TCPL's 48' Urban Street Art Mural completed successfully

Thanks to a Sustainable Tompkins mini-grant TCPL was able to invite 6 local graffiti artists to turn 6 wood panels into a 48’ Urban Street Art Mural during Gallery Night, June 1. 

Bad weather forced us to move the event to the front of the library under the awning.  Painting started at 2 PM when a light beige base coat was applied to all the panels.  Using spray paint, brushes and, in some, cases marker pens the designs slowly emerged, were changed, developed and finally completed by 8:00 PM.  

There was no set theme for the mural, rather it had to reflect a feeling for the Library.  During the painting it was decided to add a book to each panel.

The first panel features TCPL.  The last panel features PAC the City Public Art Commission with whom the Library worked to identify artists and locate potential hanging sites. The other four panels include birding, Spiderman, an artist’s name and the Public Library.

Library patrons and Gallery Night visitors came to watch the painting, talk to the artists and to listen to music by Fall Creek Folk and Uncle Joe and the Rosebud Ramblers, who generously played from 5 to 8 PM. 

A site along Fulton Street has be confirmed for hanging the finished mural.  Details of the hanging will follow.

New Exhibits at TCPL

TCPL presents an ever changing display of exhibits throughout the Library.  During a busy spring exhibits included Perspectives on Homelessness and the Indigent, Paintings by Roma Children, 50 Anniversary of Charlotte’s Web, Ithaca City of Asylum display of photos and work by Milosz, and an exhibit by members of the Discovery Trail.  The summer brings exciting new exhibits.

During May and early June TCPL is proud to display work created by GIAC during Women’s History month.  In Youth Services see the display about Lighthouse Keeper Ida Lewis created by the Fourth Grade Pee Wee group.  Behind the book stacks to the right of the Ezra Cornell portrait see Jay Stooks homage to the graffiti artist Pink.  Stooks leads the Urban Street Art group and other young adult programs at GIAC. 

The Family Reading Partnership exhibit, in conjunction with the Kroch Library, in celebration of the 40 year anniversary of Charlotte's Webb has been moved to the exhibit cases in the local history section.

TCPL hosts Graffiti Paint-Off, June 1 Gallery Night, during Ithaca Festival 

TCPL invites the community to join us at this exciting event being held along Creek Walk behind the Library.  Watch local graffiti artists paint a 48 foot long Urban Street Art Mural.  Enjoy music from three local bands – Fall Creek Folk, Dance Sylvania and Uncle Joe and the Rosebud Ramblers.

Politics in Print:  Treasures from the Walker Library of the History of Human Imagination 

An exhibit in conjunction with Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, "Politics in Print" will be on display June through September in the Avenue of the Friends.  

TCPL is proud to partner with Cornell University Library’s Alumni Reunion exhibition “Treasures from the Walker Library of the History of Human Imagination.” Through a remarkable array of rare books, manuscripts, and artifacts from the collection of Jay and Eileen Walker, this exhibit showcases imagination as a driving force through history and celebrates the adventure of discovery, learning, and creativity. 

Items from the Walker museum will be on display at the Kroch Library, Day Hall, the Johnson Museum of Art, Mann Library and the Tompkins County Public Library.  TCPL’s exhibit includes a facsimile of the original 1776 Declaration of Independence; one of two known copies made directly from the original.

During the Fall, on a date to be announced, TCPL will welcome Jay Walker to the Library for a presentation on his Museum of the Imagination, and the anastatic facsimile.

Visual Culture: Art from Ithaca High School returns to TCPL on June 11 and will be on display in Youth Services, the Avenue of the Friends, the North Reading Room and the New Fiction area.  The Library is proud to show case the work of our community’s emerging artists.

Drawing on Democracy curated by Terry Plater, opens on Friday, July 22 and will be on display through September. 

Good Books: Bad Covers a collection of vintage paperbacks owned by local attorney James Baker, will go on display in the Avenue of the Friends together with modern editions of the same titles from TCPL’s collection.  On July 19, Librarian Sarah Glogowski with present her popular and instructive talk How to Tell a Book by its Cover, 6:00 in the BorgWarner Community Room.

