Birds, Beasts and Books: Animal Illustrations in Literature

Jabberwocky by Barry Moser

Many artists have set their hand to illustrating children’s books and what better way to catch a child’s attention than with fantastical birds and animals, often doing very human, ordinary things. In this exhibition we see the work of four artists: Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) with illustrations for Tom Sawyer and Life on the Mississippi; Barry Moser (born 1940) with his imaginative interpretation of Alice in Wonderland; Antonio Frasconi (born 1919) with his distinctive creatures for Aesop’s Fables; and Fritz Eichenberg’s beautifully rendered wood engravings for Edgar Allen Poe’s stories.

All encourage us to see these classic stories in new ways.

This exhibition, curated by Nancy E. Green, The Gale and Ira Drukier Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Johnson Museum of Art, complements two shows on the Cornell University campus: Wardrobes and Rabbit Holes: A Dark History of Children’s Literature, currently on view in Kroch Library, and Beauties and Beasties in Children’s Book Illustrations which opens February 2 at the Johnson Museum of Art.

Birds, Beasts and Books is displayed in conjunction with the exhibit Animalia in Art curated by Jenny Pope and featuring the work of six local artists who feature wildlife in their art.  An opening reception is being held during Gallery Opening Night on Friday, January 4, 2013.

TCPL Presents A Year of Art for 2013

TCPL will showcase 5 major exhibits of two dimensional art as well as exhibits of three-dimensional work in our exhibit cases during 2013.

Animalia in Art curated by Jenny Pope showcases the response of local artists to the creatures that inhabit their world. Featured in the exhibit are the charcoal drawings of Margaret Reed, the photography of Dede Hatch, the drawings of Karen L. Allaben-Confer, and the printmaking works of Sylvia Taylor, Craig Mains, and Jenny Pope. 

The exhibit will be on display December 12 through March 21, 2013.  The opening reception will be held in conjunction with Gallery Opening Night on Friday, January 4 from 5 to 8 PM.

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

Birds, Beasts and Books: Animal Illustrations in Literature is curated by Nancy E. Green, The Gale and Ira Drukier Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Johnson Museum of Art.  The exhibit features wood engravings by Barry Moser for a special edition of Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, 1982, from the collection of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, other books featuring animal illustrations, including a special edition of Alice in Wonderland and  Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There that use the original plates of the original Tenniel illustrations, an Edward Lear Nonsense Alphabet and the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.

The exhibit will be on display December 28 through March 22.  It is held in conjunction with Animalia in Art at TCPL, Wardrobes and Rabbit Holes: A Dark History of Children’s Literature at the Hirshland Exhibition Gallery, Kroch Library, Cornell and Beauties and Beasties in Children’s Book Illustrations, also curated by Nancy Green, on display from February 2 in the Bowers Gallery at the Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell.

 

Hip Hop:  Unbound from the Underground – An Ithaca Community Celebration of Hip Hop Culture – April 4 – April 7





TCPL presents The Hip Hop Experience – an exhibit featuring the Art, Music and Culture of Hip Hop.  The exhibit opens at Gallery Opening Night on Friday April 5 and will be on display from March 28 to June 14 2013.  The exhibit, curated by Jason Ortero of Art and Anthropology features the original work of Jay Stooks, a compilation of Hip Hop posters and other memorabilia from sneakers to boomboxes from the collections of Stooks, Potter and Ortero, a display about the creation of Hip Hop graffiti by Jay Potter, and photographs by Hip Hop photographers Joe Conzo and Ernie Paniccioli from the Cornell University Hip Hop collection. Afrika Bambaataa, founder of Hip Hop, and both photographers will be present at Gallery Opening Night and participate in a panel discussion about the early days of Hip Hop.

This exhibit is made possible by support from the Tompkins County Tourism Program, the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County, the New York State Council for the Humanities, Cap Matches Color and Cornell University Library, Division of Rare & Manuscript Collections.

 

Visual Culture at Ithaca High School the Annual Student Art Exhibit curated by faculty member Carol Spence and other members of the Ithaca High School Art Department returns to the Library June 16 through July 16.

Grandparents – Grandchildren an exhibit in all media curated by David O. Watkins will feature portraits by participating artists of their grandchildren or their grandparents and opens at Gallery Night on Friday August 3. It will be on display July 19 through September 16.
 

