Evolution in your Backyard - an exhibit sponsored by PRI Opens First Friday Gallery Night on March 6

TCPL joins PRI's annual celebration of Darwin Days 2015 with a small exhibit centered on this year’s theme: Evolution in Your Backyard. An opening reception is being held during Gallery Opening Night from 5:00 to 8:00 PM on Friday March 6 in the Avenue of the Friends.

Although Darwin is noted for his vast travels and five-year voyage on the HMS Beagle, he also knew that evidence of evolution is all around. From birds to mammals, from plants to insects, you can learn a lot about evolution right in your own backyard! The exhibit will feature fascinating specimens native to Ithaca, with images and graphics that explain what they can teach us. Additionally, portraits, journal entries, and historic specimens will tell Darwin’s personal story and the history of PRI’s annual Darwin Days celebration.

For more information about the other events which take place all over Ithaca in celebration of Charles Darwin's Birthday go to Darwin Days Events. From Darwin's Dog Days at Cayuga Nature Center, Darwin's Birthday Bash and a Family Day at the Museum of the Earth, Trivia at Felicia's Atomic Lounge, Science Cabaret at Lot 10, plus panels at Cornell University and a screening of Microcosmos at Cinemapolis, there is something for every age. The exhibit at TCPL will be on display through the end of March.

The exhibit is made possible by PRI with support from Cornell University and Derek and Leora Kaufman.

After 5 PM on Friday, March 6, please enter the Library through the BorgWarner door behind the bus shelter on Green Street.

"What Would MLK Say Today?" Poster Contest Display opens during Gallery Night on March 6

The award ceremony for the winners in the First Annual "What would MLK Say Today?" Poster Contest, sponsored by the Tompkins County Office of Human Rights, takes place at 6 PM Gallery Night on Friday, March 6.

Adult and Teen award wining posters admired by a Library Patron

Visit the Avenue of the Friends to see the posters entered in the contest. Winners in four age groups are displayed in the Avenue.  Other entries are found on the pillars along the Avenue, on the walls of the Ezra Cornell Reading Room and the walls around the Fiction Bookstacks.

The Posters will be on display through February 27.

The award ceremony is the first event taking place during "Human Rights Revisited" which is sponsored by the Tompkins County Human Rights Commission. The schedule of events follows:

6:00 Poster Awards Ceremony (Avenue of the Friends)
6:45 Human Rights Video (BorgWarner Community Room)
7:00 "A Diversity of Perspectives" Panel Discussion moderated by Pat Pryor (BorgWarner Room) 
7:30 Community Discussion (BorgWarner Room)
8:00 Closing remarks

This event is sponsored by the Tompkins County Civil Rights Commission and the Office of Human Rights and co-sponsored by Tompkins County Public Library.

After 5 PM on Gallery Opening Night please enter the Library through the BorgWarner door behind the bus shelter on Green Street.

Diary of a Library - Artists Books from the Card Catalog

Artists books donated to Diary of a Library, the repurposed card catalog created during TCPL's Sesquicentennial Year 2014, can be seen on display in the Avenue of the Friends.

These tiny 3" x 5" books were created by local book artists including Werner Sun, Parbara Page, students in a workshop presented by Laurie Snyder and many others to help celebrate 150 years of Library Service to our community.  Together with hundreds of library card catalog cards, contributed by members of the community of all ages, these books will be stored in an historic card catalog, displayed in the Avenue of the Friends and are available for all to browse through.

 

Members of the public are invited to continue contributing cards to add to the catalog.  Tell us your library story, or tell us your favorite book.  Pick up a card, write your story and drop it off in the box provided.  As with all library catalogs whether digital or on cards, Diary of a Library will continue to evolve and we will add new cards whenever they are contributed.

TCPL presents Island Mountain Glacier - Photographs by Anika Steppe Gallery Night, 5 - 8 PM, Friday January 9, 2015

Join us at Gallery Night and meet the curator, Danielle Mericle, and the photographer, Anika Steppe who will be at the library from 5 to 8 PM to talk with patrons.

Mericle selected the images from the work Steppe completed during her residency in Iceland and says:  

"In Island Mountain Glacier, Anika Steppe offers a photographic meditation on the harsh yet beautiful terrain of Iceland.  Shot while on residency throughout the winter months, Steppe presents us with images of glaciers, domestic spaces, and landscapes—each photograph rendered with a keen eye for color and executed with quiet restraint.  Throughout the work, she searches for a trace of what the locals call the huldufólk (“hidden folk”), mythological beings from Icelandic folklore that are believed to live amongst the glacial rocks.  Taken within this context, we begin to look for clues in the photographs to the existence of something other.  As such, we begin to question our grasp of the “real,” and recognize the limitations therein."

Anika Steppe talks about her residency and the work she created: 

"Some days the wind was so strong there was no point in trying to go anywhere.

"When the weather was bearable, Iceland seemed like the most expansive and forever surprising place, yet on the windy days it couldn’t have seemed smaller. I spent half of my time there searching, and the other half hiding.

"Being in a country known for its acceptance of mythical beings, such as the huldufólk (the hidden folk), I felt compelled to search for traces of another’s existence; for a subtle energy that can’t quite be placed.

"It wasn’t exactly a search for mystical creatures prancing around; it became about confronting our limited ability to understand reality. About allowing myself to not immediately write off something that is considered outlandish. About earnestly entertaining the belief that there is something else."

The exhibit will be on display in the New Fiction and North Reading Room areas through the end of March.  It was made possible with grant support from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County and the Tomplins County Public Library Foundation.