You may remember the Delaware County District Library’s partnership with the Arts Castle and Willow Brook Christian Communities earlier this year for the semi-annual Senior Showcase: Art After 55 event. This is a juried art show where local artists ages 55 and older submit their original artwork for exhibition and accolades.
The exhibit kicked off in late August and was on display at the Arts Castle for a month. Then the winning entries, any piece of art marked with an Honorable Mention or higher achievement went on tour. For the month of October, they were visible to Willow Brook residents.
Beginning this Monday, the tour continues with the winning artwork on display at the Orange Branch Library, located at 7171 Gooding Blvd., Delaware. You can view the winners’ tour anytime the Orange Branch is open from Nov. 8-19.
This project is one of my favorites that the Delaware County District Library participates in because of the message it sends. Some of the artists in this showcase have been creating their entire lives, but many others only discovered their talents recently. Whether a retirement project became a hobby and then turned to a passion, or art has been someone’s life calling – we in the community are happy to share in that joy with them.
As a quick note, this weekend, we will begin construction at the front entrance of the Delaware Main Library. It will run Sunday, Nov. 7 through Sunday, Nov. 14. The Delaware Main Library will remain open during this time, but entrance to the building will be diverted through the side entrance through the Community Meeting Room.
We’re quite excited about this particular construction project. The front entrance of the Delaware Main Library will get a minor facelift that includes convenient new, walk-up book returns dropping directly into the building, as well as concrete sidewalk repairs and radiant heating installation to prevent ice build-up in the winter.
This week, my recommendations come from our new titles in the Healthy, Wealthy and Wise genre – emphasis on the “wise.”
• “Love After 50: How to Find It, Enjoy It, and Keep It” by Francine Russo. A candid and insightful guide to finding love later in life, and the unique benefits and challenges that come with romantic relationships at this life stage. Topics include healing from past trauma, expectations around romance, and practical advice about the technological side of modern dating.
• “The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World” by Joe Keohane. Part self-help and part history, this is a well-researched yet accessible exploration of the power of human connection to transform our communities and ourselves. Though interpersonal relationships are always an important topic, “The Power of Strangers” will prepare readers to approach future, post-COVID social pursuits in a thoughtful, intentional way.
• “We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation” by Eric Garcia. A thought-provoking exploration of the growing self-advocacy movement among autistic people and an impassioned argument for radically re-framing the way autism is discussed in wider society, written by autistic Washington Post reporter Eric Garcia. The takeaways: autism is not something to be “cured”; race and gender often prevent people from being diagnosed; any conversation about autistic people that doesn’t include autistic people themselves is incomplete.
• “Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women” by Annabel Abbs. After a head injury left author Annabel Abbs temporarily unable to walk, she came to value the act of going for a stroll and the mental, emotional, and even social benefits of one of humanity’s most elemental instincts. Read it for a look at the appreciation groundbreaking women like Simon de Beauvoir, Georgia O’Keefe, and Daphne du Maurier had for the power of taking a walk through nature. Fans of “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed and “Alone Time” by Stephanie Rosenbloom will gobble this up.
