I always find the History file at the Library fascinating. And I learn something new about Westport every time I venture into the sneeze-producing, crumbly records of local history. Here’s what I found printed in fancy type on a postcard:
“The Westport Library and Artists of the Town of Westport invite you to an exhibition of paintings and sculptures to be held Sept.11th to Sept.25th inclusive in the gallery of the Library. Exhibition open 9A.M. to 6 P.M. each day. Tea served from 4 to 6 o’clock. General admission ten cents. “
The postcard invitation does not have the year, but the postage was one cent.
A catalog of the Third Annual Exhibition for the Benefit of the Library included two informal receptions and listed 17 artists, including such well-know names as George Wright and Karl Anderson. Admission had increased to 25 cents.
An invitation to the opening of a new gallery is dated 1957. A clipping from the New York Times tells of the opening of the permanent art gallery in the Library with an exhibit of forty paintings by twenty of Westport’s artists. The gallery was on the second floor of the old library building to which an “ultramodern wing” had been added. When not in use as a gallery, the 21x48 foot room was to be used as a meeting room for library committees. According to the article, Library benefactor Morris Jesup stipulated that the second floor of the 1905 building be used for library personnel meetings, a lecture room and art exhibitions.
The Town Crier reported other exhibitions in the Jesup gallery in 1961. Thirty one artists had works displayed in “The Animal in Art” show. They included Stan Bleifield, Randall Enos, Jim Frazer, Hilda Kraus, and Harold von Schmidt among others. In 1961, there was also an exhibit of abstract art with paintings by Picasso, Kandinsky, Pollack and others owned by people in the community. A lecture series on “The Story of Abstract Art” was presented.
Have you taken time to look at the art in the McManus Meeting Room and in other places around the Library? Do you enjoy the exhibitions in Great Hall and the Riverwalk Display case? What a rich history in art we have at the Westport Library!
