wiener Grotta hopes her exhibit, now on display at Thomas Beaver Free Library, will have on people.
"Pennsylvania Hands," a regional focus on her much larger exhibit, "American Hands," is described by the Poconos woman as a narrative, visual celebration of those who keep alive traditional crafts such as blacksmith, weaver, bookbinder, spinner - skills that today have been replaced by machines.
She said she is trying not only to showcase these skills, but what they mean to society at large. In the digital age, people are becoming more divorced from who they are, and a focus on hands defines human beings and how they combine their minds and hearts to create new things, she said.
"If we don't combine our abilities with creative thinking, and doing, then we become appendages to digital technology," Grotta said in an interview earlier last week in advance of her Danville show, which opened Thursday and continues through May 31.
She said there's a "richness" in cultural history that she is looking to capture, share, inspire and preserve.
"What is it about the human touch?" she asked.
'Darned fun'
Grotta, a nationally known photographer and storyteller originally from Philadelphia, has had her photographs featured in numerous exhibits, magazines, books and advertisements, and has published eight non-fiction books.
"American Hands" has been adopted into the New York Foundation of the Arts program, conferring 501(c)3 nonprofit status onto the project. The exhibit has also been displayed in the East Wing Rotunda of the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building in Harrisburg.
"It's also darned fun. I'm meeting amazing people and challenging myself creatively," Grotta said. "Every single exhibit is different, and it's been seen by over 200,000 people so far."
Spending time with her subjects and capturing their stories changes her, she said.
Everyday style
Bonnie White, library director, said Grotta contacted her about the possibility of hosting the exhibit.
"It looks extremely interesting, and it sounds like something our patrons would like. I appreciate the everyday style, and the extraordinary way she presented it," White said.
Grotta's art is accessible to many people, she said.
Short of high school students and a nationwide poster project, it's not common for the library to play host to such an extensive event, at least in the four years White has been director.
"We're always anxious to have something new and different," she said.
Other smaller events to lure patrons in have included drumming circles, therapy dogs and book clubs.
"With the decline in the economy, we've had more patrons than in the past. We're busy and glad to be," she said. "Even people who use electronic readers. They're not physically present, but they're using our resources."
White anticipates that Grotta's artwork will bring in more people.
Exhibit details
The exhibit will be coming from the James V. Brown Library in Williamsport. Her work will be on display in the Danville library, located at 205 Ferry St., until May 31, at which time she will present a slideshow with more photographs and stories at 6 p.m.
After Danville, her work will be displayed at the Annie Halenbake Ross Library, 232 W. Main St., Lock Haven.
She is also preparing for a national tour of her exhibit.
The exhibit and related lecture are supported a Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts Grant from the Community Partnerships RC and D. The project is also sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Workstations, HP Designjet Printers, Pentax, Lexar Media, HP Designjet Printers and smugmug.