Politics in Print: Treasures from the Walker Library of the History of Human Imagination at TCPL

TCPL is proud to partner with Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in the Alumni Reunion exhibition “Treasures from the Walker Library of the History of Human Imagination” which runs from June 7 through October at the Kroch Library.

On June 7, 2012 the Kroch Library will open the exhibition 

Collecting Imagination: Treasures from the Walker Library of the History of Human Imagination. Through a remarkable array of rare books, manuscripts, and artifacts from the collection of Jay (’77) and Eileen (’76, ’78) Walker, this exhibit showcases imagination as a driving force through history and celebrates the adventure of discovery, learning, and creativity.

Items from the Walker museum will also be on display at Day Hall, the Johnson Museum of Art, Mann Library and the Tompkins County Public Library.

Featuring such treasures as an original Soviet Sputnik, “Collecting Imagination” and “Politics in Print” mark the first time an extensive selection of objects from this unique private collection will be on public view.

TCPL’s exhibit 

Politics in Print:  Treasures from the Walker Library of the History of Imagination, on display June 1 through October, 1, includes a anastatic facsimile of the original 1776 Declaration of Independence; one of two known copies made directly from the original, using a wet-copy process. This and other items will be on view in the Avenue of the Friends.

At a date in the Fall, to be announced, Jay Walker will give a presentation at TCPL about the Walker Library and talk about the anastatic process that was used to create this facsimile.

For more information please call Sally Grubb at 607 272-4557 ext 232 or email sgrubb at tcpl.org or visit our website at http://tcpl.org.

Library Hosts Gallery Night Graffiti Painting during Ithaca Festival

Friday, June 1, 5:00 - 8:00 PM Tompkins County Public Library will celebrate Downtown Ithaca Gallery Night and the Ithaca Festival with music and the painting of urban street art along the Creek Walk behind the Library. (In the event of rain this event will beheld under the overhang at the front of the Library.

Local graffiti artists Jay Stooks and Jay Potter will lead local artists in the painting of a 48 foot long, community-based mural, created on boards hung along the Creek Walk Fence.  Painting of the mural will be well underway by the 5 PM start of Gallery Night and is expected to be completed by Gallery Night’s 8 PM conclusion.


To add to the excitement of the evening, two local bands will perform during the creation of the mural.  
Fall Creek Folk - 5:00 - 6:00 PM featuring Amy Davies, Rich Recchia, Richie Holtz and Ceili Murphy.  


Uncle Joe and the Rosebud Ramblers - 6:00 to 8:00 PM (with breaks) featuring  Joe Chicone on banjo and vocals, Renee Baum on fiddle, and Tom Farrell on guitar and vocals.

Tompkins County Public Library, a keen supporter of public art, is proud to participate in Gallery Opening Night and the Ithaca Festival on Friday, June 1, outside the Library along Creek Walk.  Please join us.

The painting of the Urban Street Art Mural is made possible with the support of a Sustainable Tompkins Mini-Grant.

A Public Forum - The Homeless and Indigent: Causes, Effects and Solutions

The Homeless and Indigent: Causes, Effects and Solutions will be the subject of a Panel Discussion and Public Forum being held from 5:00 to 8:00 PM on Thursday, April 5, 2012. The panel represents sectors of government, service organizations, veterans and community members and invites direct public comment and dialogue.

The program will start with tours of the exhibit - "Perspectives on Homelessness and the Indigent" - led by curator Benn Nadelman. The Panel discussion will be opened at 6:00 PM with a reading by Tompkins County Poet Laureate Gail Holst-Warhaft.

The panel will be moderated by Anne Rhodes and will include:

Svante Myrick - City of Ithaca Mayor
John Ward - Red Cross, Director of Homeless Services
Joe Lotito - Resident of The Jungle
Jennifer (Jenny) Pacanowski - Veterans’ Sanctuary Coordinator
Gail Holst-Warhaft - Tompkins County Poet Laureate

Jackie Sayegh-Birch, who is from Liberia, will read from her work at the end of the panel.Her poems are featured in the anthology “Far from Home".

HOMELESS BY CHOICE, HER DAUGHTER LEAVES HER

By Katharyn Howd Machan

stark awake at 4 a.m.:

she sees the ice on her windowpanes

make silver of the night’s fake light

and hears her husband sleeping deep

in dreams of their dying daughter.

How to count a thousand sheep?

