“MARY FELTON CHARCOAL DRAWINGS” EXHIBIT COMES TO THE DOVER LIBRARY IN DECEMBER

The Friends of the Dover Library is pleased to announce that Mary Felton of Marshfield is the December Artist of the Month. “Mary Felton Charcoal Drawings” will feature original charcoal drawings and affordably priced framed prints. The exhibit will be on display in the library from December 1st to 30th.

Felton’s work varies from pieces that border on photo-realism to those that border on abstract. Figures and horses dominate her choice of subject matter because the artist finds so much beauty in them, and she gets the most satisfaction from capturing them in charcoal.

“Even though I worked briefly in other mediums,” she said, “I’ve always embraced charcoal drawing, and it has been my exclusive medium since 1996.”

“With charcoal,” she continued, “there is no faking it - not when you are working in realism. Flaws and weaknesses cannot be hidden under the complexity of color tones and painting techniques. The simplicity and boldness of black, white and grays expose design and value structure in all their raw nakedness.”

A graduate of the Art Institute of Boston, Felton worked as a commercial artist for several years before switching to fine art. Since building her home in 1995, which provided her with a permanent studio, she has had much success with her black and white charcoal drawings. In addition to her personal work, Felton occasionally does commissioned portraits, mainly of horses.

She has exhibited widely in hundreds of juried shows nationwide, as well as having solo shows in Boston and New York.

Felton has accumulated many prestigious awards over the years, including in 2008, when she was awarded the first-ever Gold Medal of Honor Best in Show Award at the Academic Artists Association’s Annual Juried Show in Springfield, MA. In early 2009, she was honored to have two drawings included in a book published by Art Horse Magazine.

This year, Felton also enjoyed becoming a full elected member of the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club of New York, one of the country’s most distinguished women’s arts organizations, and she exhibited in the Spring Members Show at the Broome Street Gallery in Greenwich Village as well as at the Annual Juried Show at the National Arts Club.

Felton is active in the many organizations into which she has been juried as a member, including the Hudson Valley Art Association, Hudson Valley, NY, and the International Guild of Realism, Scottsdale, AZ. She is represented by Franklin 54 Gallery in New York.

To learn more about the artist, please visit her website at MaryFelton.blogspot.com

Dec Meeting - Dec 7

The Friends will hold its December meeting on Monday, December 7, at 9 am in the library's Community Room. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. Topics to discuss include initial planning for the March 25 Spelling Bee, planning a book sale in the new year and a recap of the Holiday House Tour. For more information or to get involved, please email the executive committee at Friends.of.Dover.Library@gmail.com.

The Friends of the Dover Library Holiday House Tour was, once again, a great success. Shown below is an excerpt from an article by Neil Johnson of the Dover-Sherborn Press:



Any drive through Dover will pass by a few antique homes or beautiful mansions, and thanks to the Friends of the Dover Library and four generous Dover homeowners, Dover residents had a chance to walk through some of those beautiful homes on Sunday’s 23rd annual Holiday Homes Tour.

