Arts & Culture at the Library

The cover story in the most recent issue of Municipal World (September 2015) celebrated how public libraries “are important facilitators and champions of your local culture.”  This should come as no surprise to us here in Collingwood.

At the Collingwood Public Library we do a lot to promote local artists, writers, and musicians. For example, we have regular shows of work by local artists in the library, both in our inviting ArtWalk and also scattered throughout the library in our different meeting rooms. Currently, we are exhibiting the work of two local artists: Tina Bradshaw and Frank Richter. Our popular annual children’s art exhibit, The Magic of Children in the Arts, celebrated its twenty-first anniversary this year.

Most people realize that we regularly bring authors to visit the library—Ian Hamilton, author of the best-selling Ava Lee mysteries, will be here on September 17—but few people realize that we also sponsor a twice-monthly meeting of local authors, where local writers get together, share their work and get valuable feedback from their peers.  We also ran a successful fan fiction workshop for teens this summer.

We celebrate the performing arts in our free noon hour concerts called Performance Workshops.  Our fall series begins on September 15 with pianist Avril Dell, followed by the Georgian String Quartet on October 6.  We encourage you to bring your lunch, settle back, and enjoy some fine music.  For the younger set, we will be starting up our Teen Open Mic nights again as well.  For those who would like to learn an instrument, why not sign out one of our ukuleles and join our ukulele club which meets at the library twice a month?

We could not mention local culture at the library without mentioning our Arts Advisory Council.  The AAC is a group of local volunteers who assist us with arts programming.  Already heavily involved in the arts as individuals, the AAC are our eyes and ears in the local arts scene, helping to bring local artists and performers to our attention.  They recruit performers, vet artistic submissions and help to promote the events.  They make our community a richer place in which to live.

To find out more about what is going on in the library, check out “Arts and Culture” on our library website for a list of upcoming events.