How to hum long breathless tunes

muffled in a flannel pillow

on a bed a century old?

Instead she sits up on the edge

and fumbles for her dark brown scuffs

and creaks her way out through the door

to new December silence. A poem

hangs taut and stiff out there

but she does not try to touch it.

Time now only for hot tea

in a cup of china roses.

Motherhood is an open hand

with thin fingers flat and useless.

Perspectives on Homelessness and the Indigent - An Exhibit of Visual Art and Poetry



"COWBOY 2" / Living on the Edge
Luther E. Vann

 Tompkins County Public Library presents Perspectives on Homlessness and the Indigent, a Visual Art and Poetry Exhibit curated by Benn Tedrus Feshbach Nadelman on display March 10 through May 24, 2012.

An opening reception, panel presentation and public forum, The Homeless and Indigent; Causes, Effects and Solutions will take place on Thursday, April 5 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the BorgWarner Community room.

 

"How did you get here?"
Daphne Sola

 This timely, important exhibit addresses an important subject through the eyes of 41 visual artists and poets including creative professionals, those administering to the indigent, students and those who are members of the indigent community.

The works featured represent a vast range of sociopolitical, demographic and aesthetic perspectives and include art work in all media as well as poetry.

"Mario"
Amelia Burns

When inviting people to participate in this exhibit, curator Benn Nadelman’s primary criteria was that artwork and poems should address the subject/theme and be appropriate for viewing by the general public. There has been no content editing either by the curator nor the Library.

Some exhibits in the show are for sale.  The Library takes no commission but asks patrons to deal directly with the artists, some of whom will be donating the proceeds of their sales to charitable organizations serving the indigent.

This exhibit is made possible in part by grant support from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.

Three small but distinctive exhibits, open in the Avenue of the Friends and Youth Services

A book and photographic exhibit of the Life and Work of Nobel Prize winning poet Czeslaw Milosz presented by Ithaca City of Asylum opened on March 2 and will be on display in the Avenue of the Friends through April 15 2012.

The exhibit features photographs recording Milosz’ 1981 return visit to Poland, after 30 years of exile to the United States and books printed by underground publishers. Pieces included in the exhibit are on loan from Pawel Bakowski, former owner of the Literary Salon, an underground publishing house based in Warsaw and current visiting scholar at Cornell University.

Milosz’ work was banned in Poland until 1980 when he was awarded the Noble Prize.  At that time, Bakowski and his friends in the underground publishing business, known as NOWa, began printing and distributing his work.  NOWa members faced political persecution for their actions, but kept Milosz' work available throughout the country.

On April 1 at 2:00 PM in the BorgWarner Community Room, the poetry of Milosz will be celebrated with a reading by members of the local Polish and poetry communities. Bakowski will also give a short account of the story behind this collection of photos and books. 

An exhibit Celebrating 40 years of Charlotte’s Web will be on display March 10 through April 15, 2012.  Presented by the Family Reading Partnership, this exhibit features E.B. White’s personal papers and photos on-loan from Cornell University’s Kroch Library Rare Book and Manuscript Collection.The papers include a facisimile of the first 8 pages from the author’s original mauscript together with letters from school children.  Artwork and writing from area elementary students will also be on display.

Roma Pals – Paintings by Roma children

To celebrate International Roma Day, April 8, and as part of their project Getting to Know the New Europe, the Cornell Institute for European Studies (CIES) is hosting a Roma Awareness month.   During March and April CIES is sponsoring an exhibit of paintings entitled Roma Pals which will be displayed in the Youth Services Department through the end of  April 2012.

This collection of vividly colored paintings, Roma Pals, was created twenty years ago by Roma children under the tutelage of Slovakian art teacher Jan Sajko.  Jan Sajko became widely known because of his ability to awaken the artistic talent of his primary school students in a very poor Romany settlement, Jarovnice, in eastern Slovakia. Having seen traditional teaching methods fail the Roma students, Sajko encouraged them to explore their own culture and history in their paintings and to create on their own terms. He also strove to teach students that through hard work they could change their lives; they were not condemned to the life of poverty and idleness that has been the fate of so many Roma in Europe. The works by Sajko’s students have been shown around the world, and have won many awards.  We are pleased to present them here at TCPL.