Banned! Curator Suzanne Kimiko Onodera has invited artists and writers to create an artwork, poem or prose piece inspired by a banned book.  The exhibit is intended to engage visitors in a dialog about banned books in the United States.  Featured artists and writers include Ron Jude – Photographer;  Carol Clune – Visual Artist; Trisica Munroe – Poet, Visual Artist; Claire Lesseman – Visual Artist; Tim Merrick – Visual Aritst; Duffy Berkowitz – Visual Artist, Writer; Bridget Meeds – Poet; Grace Beeler – Poet, Author; Terry Plater – Visual Artist; Jane Dennis – Visual Artist; Suzanne Onodera – Visual Artist; and Werner Sun – Visual Artist. A program including discussions with and among the artists and writers is planned either at the October Gallery Opening Night or later during the course of the exhibit.  The exhibit will be on display September 20 through December 20.

These exhibits are made possible in part by grant support from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.

 

Exhibits in the Avenue of the Friends will include:

Birds, Beasts and Books – Animal Illustrations in Literature curated by Nancy Green, The Gale and Ira Drukier Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Johnson Museum of Art, December 28 through March 22

Light in Winter – Walking Robots January 18 to March 8, featuring the walking robots of Andy Ruina, Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University.

A Barn Building Story - by Deborah Jones, date to be announced,

Willard Suitcases – an exhibit of suitcases an exhibit of suitcases found in the attic at Willard Psychiatric Center after it closed in 1995.  This emotional exhibit paints a tragic portrait or the forgotten lives of the people who lived there.  This exhibit is planned for September and October in conjunction with Mental Health Awareness week.

 

 

First Friday Gallery Night, October 6, 2012 at TCPL

Banned Books the Library’s exhibit celebrating Banned Books and Freedom to Read Week which takes place September 30 through October 6, continues on display in the Avenue of the Friends. Featuring a display of books that have been challenged or banned together with the reasons for this action, this provocative exhibit reminds readers of the importance of access to uncensored literature.

Drawing on Democracy, curated by local artist and CSMA faculty member Terry Plater, this exhibit continues through October 11.  Offering a glimpse into the definition of “democracy” as defined by nine local artists, the exhibit also offers hands-on involvement through Ben Altman’s installation Citizens Are Encouraged To Use The Pencils Provided which invites visitors to write their comments on his portraits.  This ever evolving piece demands that viewers return to see its development on a regular basis.

Drawing on Democracy is supported by a grant from the Community Arts Partnership.

Access to the Library during Gallery Night will be through the BorgWarner Community Room door, opposite Gimme! Coffee, and directly behind TCAT’s Green Street bus shelter. 

Drawing on Democracy curated by Terry Plater

Drawing on Democracy will be on display in the Library through October 11.

Jane Dennis

Terry Plater

An elaboration of the curator’s ongoing preoccupation with questions of aesthetics and equity, and fortuitously timed to coincide with the nation’s 2012 presidential campaign, this exhibit asks artists to address one simple question:  What does democracy look like?  Guest artists were asked to respond to that question in drawings, an act which is as conducive to thinking as it is to mark-making and art-making.  The result provices an informative and thought provoking visual answer to this important question, and the beginning of an extended conversation.

Nancy Ridenour

The exhibit features multi-media pieces by Ben Altman, Stan Bowman, Jane Dennis, Yvonne Piburn, Steven Phillips, Nancy Ridenour, Werner Sun, Marion Van Soest and Plater and offers a visual and hands-on exploration of democracy.  Issues explored by the exhibit include:  the honorable treatment of children, the unambiguous recognition of religious freedom, the flag as a metaphor for inclusion or as a fabric of disarray, the spectrum of public participation and the notion of artistic expression and creation.

Ben Altman

Through the inclusion of Ben Altman’s photographic installation, the viewer is asked to participate in the exhibit and make their own comment on democracy.

Farewell – an Exhibit of Ceramic Sculptures by Eric Serritella

Join TCPL to say “good bye” to artist Eric Serritella at his final local exhibition and sale before relocating south.  His exquisite weathered logs and sculptural birch tree pieces will be on display in the Avenue of the Friends until September 17.

Artist’s Statement

The purity of nature and the Asian art aesthetic have always inspired me and I find clay the ideal medium for reflecting both.

Through my trompe l’oeil ceramic sculptures I challenge the viewer with both the nature of the material and the messages within. Whether wheel-thrown or hand-built, these forms are completely hand-carved and transformed to mimic weathered logs and birch trees—the angels of the forest.

I strive to show how nature maintains its splendors through tenacity and triumph of existence despite the disregard we humans show her. I appreciate how ceramic mirrors the environment’s fragility and durability—easily damaged if disrespected and yet invincible in its inherent beauty.

Each piece I create is a relationship—the story of shared discovery. The clay and I make the journey together through the tension of disagreement and the harmony of accord. The final form—the result of our conversation—has a life all its own.

