Third and fourth grade students at the Florida Ruffin Ridley School have made food sculptures inspired by the author/illustrator Oge Mora.
Come by to see their creations (warning: it might make you hungry!) and find the books at the library.
Shared Habitat Earth
The effects of climate change are becoming ever more alarmingly clear. We are now seeing dramatic weather events all over the world, with disastrous consequences. Humanity, together with all living things, finds itself in grave danger.
Art can invite empathy and hope. It can keep us from becoming numb and from passively enduring what looks inevitable–and it can help us live up to our humanity by doing our part.
Shared Habitat Earth (SHE) is an exhibit series uniting more than 40 artists in and around Boston. It celebrates cross species respect, intercultural solidarity, and a shared sense of responsibility. Through painting, sculpture, fiber art, and photography, the artists of this exhibition dramatize the tension between what humanity has enjoyed for thousands of years, and what will be left if we don’t act now.
The artists with work on view at the Coolidge Corner Library are Agusta Agustsson, June August, Helen Canetta, Olivia Fischer Cox, Becky Kisabeth Gibbs, Bette Ann Libby, Preetha Mahadevan, Rebecca McGee Tuck, and Nora Charney Rosenbaum.
The artists appeared alongside representatives from local environmental organizations for a virtual panel on art and activism in April. Watch the recording of the event on our YouTube channel.
More information about the exhibit series, including a full list of dates and venues, is available on the SHE website.
Kids & Teens Reading Challenges
Want to earn awesome prizes for reading year-round? Check out our ongoing reading challenges for kids, tweens, and teens! We offer four programs tailored to different age groups to encourage and motivate young readers.
Our 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program is geared for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers and can be started anytime before a child begins Kindergarten! Re-reads totally count, and the program is self-paced so you can take as little or as long of a time as you need.
Our 200 Books Before Middle School program is made for kids in grades Kindergarten to 5. Prizes are earned for every 50 books read and once again, the program is self-paced. Sign up any time before a child enters sixth grade!
Our 100 Books Before High School program is geared for kids in grades 6 to 8. This program includes a recommended reading list and extra fun prizes, and kids can be signed up at any time before they start high school.
Last but not least, our 100 Books Before Graduation program encourages teens to finish high school strong by reading 100 books. Teens in grades 9 to 12 can sign up to earn prizes as they read, with the goal of completing it before graduating high school.
Introducing ideaSPACE Make & Meet!
We’re so excited to announce that our Library To-Go Kits will now alternate months with ideaSPACE Make & Meet – a live, all-ages making program at the Brookline Village Library!
Want to make something awesome and meet the Library’s ideaSPACE tools up close? Then ideaSPACE Make & Meet is for you! These drop-in, hands-on activities are designed to give you a chance to ask questions and get creative with some of our favorite machines in the collection.
Join us for our first Make & Meet event Monday, March 14 at 7 PM to design your own laser cut magnet. This project is both kiddo- and grown-up-friendly, so the whole family is welcome to participate.
Visualizing Climate Change Data
Visit the Brookline Village Library Teen Room to see the vivid and beautiful art combining science data and visual media to show the effects of climate change. There are pieces hanging on the walls in the Teen Room as well as just outside near our display case and table.
Heath School Science Teacher Mark Golder explains the process of creating these works:
“Inspired by the work of scientist and artist Jill Pelto, 8th graders at the Heath School analyzed climate data and used this data to create pieces of art. Each piece represents one effect of climate change, and students incorporated graphs of data from that topic into their imagery.
“At the end of the project, students reflected on the process and recorded short screencasts, which you can watch by pointing your phone at the QR code on each artist statement. You can also go directly to the website with all of the student work and reflections at bit.ly/heathclimateart.
“I am incredibly proud of these students, who used their knowledge about this challenging crisis and their creativity to help inform others and inspire action.”
Here are a few more examples, but please drop by to see all 21 masterpieces!
Changes in Bird Migration by Georgios and Wally
Loss of Glacier Ice: Project by Cally and May
It Takes a Village
Preetha Mahadevan is an artist based out of Brookline. Trained in architecture and business, she has been dabbling with art ever since her first drawing of a box house by the sea with coconut palms, sun, and a boat. After a long break, she started painting again digitally, because the erase and redo functions reduced stress and improved relationships. Her passions include baking sourdough bread, handlooms, green living, singing, mental health awareness, justice for the under-represented, and having conversations. She loves smiling at strangers, desserts, her folding bike and her husband – not in any particular order!
Truman Seymour in the Emery Case
Truman Seymour (1824-1891), son-in-law of Robert Weir and brother-in-law of Julian Alden Weir and John Ferguson Weir, was a superb watercolorist who spent his retirement painting in Europe. Seymour was a career military man who both studied and taught art at West Point Academy. His friends included fellow artists Worthington Whittredge, John Kensett, Eastman Johnson, John Casilear and Elihu Vedder and in Florence, where he eventually settled, Henry Roderick Newman. Although Seymour painted throughout his life and exhibited at the National Academy in 1872, it was after his retirement in 1877 that he produced the greatest number of watercolors. Seymour’s work during this period has been described as a “symphony of light and color” by Kent Ahrens, curator of two museum exhibitions devoted to the artist. Seymour traveled widely painting in Seville, Granada, Cordova, Florence, Venice, Lake Como and Clarens. The three works included in this installation were all done in Florence. Seymour’s watercolors have been preserved out of the sunlight for over 100 years and are astounding for their vivid colors.
