Where Have All the Libraries Gone?: Two Librarians Explain Why Every Community Still Needs Them and What’s Taking Them Away.

“Libraries are community places; they are public places. They’re not just a personal commitment to reading or to improving yourself; they’re a public commitment to that. They’re a compassionate statement that says we all want to learn, we all want to grow, there is something to learn from the people in our history.” — Phillip Kwik, Head of Troy Public Library in Michigan, in danger of closing (as so many others are) due to finances. This same library received 97 letters from literary greats such as E.B. White, Dr. Seuss, and Isaac Asimov promoting the public virtues of libraries to the town’s youth and community. One Marguerite Hart, children’s librarian at Troy Public Library, started the campaign that became known as “Letters to the Children of Troy, May 1971” by contacting hundreds of public ---not just literary---figures requesting their views on the importance of public libraries for a community and their fondest memories of reading and books.

Libraries and librarians---or their threat of extinction---have been in the news lately. Our current exhibition aims to raise community discussion on the topics plaguing libraries today: what happens when all the books are digital? What roles does a public library play in our information and Google search age? Are we forgetting the community role libraries serve as we slash the nation’s fleet of librarians and libraries alike?

There has never been a library in Dumbo before (The Missing Library) exhibition --- not for lack of trying.

This Thursday July 7th at 7pm, join us at Dumbo Arts Center for a talk with Lori Brown and Nate Hill, who worked to organize and create public libraries---Matilda Joslyn Gage and Dumbo, respectively.

Thursday, July 7 , 7pm Dumbo Arts Center: Lori Brown on Matilda Joslyn Gage Library & Nate Hill on DUMBO Library

-Post by Katie, Gallery Communication Intern

UPDATE: Unfortunately, Nate Hill will be unable to join us for the lecture. However, Architect Lori Brown will speak about the life of Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826 - 1898) and her proposal of building a library commemorating Gage's legacy. For two years, Brown conducted extensive research on the influential activist who has been largely left out of feminist history. Her project offers a point of view on what it means to establish a communal space dedicated to an individual, whose ideology continues to be radical even today.

Lori Brown has developed a practice that focuses on the relationships between architecture and social justice issues, with emphasis on gender and its impact upon spatial relationships. Two projects she has recently been working on include a local women’s shelter renovation and designing a roaming bus providing internet and community space for the Seneca Nation. Her current book project explores how highly securitized spaces, legislation, and the First Amendment affect places such as abortion clinics, domestic shelters, and hospitals to be published by Ashgate in 2012. She teaches at Syracuse University.

Please join us tomorrow (July 7th) at 7 pm for this event!