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!
Work 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.
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.
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.
The 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:
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.