• Events this week...  
• Art Show Reception This Friday!  
• Children's Author Event 
• Thank You to 600 People
•  Knit, Have Fun and Raise Money for Children's Holiday gifts
•  Picasso, Pie and Gropius: Mid-Century Art &  Design, and the Blue Hill Peninsula 
•  50-Year-Old Painting Donated by Artist Don Mallow 

• Join us for our last Kneisel Hall Children's Concert of the summer, as musicians from Kneisel Hall's Young Artist program perform a variety of chamber music pieces and engage their young audience, TOMORROW! Wednesday, August 5, 4:30 PM.  All ages are welcome!

• There will also be an evening of music and cultural vignettes from 1940, the year the Blue Hill Library opened on Parker Point Road, THIS THURSDAY! August 6 at 7:00 PM. This event is part of a series of historical presentations dedicated to the celebration of the Library's 75th year on Parker Point Road. More info here. 

•  Don't miss the opening reception for the August Art Show, Water and Light, THIS FRIDAY AUGUST 7 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. More info below.

• Also, The library will be OPEN LATE until 8PM this "First Friday," August 7, and each first Friday through October.  Come be a part of this downtown Blue Hill happening, and say hello to your favorite library staff.

• Meet children's author Gary Urey, who writes the series Super Schnoz, THIS SATURDAY August 8 at 10:30 AM. More info here.

The August art show, "Water and Light," is up (it looks fantastic!) and the public is invited to the opening THIS FRIDAY! August 7, 2015, 5:00 to 7:00 PM.  "Water and Light" features the works of twenty nine artists inspired by the play of light on Maine's extensive coast and waterways.

Queen Anne's Lace, acrylic on canvas, by Marcia Stremlau

The show includes abstract and representational paintings, works on paper, photographs, accordion books, sketchbooks and objects. The show is organized and curated by Marcia Stremlau, the artist and former owner of Handworks Gallery together with Jennifer Mitchell-Nevin, Curator for Gallery 61 at the New York Institute of Technology.

Church By the Sea, oil on board, by William Irvine

Blue Water Monhegan II, oil on board, by Rebecca Haley McCall

Children's author Wendy Mass will discuss her books and her life as a writer at the Library on Tuesday, August 11 at 5:00 PM. Children are welcome to bring their families to this event.

 Wendy Mass is the New York Times bestselling author of fifteen novels for young people (which have been nominated for 74 state book awards), including The Candymakers, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, and the Twice Upon a Time and Willow Creek series. Her latest books are Graceful, the last book in the Willow Creek series, and Space Taxi, the latest book in a new early reader series.

Wendy tells people her hobbies are hiking and photography, but really they're collecting candy bar wrappers and searching for buried treasure with her metal detector. She lives with her family in New Jersey.

An assortment of her books will be available for purchase and signing, courtesy of Blue Hill Books. And candy will be served! This event is sponsored by the Library and there is no charge. For more information, call the Library at 374-5515.

The Blue Hill Village Mitten Project is looking for knitters! Volunteers are knitting mittens from a Latvian-based design by Marjorie Yesley, and will show them in an exhibit here at the Library this fall. And if they are willing to sell them, the money raised will go to buying holiday gifts for local children.

Here are some of the mittens we have so far!

To help knitters with the project, knitting sessions have been set up here at the Library- Thursdays, August 13 and 27 from 6:30 to 8 PM. For the pattern and more info please see: http://www.bluehill.lib.me.us/mittens.html or call the Library at 374-5515. Please bring any finished mittens to be photographed.

Local antiques dealer, blogger and Blue Hill history expert Brad Emerson will give a talk, Picasso, Pie, and Gropius: Mid-Century Art & Design and the Blue Hill Pavilion, at the Library on Thursday, August 13, at 7:00 PM.  The talk is part of a series presented this summer highlighting the history of the Blue Hill Library to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Library's building on Parker Point Road.

Built around 1950 as a wing onto the 1842 Stevens building next to Mill Stream right in the middle of Blue Hill Village, the Pavilion was a Frank Lloyd Wright-esque sleek modern design that caused somewhat of an uproar in town.  It was criticized by some as "too New York." It housed a restaurant, and art exhibits, featuring Rowantrees pottery and local weaving as well as other forms of art. The story also includes the two extraordinary women who were behind this project and their impact on the local arts and architecture scene.

Brad is a former president of the Jonathan Fisher Memorial, and former president of the Library's Board of Trustees. His family goes back at least 5 generations in Blue Hill.

This event is sponsored by the Library. There is no charge, and everyone is welcome. For more information, call the Library at 374-5515.

Don Mallow, renowned Blue Hill artist and architect, recently presented the library with a framed watercolor, The Old Cemetery on Union Street, that he painted in 1965, almost exactly 50 years ago.   

Mallow, recently had his 11th art show at the Library. He handed the work over to Library Director, Rich Boulet, explaining, "I have had this painting for a long time. It depicts an important part of Blue Hill's history and I can't think of a more appropriate home for it than the library." He noted that the bridge that appears in the foreground doesn't exist anymore.

Both an artist and an architect, Mallow's studies were at the Brooklyn Museum Art School (1946 - 47), the Cooper Union (1947 - 50) and the Yale University School of Architecture (1950 -52).  He has pursued a double career. His watercolors are included in corporate and private collections while his architectural designs have been published in the U.S. and abroad.

Mallow first came to Blue Hill fifty years ago when his wife, cellist Barbara Stein Mallow, joined the faculty at Kneisel Hall. He has painted in the Blue Hill area these fifty years and the work has been exhibited at galleries in Blue Hill, Deer Isle, Northeast Harbor, Rockport and at the Farnsworth Library and Museum in 1973.

The painting is on display in the Library's "Wilder Room." For more information, call the Library at 374-5515.  

Don't hesitate to call us for more information at 207-374-5515.