TRUMAN SEYMOUR
(American, 1824-1891)
Laundry Day on the Arno, 1889
Watercolor on paper
5-3/4 x 9-3/4 inches
Courtesy of Martha Richardson Fine Art, Boston
Hilda Belcher in the Lobby Case
Hilda Belcher (1881-1963), one of the country’s leading portrait and genre painters in the early 20th century, was the second woman to be elected to the National Academy of Design. In 1935, Anne Miller Downes, novelist and reviewer for The New York Times, wrote that Hilda Belcher is “one of the most distinguished women artists in America” and that “her portraits are modern in the sense of being completely freed from the old slavery to photographic likeness. They are not colored photographs but works of art, studies which portray the character, the spirit, the individuality of the subject through the artist’s medium, composition, design and color.”
Belcher, a masterful watercolorist, came from a family of artists; her mother was an accomplished painter, and her father a stained-glass window designer. She studied at the Art Students League, the Chase School, and was one of the few female students to attend the New York School of Art. Through Robert Henri, the founder of the Ashcan School, she found her own distinctive style of realism.
The artist spent her life working in New York and Savannah. She was granted membership into the prestigious New York Water Color Club based on The Checkered Dress, an image depicting Georgia O’Keeffe. Throughout her career, Belcher won major prizes in national watercolor and painting competitions. Following the Strathmore and Beal prizes, she enjoyed significant publicity and financial security. She traveled to Europe, Mexico and returned to Savannah frequently. Upon her retirement, Belcher moved back to her family home in Pittsford, Vermont.
HILDA BELCHER
(American, 1881-1963)
Old Sour Puss (Self Portrait), 1938
Charcoal on paper
19 x 12-3/8 inches
(American, 1881-1963)
Old Sour Puss (Self Portrait), 1938
Charcoal on paper
19 x 12-3/8 inches
Courtesy of Martha Richardson Fine Art, Boston
COVID-19 Test Kits
The Brookline Department of Public Health will be distributing free COVID-19 Home Testing Kits for Brookline residents! Here’s what you need to know:
Who can have a test kit?
All Brookline residents are eligible to receive the self-test kits at no cost. Masks must be worn during pick-up
Households of one or two people may have up to two kits (four antigen tests). Households of three or more may have up to four kits (eight antigen tests).
When can you get a test kit?
Test kits will be distributed only during the following time slots:
- Tuesdays February 15 & 22, 4-6 PM
- Wednesdays February 16 & 23, 9-11 AM
- Thursdays February 17 & 24, 4-6 PM
Where can you get a test kit?
Test kits will NOT be available at Brookline Village or Putterham libraries. They will be distributed only at the following locations:
- All Saints Church, 1773 Beacon Street
- Brookline Department of Public Health, 11 Pierce Street
- Coolidge Corner Library, 31 Pleasant Street – at rear entrance only, no access through main entrance
- First Parish UU, 382 Walnut Street
- The Hemlock Grill, Putterham Golf Course 1281 West Roxbury Pkwy
- Temple Ohabei Shalom, 1187 Beacon Street – no pick up available on Tuesdays
I have another question.
Additional questions can be directed to the Brookline Department of Public Health at 617-730-2300 or vaccine@brooklinema.gov. Please DO NOT direct questions to individual distribution sites.
John Wilson in the Foundation Case
This installation is dedicated to John Wilson’s talent and passion for drawing. Whether it was a gesture, a slight motion, or an unusual posture, the artist’s keen ability to translate his observations to paper is remarkable. Wilson frequently carried small pieces of paper in preparation for the moment when something caught his eye. These small drawings attest to his persistent desire to capture that moment.
John Wilson (1922-2015), a skilled painter, draftsman, printmaker and sculptor, was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1922. His exceptional artistic talent was recognized and nurtured by his teachers at the Roxbury Boys’ Club. After his work was brought to the attention of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Wilson received a full scholarship. By his early 20s, Wilson’s work was included in several gallery exhibitions, had won numerous awards, and appeared in several prestigious magazines. Wilson graduated from the Museum School in 1945 with the highest honors. In the same year, one of his works was included in the groundbreaking exhibition “The Negro Artist Comes of Age” at the Albany Institute of History and Art. These successes were followed by two grants that allowed Wilson to study in Paris with Fernand Leger (1947-1949) and live and study in Mexico (1950-1956). Wilson was drawn to the work of the Mexican José Clemente Orozco, an artist whose work, both in form and content, paralleled his desire to create compelling images that exposed the oppression experienced by African Americans.
Wilson returned to the States in 1956, first to Chicago where he produced illustrations for a packinghouse workers union, then to New York where he taught art at several schools. In 1964, Wilson moved to Massachusetts to accept the position of professor at the School of Fine and Applied Arts, Boston University. He served as a consultant to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston during the founding of the National Center of Afro-American Artists.
These small 3 x 5 inch drawings demonstrate John Wilson’s ability to create beautiful images at any scale.
JOHN WILSON
(American, 1922-2015)
Young Boy on a Bus
Inscribed Bus and signed Wilson on the reverse
Black ink on paper
5 x 3 inches
Courtesy of Martha Richardson Fine Art, Boston
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