The tour, which visited three of Dover’s antique homes and one new mansion, is the Friends’ largest benefit of the year; 650 tickets were printed for this year’s tour, with sales going briskly into the tour date thanks to the beautiful weather.
When the Friends of Dover Library began the house tour 23 years ago, it was one of the first in the area, said Madge Casper who, along with Michele Keleher, chairs the event; though the number has grown in intervening years, some have been cancelled this year because of the economy. Casper was thankful that Dover residents were still coming out to support the library.
“In these recessionary times, we’re pleased the tour participants realize the importance of giving back to the community,” she said. “The library is one of the top five for its size in the country, and it’s money we raise with the tour that helps keep it that way.”
“It takes a lot of citizens of Dover to come together to present these houses,” Keleher added, noting that 13 members of the Friends committee work year-round to get the tour ready, and 65 people work at the houses on the day of the event.
The first house on the tour, which belonged to Rose DiBartolo, was an antique home, once two separate farmhouses built in 1818 that had been joined together to form one house. In the last seven years, it has undergone significant transformations, adding a variety of amenities and turning what was a large garage into the new living room. The house featured a pool and granite terrace in the backyard, as well as birdhouses and a fountain.
Each house on the tour featured different floral designers donated by a florist and food donated by caterers. At the DiBartolo house, Perennial Designs of Needham had provided the floral arrangements, and the Dover Market provided the catering; Higgins Wine and Spirits also offered wines for tasting and recommendations for the upcoming holiday season, and Adam Shumate played piano for the event. Nancy Wright of Perennial, who had, with Lisa Calderone, designed the floral arrangements, talked a little about the process of designing for the house tour.
“We come to the house several weeks before the event to take photos and get a feel for the style of the house,” said Wright. “We also speak with the owner to learn about their design ideas.”
The second house, 1 Pegan Lane, was owned by David W. Lewis Jr. Lewis had grown up in the house and had moved back in 2004, after two years of extensive renovations. The house had been built in 1735, and some of the house retained its antique feel; it had, in its long history, been a blacksmith shop, a tavern and a general store. The house featured floral arrangements by Flowers by Design of Dover, and Dessert Works of Norwood provided catering. Lewis stood outside and spoke to visitors about his house as they were leaving.
“It’s quite an old house,” said Lewis. “For a long time people didn’t put much money into it, so everything’s reused — it gives it much of its character.”
The third house, the home of John and Jan Barr at 120 Walpole St., was a 1795 farmhouse which had, in its long life, served as a country and equestrian property for a number of prominent Bostonians such as Dr. Hans Zinsser, a noted immunologist and Harvard Medical School professor who would bring faculty and students to the farm. Though the property once included much of the surrounding area, most was sold off in the 1960s, and the house has seen extensive renovation. It remains an equestrian property; there is still an antique barn on the property, and at times there have been as many as seven horses. The floral designs were by Forte of Westwood, and Chiara provided the food for the house.
The final home, the house of Stephen Fogg at 3 Adams Lane, was the tour’s only modern home, built in 1999. Located on more than 24 acres of land and surrounded by forest, the house featured mahogany floors and granite countertops in its spacious rooms, and was filled with floral arrangements by the Chicatabot Garden Club, the Dover Garden Club and the Powisset Garden Club. The catering was done by Sherborn Inn.
The beautiful houses are the draw of the tour, of course, and the touring groups enjoy taking in the beauty of the houses and getting ideas for their own. But underlying all of that is the important fundraising for the library; Anne Coster, a member of the Holiday House Tour Committee, said the day is so effective because it serve both purposes so well.
“All funds go straight to the library, to things like children’s reading programs and author visits,” Coster said. “It’s a great way to contribute to the library, and it’s also a fun day out.”



Here is the link to the actual article: http://www.wickedlocal.com/dover/news/x255181507/Good-crowds-great-weather-for-Holiday-House-Tour

Many thanks to all who helped make the day a success! And thank you to Neil and the DS Press for the great coverage.

More on Advocacy: State Library of Massachusetts--potentially closing, but at what cost?

This just in, from the Reference Department of the State Library:


At a press conference on Thursday, October 29, the Massachusetts Governor's Office announced that Governor Patrick is considering closing the State Library of Massachusetts as a cost-saving measure. This closure will have a monumental impact on the cultural heritage of the Commonwealth.

Open to the public since 1826, the State Library has developed comprehensive collections in the areas of government documents, law, Massachusetts history, and public and current affairs. From the Bradford manuscript "Of Plimoth Plantation" to the ever-expanding digital repository, the State Library has collected items of crucial importance to the record of Massachusetts' historical wealth.

Please sign our online petition to show your support of the State Library of Massachusetts: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveyourstatelibrary/
After signing, a message will appear asking if you would like to make a donation. There is no need to make a donation. Your name has been recorded, and an acknowledgement email will be sent. Just close out of this window. This is the price of using a “free” petition site.

Additionally, if you would like to contact the Governor's office directly, please visit his website at http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3utilities&sid=Agov3&U=Agov3_contact_us.

If you would like to make a donation, please visit the Friends of the State Library page at http://www.mass.gov/lib.

Follow us on Facebook at Save Your State Library!

The State Library is undertaking exciting digital initiatives to provide greater public access to our collections.

· Electronic Repository: This summer, the library upgraded its electronic repository of the Acts and Resolves and other state publications. In addition to a new look and feel and enhanced features, we have added several thousand new electronic documents.

· Scanning: Through a partnership with the UMass Boston libraries and the Boston Library Consortium, the library has scanned the Acts and Resolves from 1692 to present, the Reports of the Attorney General (1832 to present) and several other series. These digital objects will be added to our electronic repository and are currently available on our website.

· Electronic Journals List: Through our affiliation with our library network, we are now able to provide an A to Z list of electronic journals available through the library’s subscriptions (some require a State Library of Massachusetts card for access).



We've said it before, and we'll say it again: in this economic environment, we are going to have to be increasingly committed to advocating for the things we believe in. What you do next is up to you.

