The Brooklyn Public Library now lets you borrow works of art for a three-week period

Brooklyn has never been shy about sharing culture. Zines? Sure. Community fridges? Of course. Now, the borough’s biggest civic braintrust is upping the ante: the Brooklyn Public Library will let cardholders borrow real works of art for three weeks and hang them at home like you live in your own personal museum. Yes, really.

The art-lending program launches alongside “Department of Transformation: Letters for the Future,” a sprawling, brain-sparky exhibition opening November 3 in the Central Library’s Grand Lobby and second floor and running through January 25, 2026. Curated by the artist-organized collective Department of Transformation with BPL Presents, the show includes more than 40 artists and collectives working across painting, sculpture, performance, video, books and zines. Think of it as a library-meets-gallery-meets-workshop-meets-karaoke fever dream, designed to get New Yorkers thinking, reading and imagining together.

The project isn’t shy about its mission. According to organizers, “Letters for the Future celebrates the library as one of the few remaining intellectual, creative and civic commons still freely available.” And the borrowable artworks? That’s where things get delightfully radical. In its own words, the program offers “a simple, but radical, proposal: that art should be available to all, to live with and learn from every day.”

Roughly 20 works from participating artists will be available to check out with a BPL card, echoing a 1970s program the library once piloted. (So, technically, Brooklyn’s just dusting off a great idea and giving it a very "now" glow-up.) The library hopes to use this pilot program as an experiment, receiving feedback from cardholders to shape its art-lending program moving forward. You’ll check out the artworks the same way you would a book and yes, you’ll be expected to return them, so resist the urge to suddenly “forget” how due dates work.

Participating artists include Asad Raza, Ilana Harris-Babou, Hilma’s Ghost, Shanzhai Lyric, Kameelah Janan Rasheed and many more. The exhibition runs in tandem with experimental public programs that lean into collective thinking, language play and future-forward creative practice. That includes participatory workshops and even an event called Past Words/Future Words, where DOT founder Prem Krishnamurthy lifts the hood on his writing experiments and invites guests into the process.

Curious? Grab a card, show up and take home something far cooler than your roommate’s college print. And if you suddenly start sipping tea while discussing semiotics in your living room, blame the library. Brooklyn’s going full culture-share mode and honestly, it’s an absolute flex.