2023 Program Series & Exhibits

When library doors are open, we display art exhibits in the Olga Knoepke Memorial Room on the first floor of the Library building, the hallway on the first floor, the Gathering Room on the second floor, and the Hawley Gallery on the third floor. The exhibits are open during regular library hours. You can also keep an eye on this space for virtual gallery shows!


Prison Arts Project setup on the first floor of the libraryWork from Community Partners in Action

Prison Arts Program: Permanent Collection

September 1 – November 30, in the Meeting Room & Entry Hall

The Prison Arts Program works inside Connecticut prisons to positively and constructively change the lives of the incarcerated by encouraging unique, personal, and evolving artistic pursuits.  These can engender hope in an often hopeless place.  Participants develop purpose, creativity, self-discipline, work ethics, self-esteem, technical and communication skills, introspection, critical thinking, and calm.

The Permanent Collection brings some of this work to you. Here is a window into the world of the prison – into lives lived surrounded by cinder block walls, and the work being done to transcend those walls.


More is More by Beth Johnson

Inspired by an Artist

An Exhibit of Fiber Art

by FiberWorks

September 1 – October 31, in the Meeting Room & Entry Hall

John Angel Alcove – 3rd Floor

Artists have always been inspired by those who have gone before. When we took on this challenge, we were eager to see how each of us would interpret the work of another artist through the fiber medium we each work in. Inspired by how those artists use color, form or style, we brought our own talents as fiber artists to this challenge. We hope our work celebrates some of the great artists who inspired us.


Wall of Doug Calderone's art

Doug Calderone- A Different Hand: Through October 2 on the Third Floor Green Wall

Doug Calderone is an artist and self-taught carpenter. He attended Concordia University in Bronxville, NY where he was an art major and received the Fine Arts Award. In January 2023 he suffered a major stroke and spent three months in a hospital and rehab facility.  He lost use of his right hand and arm and most of his speech. He has recently started to paint again and is teaching himself how to paint with his left hand.  All his paintings are unique as he’s trying to develop a new style using a different hand.

 


 

Interpretative depiction of Virgo paintingThe IAIS Cosmological Exhibition

In the 3rd floor Museum Room.  The centerpiece of the Cosmological exhibit is by Genevieve DeLeon and is part of her Star Series. This particular piece is called “Virgo”. Here is a short writeup about Star Series:

“De Leon’s Star Series paintings represent star maps of constellations that form portions of the Maya zodiac. Derived from gridded, data-rich images of the sky, each painting renders the celestial firmament, frame by frame. Each square, like a Maya unit of time, operates as a fractal part of the whole and generates a visual field alive with interconnection.”

 

 


Stories of Exile: Continuing the Conversation on Displacement, Migration and Diaspora

Stories of Exile: Continuing the Conversation on Displacement, Migration, and Diaspora is an extension of a program created and administered by the Yiddish Book Center. Using discussions of Yiddish literature from the early and mid-20th century as its foundation, this program builds off the themes of those works by using classic and contemporary stories and voices from around the world to look directly at the human and cultural cost of migration, diaspora, and displacement.

Throughout the months of September, October and November, the expanded series takes the themes of exile, “displacement, migration and diaspora,” and explores what they mean to people of all cultures: to the people of Ukraine, African Americans, the indigenous population of the United States, and beyond. Each program, as well as the accompanying Stories of Exile exhibit, is meant to provide a tangible, knowable example of what is lost when people are displaced, and what is gained when we, as a community, reach out and embrace, value, and care for that story, that life.

For program schedule click here!