Join Columbia College Chicago and the Library as we celebrate The Big Read on our campus. We will be featuring programming honoring Ray Bradbury and his classic work, Fahrenheit 451 from April 1 through May 15, 2009.

Fahrenheit 451, the seminal classic work by Illinois native Ray Bradbury, has been chosen to celebrate our first The Big Read effort. The themes of book burning, censorship and the threat to critical thought and inquiry are issues which resonate more than 50 years after its original publication. We honor Ray Bradbury for his contribution to literature and his unwavering support of reading and libraries all over the country.

The Columbia College Chicago Library is a proud recipient of funding from The Big Read, an initiative of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), in partnership with The Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest and is designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The Big Read presents a unique opportunity for Columbia College Chicago to play a part in promoting literacy efforts in the state, particularly in the greater Chicagoland area.

Communities participating in our Big Read efforts include: Berwyn, Calumet City, Chicago, Chicago Heights, Cicero, East Chicago (Indiana), North Riverside and Waukegan. We join over 200 community partnerships across the country creating programming and distributing books of classic works, all towards the common goal of getting people to read.

Click here for more information about the The Big Read at Columbia College Chicago. Programs and events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.