Newletters are on the way

2,378 newsletters hit the Post Office today, thanks to some fast folding and tying by FriendsCorps volunteer Vicki Hadar. The newsletter is worth hanging on to: not only does it give you a quick guide to Library contacts, it showcases many of the events the Friends are planning--including the upcoming House Tour on Sunday, November 8th.

You'll notice that we are experimenting with a new format; send your comments to our new e-mail address: friends.of.dover.library@gmail.com, or post them at the end of this entry.

As always, many thanks to our printers at Allegra of Brockton and the Dover PO. Both make the newsletter process far easier than it could be.

Advocacy update from the Massachusetts Library Association

This just in, from our friends at Project Alert:


October 22, 2009
Don’t Close the Books on Libraries!
Massachusetts library supporters will gather at the MA State House at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 to rally for libraries. Sponsored by the Massachusetts Library Association (MLA), the rally “Don’t Close the Books on Libraries” has been planned in reaction to the devastating cuts to the Commonwealth’s library budgets. MA libraries are struggling to survive an onslaught of budget cuts in municipal and statewide funding at the same time that demand for library services has escalated sharply statewide.

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners’ (MBLC) budget cap for FY2011 is a 16% reduction in total funding from this year (FY2010). This comes at a time when people are relying on library resources more than ever in order to mitigate the negative effects of a depressed economy.
MA library use, rising steadily for over a decade, has skyrocketed with the worsening economic recession. Many citizens rely on libraries for access to technology, especially now when so many people have lost jobs and cannot pay for computer and Internet resources.
Unemployed citizens rely on library resources for help in obtaining jobs.
Public libraries are funded at a statewide average of just 1.2% of municipal expenditures, yet they return much greater value to their communities, providing invaluable educational, cultural and literacy resources to all.
Resource sharing of the collections of MA libraries is at an all time high. Public library borrowing in Massachusetts hit an all time high for the 9th consecutive year in 2008, with more than 57 million items transported across the state through regional delivery services.
Our libraries provide access to high quality academic databases that promote the literacy and scholarship essential to students and an informed citizenry.
The vast majority of MA libraries belong to networks that facilitate resource sharing and manage the libraries’ online catalogs. Telecommunications funding support is currently insufficient to maintain adequate bandwidth levels due to the record amounts of MA citizens using the Commonwealth’s online library catalogs.
Increased network costs not funded at the state level will be passed along to member libraries at a time when they can least afford any increases. Member libraries do not have the budget resources to cope with rising annual membership assessments due to cuts in their budgets at the local level.
With thanks to Krista McLeod & Jackie Rafferty, Co-Chairs MLA Legislative Committee

It looks like advocacy is going to be more important than ever this year. Stay tuned, go show your support on the 4th if you can, and consider joining Project Alert at projectalert@masslib.org.

Kate True, Nov. Artist of the Month

PORTRAIT IN DEDICATION: ARTIST KATE TRUE BRINGS HER WORKS TO THE DOVER LIBRARY

The Friends of the Dover Library is pleased to announce that Kate True of Roxbury is the November Artist of the Month at the Dover Town Library. True, who works in oils on canvas and linen, will showcase her portraits and other paintings of children for the entire month.

"My current work is an attempt to distill an emotional experience into its barest representation, including only the most meaningful details,” said True. “I’m interested in the way bodies and gestures can telegraph meaning so eloquently.”

True said that she is interested in maintaining the sensual, graceful or forceful line of a drawing while also developing a lushly painted surface, creating space and volume. She draws on her experience as a filmmaker to instill a dramatic sense of narrative in her work, creating mysterious worlds and depicting harmonious surfaces that belie a tension beneath.

While she has completed more than 50 commissioned portraits in the past ten years, in her most recent paintings, True has begun to explore the landscape as well as the figure.

“I think about the way the environment affects and informs the emotional experience of the subject and the viewer,” added True. “In the paintings without a figure, a human presence is felt nonetheless, as a scene experienced through the distorting lens of memory.”

Her paintings have been featured in galleries in Massachusetts, New York, Florida and Illinois, as well as in many private collections nationally and internationally. True has won numerous awards, including a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant for her “Little Women” exhibit and many academic honors.

A native of Charlotte, Vermont, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Art from Wesleyan University. True also holds an MFA from New York University, where she is a graduate of the Film and Television Program. She continued her studies in painting and printmaking at MassArt and the Museum School

The Artist of the Month program is sponsored by the Friends of the Dover Library. Each month, a different local artist’s work is displayed in the library. Pieces are available for sale and 10 percent of all sales go to the library.