Tuesday, September 15, 2015-- In this issue:

•  Carl Little: A History of Maine Art
•  Exhibit and Charity Sale: The Blue Hill Mitten Project

• The public is invited to participate in the Library's Play Reading Group TOMORROW! WEDNESDAY, September 16 from 6:30 to 9:00 PM. This month the group will read two short plays by Tom Stoppard, written to be performed together, Dogg's Hamlet and Cahoot's MacBeth. More information here.

With no claim to being definitive and acknowledging "all kinds of personal biases," art writer Carl Little will present "A History of Maine Art" at the Library on Thursday, September 24, at 7:30 PM, (a half hour later than previously advertised).

The Big Dory by George Bellows, 1913

"Anticipate a visual whirlwind," says Little, who has written extensively about Maine art and artists. In addition to such titles as Paintings of Maine, The Art of Maine in Winter, and Art of the Maine Islands, he has written books on a number of individual artists, including Beverly Hallam, Francis Hamabe, Dahlov Ipcar, Tom Curry, William Irvine, and Jeffery Becton. His 2012 book Eric Hopkins: Above and Beyond won the first John N. Cole Award from the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.

Little has written essays for numerous museum and gallery exhibitions and lectures widely. He is a regular contributor to Art New England, Working Waterfront, Ornament, and Maine Boats, Homes and Harbors. He helped produce film portraits of artists William Thon, Stephen Pace, and Jon Imber in the Maine Masters series and is featured in the video "Richard Estes: My Camera Is My Sketchbook." His poetry appears in three anthologies edited by Wesley McNair, the poet laureate of Maine.

A native New Yorker, Little moved to Mount Desert Island in 1989. He holds degrees from Dartmouth, Columbia, and Middlebury. He directed the public affairs office and the Blum Gallery at College of the Atlantic for eight years before joining the Maine Community Foundation as director of communications and marketing in 2001.

This free event is sponsored by the Library with generous funding from the friends of the Blue Hill Library. For more information, call the Library at 374-5515.

The Blue Hill Village Mitten project, in honor of the 75th anniversary of the Blue Hill Public Library, will be on display at the Library through the end of November. The mittens, designed by Library volunteer Marjorie Yesley specifically for this project, are based on multi-colored Latvian knitting techniques. The mittens are knitted by volunteers and are offered for sale at $45 per pair, with the money collected to be used for buying holiday gifts for community children this coming December.

Mittens by Stephanie Black of Brooksville. Knitters have been very creative with their use of colors.

To date, the Library has received mittens from knitters living near and far, from the Blue Hill Peninsula to other parts Downeast, to Ohio, South Dakota, and even California.

And here's some good news: it's not too late to be part of this fun and worthwhile initiative! The Library will continue to add mittens to the display until the very last day of November, so anyone who is interested can still download the free mitten pattern at www.bhpl.net and join the fun. Completed pairs may be dropped off at the Library's circulation desk. Please be sure to include your name, town, and type of wool used with every pair.  Mitten knitting groups for fun and troubleshooting will be offered on four Thursdays--September 24, October 8 & 29, and November 12-- from 6:30 - 8:00 PM.

Mittens by Marjorie Yesley of Blue Hill.

The exhibit is in the Howard Room cases, available for viewing during Library hours subject to the meeting room schedule. For more information call the Library at 374-5515.  Stop by, buy a pair of mittens for yourself or a friend, and provide funding for a holiday gift for an area child.

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