 I strive for the life in each creation to foster awareness and influence viewer behavior toward the environment. My hope is that at least some will acquire new appreciations and ways of seeing and thus choose to walk with softer steps.

The Heart Gallery will be on display in the Avenue of the Friends through October 5, 2012.

TCPL is proud to display the Heart Gallery in conjunction with this year's Community Read - The Life Before Us by Romain Gary.

The Heart Gallery is a traveling photographic and audio exhibit created to find forever families for children in foster care. The Heart Gallery of America is a collaborative project of over 120 Heart Galleries across the United States (and growing) designed to increase the number of adoptive families for children needing homes in our community.

Now, in its tenth year, the Heart Gallery model is being replicated in many communities across the country. Although many of our children were removed from abusive and neglectful situations, they still have hope. They love to laugh, to learn, and to be with their friends. Most of all, they dream of finding a forever family to be their own.

There are nearly 500,000 children in foster care in the United States.

Over 250,000 will never return home.

Over 123,000 need adoptive homes right now.

More than 29,000 aged out of foster care in 2008, at age 18 without anyone, to live on their own, unprepared and unsupported.

Can you change the life of a waiting child? 

Can you adopt?

Can you foster?

First Friday Gallery Night, July 6, at TCPL

TCPL showcases three exciting exhibits Politics in Print:  Treasures from the Walker Library of the History of Imagination, Visual Culture at IHS and Good Books, Bad Covers during First Friday Gallery Night from 5:00 – 8:00 PM on July 6.

Politics in Print: Treasures from the Walker Library of the History of the Human Imagination includes one of only two known anastatic facsimile copies of the Declaration of Independence.   Learn more about the anastatic printing process and view a folio of samples printed using this process at 6:00 and 7:00 PM. 

Good Books – Bad Covers  - an exhibit of vintage paperbacks from the collection of James Baker displayed alongside modern cover art.  Book jackets have evolved greatly over the years – so much so that a cover used in the 1940s or 1950s would rarely be used today to represent the same book. From marketing a book as a sensational bodice ripper when it first came out, to designing a modern cover to represent how the book has become an American classic, this exhibit shows how book jacket design has changed in just a few decades.

Visual Culture – Art from IHS an exhibit featureing art in all media created by Ithaca High School students during the past year.  This spectacular show is a compelling reason to visit TCPL after hours this Gallery Night.

Entrance to the Library at this after-hours event is through the BorgWarner door adjacent to Gimme! Coffee on Green Street and just behind the TCAT bus shelter.

Urban Street Art Mural at TCPL

Like many other buildings TCPL is often subject to graffiti and tagging.  In an attempt to overcome this problem, Library Director Susan Currie, with the support of the staff and Tompkins County Facilities, has welcomed the painting of a Street Art Mural on the loading bay wall by street artist Kevin Parker, visitng Ithaca from the United Kingdom, and local artist Jay Potter.

Painting started at 2 PM and is expected to be finished by this evening.

Visual Culture at IHS

Visual Culture, the art exhibit presented by the Art Faculty and students at Ithaca High School every June, is of particularly high quality this year.  Beautifully hung by faculty and student volunteers, the artwork is displayed throughout the Library including the Teen area in Youth Services.  Ceramics are displayed in the exhibit case.

While the Library is not an art gallery, we are always pleased to put patrons in touch with artists when they are considering purchasing a piece of art.  It is particularly gratifying this year, to learn that one of our patrons found one piece of art that “really spoke to (me) him.”  We hope he is able to work something out with the young artist.

Visual Culture is one of the featured exhibits at First Friday Gallery Night on July 6.

With help from Historic Ithaca, TCPL hangs Urban Street Art Mural

If you drive south on Route 13 past Purity Ice Cream in Ithaca towards Esty Street on Friday, June 15 after 3:00 PM, be sure to check out the new Urban Street Art Mural, which will be hung along Fulton Street.

7 local artists participated in an Urban Street Art Paint-Off at the Ithaca Festival on June 1, during Gallery Opening night, creating an exciting, book themed 48 foot long mural. 

Special thanks are due to Purity Ice Cream for allowing TCPL to use their fence and to Sustainable Tompkins, which provided the funding that made the mural possible.

Art in the Heart of the City Returns to TCPL

On Wednesday June 6, Good Morning Blues by Glenn Zweygardi became the first sculpture to be installed in this year’s "Art in the Heart of the City" sponsored by the Ithaca Downtown Alliance.

TCPL is delighted to host this sculpture located outside the Library on the corner of Cayuga and Green Streets.

Contact the Downtown Alliance for information about other sculptures being installed throughout the Downtown area.

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.