Find or share many forms of art through digital platforms like Creative Commons, Community Arts Collection and more.

By Laurel Tacoma, Thomas Jefferson Library Branch Manager

Creative Commons

Looking to flex your creative muscles? Creative Commons (CC) provides the perfect outlet. Visit creativecommons.org to share your art, photography or illustrations — or to find a piece shared by another artist to use or remix it. A nonprofit organization, CC is “devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share,” helping users bypass the legal complexities of finding and using digital artwork.

FCPL’s Community Arts Collection

Introduced by FCPL in late 2020, the Fairfax Community Arts Collection is a virtual public gallery of art where you can discover the creative talents of your neighbors and share your own. Click here to start exploring and contributing to the collection and its curated online exhibitions. 

As this Community Arts Collection grows, it will showcase work by Fairfax County residents in a variety of categories: illustration, sketch, painting, and graphic design; art and craft creations in various formats and materials; photography; original prose and poetry; and audio and video performance art. View the contributions we’ve received so far. 

Historical Records at the Virginia Room 

If you don’t feel creative but want to add to a global online collection, consider contributing to FCPL’s Virginia Room. Among the digital (and physical) collections it creates to document our community's past is one of more than 500 yearbooks — more than 330 of which are digitized — from Fairfax County public and private schools. Donate yours from any year to expand the local historical record.

Right now, you can also be part of the Virginia Room’s historic project to collect primary source material regarding Fairfax County residents’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Submit your stories, photographs, journal entries, short video clips, art images or other digital files using this online form (account required) or by emailing them to va_room@fairfaxcounty.gov. Learn more and view the materials already shared on BiblioBoard. 

The Virginia Room is also the central repository for information on burial sites in Fairfax County. Staff and volunteers continue to add to this valuable resource, which now records information on more than 350 individual cemeteries. 

Visit our Fairfax County History guide for more details on all of FCPL’s local history efforts.

Library of Congress: By the People

The Library of Congress’ By the People crowdsourcing project allows anyone to help make documents more searchable for everyone by transcribing, reviewing and tagging digitized images of manuscripts and typed materials from the Library of Congress’ collections. Virtually volunteer by transcribing, tagging or reviewing Library of Congress documents.