Barnes & Noble Launches The All-American Art Unwind

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the nation's largest retail bookseller, today announced The Barnes & Noble All-American Art Unwind, an invitation to customers to join a celebration of coloring on November 14 from 12 Noon until 5pm at stores nationwide. Coloring has been found to offer a number of health benefits including relaxation, reduced anxiety, improved fine motor skills and increased ability to focus, which has led to an explosion of participation from adults in this fun childhood pastime. The focal point of The All-American Art Unwind event is the "Create" activity, an opportunity for customers to take part in a nationwide coloring project and color a piece of art designed by renowned artist Millie Marotta, creator of the international bestselling Animal Kingdom and Tropical World coloring books. Customers can then upload a photo of their work to Instagram or Twitter to help create a national digital art mosaic, and visit www.BNArtUnwind.com to see if their work is selected for inclusion, along with that of other customers from around the country.

Two additional coloring activities will be featured at Barnes & Noble's All-American Art Unwind celebration: "Connect" and "Color." The "Connect" activity will enable customers to personalize with color a selection of greeting cards and envelopes from Hallmark that they can send to friends and family. Customers can also share their creations on social media with the #BNColoringContest hashtag for a chance to win a one-year's supply of Hallmark cards featuring two greeting card lines new to Barnes & Noble stores this fall: Shoebox Greetings and Hallmark Signature. To experiment with color and explore different illustration styles and artist supplies, the "Color" activity will feature artwork from some of today's bestselling coloring books and a variety of artist supplies to bring the pages to life.

"Barnes & Noble has always been a place for customers to explore their creativity. We've been at the forefront of the coloring book trend that's sweeping the nation," said Mary Amicucci, Vice President of Books at Barnes & Noble. "With The Barnes & Noble All-American Art Unwind, we're inviting customers to experience coloring in three unique ways, including participation in a one-of-a-kind, cross-country collaborative digital art mosaic."

Renowned illustrator Millie Marotta has sold millions of coloring books around the world, and her work will be featured during The Barnes & Noble All-American Art Unwind event. Millie Marotta will also sign Tropical World and color with customers at two Barnes & Noble stores in New York City; from 12 Noon until 2pm at Barnes & Noble on the Upper East Side (150 East 86th Street) and from 3pm until 5pm at Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side (2289 Broadway).

"As an Illustrator, it has been incredible to see coloring become so popular and evolve into an activity which people are really engaging with and are enjoying as a creative outlet in their everyday lives," said Millie Marotta. "I'm thrilled to partner with Barnes & Noble to give aspiring artists a chance to experience my creation, explore their own creativity and be a part of a project that brings people together in a meaningful, fun and creative way."

During The Barnes & Noble All-American Art Unwind, one of Millie Marotta's renowned designs from Tropical World will be divided into nine postcard-size pieces, so that customers can color and submit one of the pieces to possibly be included in a special digital art mosaic. Participants will take a photo of their colored postcard, upload the image and share on Instagram or Twitter with a special hashtag (or email it to pictures@bnartunwind.com). Chosen submissions will be uploaded to www.BNArtUnwind.com, where customers can view their individual artwork as part of a dynamic mosaic featuring the works of other customers from around the country.

Give the Gift of Coloring this Holiday

Customers can make the holidays bright and colorful by giving the gift of coloring. From beautiful coloring books, pens, pencils, and other artist supplies, these gifts are not only unique, but they offer so much more including relaxation and creative escapes. From bestselling coloring books like Millie Marotta's Animal Kingdom and Johanna Basford's Secret Garden to high-quality markers and colored pencils, Barnes & Noble carries the widest selection of coloring books and artist supplies perfect for the novice to the master artist.

To learn more about The Barnes & Noble All-American Art Unwind, visit www.BNArtUnwind.com. To find a full selection of coloring books and supplies available at Barnes & Noble, please visit www.BN.com/coloring.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) is a Fortune 500 company, the nation's largest retail bookseller, and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products. The Company operates 647 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, and one of the Web's premier e-commerce sites, BN.com (www.bn.com). The Nook Digital business offers a lineup of popular NOOK tablets and eReaders and an expansive collection of digital reading and entertainment content through the NOOK Store. The NOOK Store features more than 4 million digital books in the US (www.nook.com) and UK (www.nook.co.uk), plus periodicals, comics, apps, movies and TV shows, and offers the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices through Free NOOK Reading Apps available for Android, iOS and Windows.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained by visiting the Company's corporate website at www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

Barnes & Noble, Barnes & Noble Booksellers and Barnes & Noble.com are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. or its affiliates. NOOK and the NOOK logos are trademarks of Nook Digital, LLC or its affiliates.

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