Scoville Memorial Library - October 24, 2022

Pumpkin, axial view, MRI.

Collage of multiple cross sections through a single pumpkin. The pumpkin has been virtually sliced along a horizontal axis from left to right, giving you a bird's eye view into the centre of the fruit. Created by Alexandr Khrapichev, University of Oxford

The Hall of Stars in the Palace of the Queen of the Night

Design for  The Magic Flute, Act I, Scene 6

1816/1847–49

Metropolitan Museum

The 19th century German architect and theater designer Karl Friedrich Schinkel created memorable ancient Egyptian-inspired designs for an 1816 production of Die Zauberflöte.  These were published as sets of prints several times from 1819 on.  The design for this engraving, after Schinkel, by Karl Friedrich Thiele, was published in Germany, 1847-49. It evokes the lands and skies ruled by the evil Queen of the Night.

Confused by Crypto? 

Saturday, October 29, 2 pm

Noble Horizons

Are you baffled by crypto, bitcoin, digital currencies? Let the chair of The Hotchkiss School’s Mathematics and Computer Science Departments, Jason Maier, help. On October 29 at 2 pm, Noble Horizons and the Scoville Memorial Library will host a program in which Maier will teach the basics of Bitcoin in a way that will allow you to explain it to someone else. Often described as “digital gold,” Bitcoin, a powerful monetary network that is transforming society’s understanding of money, provides a way to transmit value across the world instantly with practically zero cost.  There will be time for Q&A.

Maier will also discuss this maturing technology’s potential impact on social justice and equality as well as the security risks of an unregulated currency whose use is anonymous and irreversible. He is the author of the upcoming book A Progressive’s Case for Bitcoin to be released in 2023.

More Info and Registration Here

Cast Plaster Magic

Saturday, October 29

2:00-3:15 

Grace Bristow, a recent graduate of Washington University and an accomplished sculptor, will lead a class in creating small sculptures with cast plaster. The class is equally suitable for adults who wish to learn the basics of cast sculpture and for children who may wish to create special objects for this Halloween weekend. (Children will need to be accompanied by an adult.) Attendees may bring in small, handheld objects that may easily be imprinted such as leaves, twigs, or miniature charms. SML will provide a number of Halloween-themed objects, such as plastic spiders and miniature witch’s broomsticks for the same purpose. All attendees are welcome to take their sculptures home.

Grace Bristow is a multimedia artist who misuses materials to explore structural and metaphorical integrity, time, and the accidental. She holds a BFA in Studio Art from Washington University in St. Louis, where her focus was primarily sculpting in plaster. Having grown up in Lakeville, she is influenced by natural phenomena: weather, topography, and the mysteries of intuition.

Registration required

SML will supply clay, plaster, objects, and work tables.  The event will take place outside in the Buttons Garden. In the event of rain, we will move to the Wardell Community Room.

Collected Works

by Duncan Hannah

Cornwall Library

On view: October 29-November 27

Megan Wilson, a noted designer and wife of the late artist Duncan Hannah, has selected the paintings to be exhibited at the Cornwall Library.

Hannah went to Bard College and Parsons School of Design where he became a hard-partying insider in 1970s punk New York. In the 1980s, with sobriety, he matured into a highly regarded and original painter, working in a seductive figurative style that was uniquely his own, and today Hannah’s work can be found in many museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Hannah’s paintings can evoke Edward Hopper, but in the words of the late Glenn O’Brien, writing for Art Forum, he was “the Henry Mancini of the New Wave, or the power-pop Balthus.”

Wilson and Hannah divided their time between New York and Cornwall for many years.

For Opening Reception October 29, 5-7 PM

Registration required

Current Fiction Book Group - Led by Claudia Cayne

Saturday, November 5⋅

4:00 – 5:00pm

Description:

“Detransition Baby” by Torrey Peters

Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she did not hate. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames,

and everything fell apart. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family—and raise the baby together?

In person in the Oak Room for those who are vaccinated and comfortable

Registration Link - register once for all meetings

Nonfiction:

The Island of the Color Blind

by Oliver Sacks

November 13, 4.00- 5:00 p.m.

The Oak Room, SML

In person or on Zoom

You are invited to take part in a presentation and discussion of one book almost every month. The selection of books will include current and older books representing a variety of nonfiction forms including memoir, biography, history, and natural history. Whenever possible we will invite a special guest with an affinity for a particular book to present and lead the discussion.

The first book to be presented will be Oliver Sacks’ The Island of the Color Blind (1997), an enchanting memoir that features the natural history of a chain of South Pacific islands. May Castleberry, Coordinator of Adult Programs at SML (and the editor of an artist’s book inspired by Sack’s text which she will bring to the meeting) will lead the discussion. SML will make books available to borrowing advance of the meeting. This is an introduction to a book you might want to read; you need not have read the book to attend.

The meeting will be held in person. Please come if you are vaccinated and comfortable. Or you are welcome to join by Zoom.

Registration

Non-Fiction

Waging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968 by Thomas E. Ricks. 

Sunday, December 4

The Oak Room SML

Presentation and discussion led by Peter B. Kaufman

In person or on zoom

#1 New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas E. Ricks offers a new take on the Civil Rights Movement, stressing its unexpected use of military strategy and its lessons for nonviolent resistance around the world.

Salisbury resident Peter B. Kaufman, author of The New Enlightenment and the Fight to Free Knowledge and Senior Program Officer, MIT Open Learning, will introduce the book and open a discussion.

Registration

The Art of Aging 

Salisbury Association

24 Main Street

On-going: October 15 - November 30

“The Art of Aging” is a tribute to the first 50 years of Noble Horizons, which was founded by community members in 1972. The exhibit celebrates the many people—staff, residents, supporters, and volunteers—who helped create the tri-state’s premier senior living community. Enjoy photos, memorabilia, video clips and more in the exhibit.

Check out our YouTube Channel

Events

Visit Our Website