TCPL Presents an Exciting Year of Art for our Anniversary Year 2014

5 major exhibits of two dimensional will be showcased during 2014 together with exhibits in the display cases and traveling displays in the Avenue of the Friends.

For the Joy of Dancing curated by Sally Grubb presents the work of 9 artists, using a variety of different media, as they reflect on the joy of dancing. Feartured artists include Glenda Blake who presents the Unlikely Dance Project, Raymond Dalton, Karen Kucharski, Margaret Corbit, Brian Keeler, Bill Deats, Jari Poulin, Julie Prisloe and dancer/photographer Kurt Lichtmann. 

The exhibit will be on display January 10 through March 21, 2014 and the opening reception will be held first Friday, February 7, Gallery Opening Night from 5:00 to 8:00 PM.  It is made possible in part by grant support from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.

150 Years and Counting  - TCPL’s Sesquicentennial art exhibit celebrates 150 years of library service to the Tompkins County Community.  There are three parts to the exhibit.

Artists in the Archives is an installation of artworks that re-envision and re-purpose obsolete and/or discarded library cards and card catalogs. Three artists shared some of their delights in discoveries and priceless connections made possible in libraries.  
Carla Rae Johnson presents “The Alternet,” a 50-drawer card catalog featuring cards from more that 85 artists, poets, writers, musicians and creative thinkers.  
JoAnn Wilcox presents “Call to Everyone,” an exhibition of nearly 600 discarded library catalog cards that have been re-purposed as canvases for cell phone photos.  

Barbara Page presents “Book Marks,” a two-drawer catalog featuring library charge cards representing books that have made an impression on the artist. These card catalogs will be on display in the Avenue of the Friends.

Talk Tompkins is an audio visual exhibit of photographs of, and interviews with, members of Tompkins County community created by photographer Ben Altman. The photographs will be displayed throughout the library and the interviews will be presented on closed circuit TV.

Diary of a Library: A Community Card Catalog of Pictures, Memories and Stories.  

Members of the community are being asked to be a part of history and to help TCPL tell its story of 150 years of service to the community by creating library cards for this 15-drawer card catalog.  To participate in this project go to tcpl.org/150. 
This project is made possible in part by grant support from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.

These three exhibits which make up our Sesquicentennial Exhibit 150 Years and Counting, are curated by Barbara Page, Ben Altman and Sally Grubb.  They will be on display April 1 through June 30. 

A special Sesquicentennial Celebration will be held in conjunction with First Friday Gallery Opening Night on Friday April 4, 2014 from 5:00 – 8:00 PM. For more information about the Sesquicentennial Celebration go to tcpl.org/150.

Fabulous Fiber, an exhibit of three-dimensional work curated by Elizabeth Mount, will be displayed in the exhibit cases in the Avenue of the Friends during July, August and early September.  Work will include soft sculpture, re-purposed clothing, dolls and other unusual fiber art. An Opening Reception will be held in conjunction with First Friday Gallery Opening Night on Friday July 4, 2014 from 5:00 to 8:00 PM.  This exhibit is made possible in part by grant support from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.

Visual Culture at Ithaca High School - the Annual Student Art Exhibit sponsored by the High School Art Department will again be on display but in two locations and at two different times.  

During June, three dimensional ceramics will be displayed in the exhibit cases in the Avenue of the Friends.  In July and August two-dimensional work will be displayed throughout the Library.

150 Years and Counting returns with a second exhibit celebrating TCPL's 150 Anniversary in September. This exhibit will be displayed in conjunction with the traveling exhibit Lincoln the Constitution and the Civil War.

Tompkins County Then and Now is an exhibit that will feature photo collage images created by members of Harry Littell’s senior photographic class at TC3 with text provided by Cornell Humanities students.  The photo collage will show the changes that have taken place to local landscapes and buildings over the 150 years - since the time of the Civil War and the founding of the Library. Also on display will be artifacts representative of the 1860’s showing life in Tompkins County during the period of the Civil War.

This exhibit is being curated by Julee Johnson and Sally Grubb with support from the History Center.  It is made possible in part by grant support from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.

An opening reception will be held in conjunction with First Friday Gallery Opening Night on Friday October 3, 2014 from 5:00 to 8:00 PM.

Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War will be on display in the Avenue of the Friends from September 17 through October 31, 2014. 
This exhibit was organized by the National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, and the American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office, Chicago.

Based upon an original interactive exhibit developed by the National Constitution Center, this traveling version explores Lincoln’s struggle to resolve the basic questions that divided Americans at the most perilous moment in the nation’s history: Was the United States truly one nation, or was it a confederacy of sovereign and separate states? How could a country founded on the belief that “all men are created equal” tolerate slavery? In a national crisis, would civil liberties be secure? President Lincoln used the Constitution to confront the secession of Southern states, slavery and wartime civil liberties. Lincoln’s decisions about these three intertwined crises of war reinvented the Constitution and the promise of American life. This exhibition develops a more complete understanding of Abraham Lincoln as president and the Civil War as the nation’s gravest constitutional crisis.

The “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War” traveling exhibition is made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): great ideas brought to life.