The Coolidge Corner Library will be closed on Friday, December 27th due to a water main break. Our Brookline Village and Putterham locations will be open for their normal operating hours. All Library locations will close at 5pm Tuesday December 31 for New Year's Eve and will be closed Wednesday January 1 for New Year's Day.

Recreation Treatment / Brookline Special Olympics Massachusetts

The Brookline Recreation Therapy Division provides evidence based recreation opportunities for individuals with disabilities, injuries, or illnesses, aged youth to adult. Serving the Greater Boston area, some programs provide specialized instruction, while others are inclusive for people of all abilities.  The Brookline Recreation Therapy Division is also home to Brookline Special Olympics, one of the largest Special Olympics Chapters in Massachusetts. The Recreation Therapy Division is managed by our Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist, Micah Barshay, and is supported by dedicated part time staff and volunteers. For more information about the Brookline Recreation Therapy Division, contact Micah: (617) 730-2069 or mbarshay@brooklinema.gov

This exhibit is on view in the Lobby Case across from the new nonfiction books.

 

The Bay State: A Multicultural Landscape

Mark Chester’s powerful photographs create a visual archive that celebrates the broad diversity of Massachusetts’ citizens, who hail from most of the 195 countries and territories around the globe. Chester’s portraits of new Americans tell the story of who they are and how they have transformed the culture of the Bay State. They show the vast cultural resources and rich ethnic heritage of the Bay State’s 351 towns and cities. 

The project, which received a 2021 Massachusetts Cultural Council grant from the Brookline Commission for the Arts, supports the mission of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition. Exhibition companion books are available in the Minuteman Library Network. For more information, please see markchesterphotography.com.

Mark Chester has been a professional photographer since 1972. He was Director of Photography and staff photographer at ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) in New York City. His work appears in the permanent collections of museums across the country, as well as publications such as the New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, and Cape Cod Magazine. Chester contributes the monthly column “See What I Mean?” to the Enterprise newspaper group, covering upper Cape Cod.

The Library celebrates the LGBTQIA+ Community

The staff of the Public Library of Brookline is excited to share our LGBTQIA+ exhibit with you. We have gathered and placed on display LGBTQIA+ items that are very important to us.

In a time of uncertainty, we are especially grateful and proud to be working in a community that supports and celebrates LGBTQIA+ rights.

Come and see our exhibit at Brookline Village Library on view through July 29 in the Foundation Case just inside the left entrance.

Photo credit: Roberto Lauro-Priestly

Anlih and Tahir’s Collections

Check out the new collections on display in the Children’s Room!

In our wall case, Anlih and Tahir share their LEGO collection. This collection includes a treehouse, Spiderman car, and more!

Collection of assorted LEGO sculptures in a display case

 

In our flat display case, Anlih and Tahir share their hand-painted ceramics collection. This collection includes birdhouses and boxes shaped like presents. Anlih is 4 years old and Tahir is 6 years old.

Assorted painted, ceramic birdhouses and boxes in a display case   Close-up of a ceramic box with a face painted on the inside

Stop by the Brookline Village Children’s Room to see these amazing collections! And sign up for a slot in our display cases here!

Aya and Avery’s Collections

Check out the new collections on display in the Children’s Room!

In our flat case, Aya shares information about her book, The Wizard’s Daughter – a story about a young witch that Aya wrote from 2020-2021! Aya also designed the cover and illustrated the book.

Original collage of trees made with paint and paper, alongside the book cover which features a scaled-down version of the tree art

Aya donated a few copies of The Wizard’s Daughter to the Brookline Village Library and it will soon be available for patrons to view! Aya is 11 years old and loves reading, art, and writing.

In our wall case, Avery shares her rock collection. This collection includes jasper, colored moonstone, hematite, jade, and more! Avery is in 5th grade and her favorite rocks in this collection are the crystals and quartz.

Collection of rocks and crystals on labeled pieces of paper  Close-up of rocks and crystals

Stop by the Brookline Village Children’s Room to see these amazing collections! And sign up for a slot in our display cases here!

Pandemic Feelings: The First Six Months

Anne Robertson, a Brookline resident, focused on visual art for the first time after she retired from a long career as a child and family psychologist. In retirement, she became a volunteer Gallery Instructor at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, giving interactive tours to school groups and took her first art-making classes since seventh grade. She has especially enjoyed making prints, the medium used in the exhibit on view, “Pandemic Feelings: The First Six Months.”

The 10 images in the “Pandemic Feelings” series were made in August, 2020, and are the artist’s visual representations of some of the feelings she and her friends had during those early months of the pandemic. Believing strongly in art’s power to communicate, Robertson hopes that looking at these images will encourage viewers to consider some of the feelings they experienced both early in the pandemic and now. Viewers might ask themselves questions such as, “Do the prints remind you of any emotions you had during the first six months?” and “Have your pandemic feelings changed since then?”

Clare’s Squishmallows and Muhammad’s LEGO Sets

Check out the new collections on display in the Children’s Room! In our flat case, Clare shares her Squishmallows collection. Clare is 6 years old.

Drawings of four Squishmallow toys

 

In our wall case, Muhammad shares his LEGO sets. Muhammad’s collection features Tony Stark’s Sakaarian Iron Man, the Angry Bird Ship, and more! Muhammad is nine years old.

Display of the following LEGO sets: Angry Bird Ship, Iron Monger Mayhem, and Tony Stark's Sakaarian Iron Man   Display of the following LEGO sets: Iron Monger Mayhem and Tony Stark's Sakaarian Iron Man

Stop by the Brookline Village Children’s Room to see both of these amazing collections! And sign up for a slot in our display cases here!