June 13 – Sept. 19, 2026

Opening Reception June 13, 2026 | 4-7 pm

As we observe our 200th birthday, come experience the Institute Library Past, Present & Future 

Dress Code: Bibliolatrous Finery, Glamour Librarian, Dark Academia….

Gifts of Food and Drink always appreciated, but most importantly we would like your presence!

We Make a Library features work by many artists; we wish to encourage focus on the Wabi Arts FOCUS fellowship students, fostered by artists Kim Weston and Jonathan Peterson. Their group effort, Through Their Lens: a Bicentennial View, represents the culmination of months of research, discussion, and creative residency within the library walls, distilled into a remarkable whole by these skilled young artists. This is a special glimpse of the library as a very human institution made manifest by up-and-coming talent, showing us the bright future of art in CT. FOCUS Fellowship students featured in this exhibit: Brock Bowen, Dejanay Cammock, Nya Drake, Cristel Mishel Martinez Gomez, Tywan Harris, Allesson Vanessa Cosetl Muñoz, Asia Murphy, Jonathan Peterson, Nickolas E. Santaell.

Also featured: A surprising and delightful collection of materials from our very own Historic Archive, including never-seen-before rarities gathered by our Archivist Peri Pignetti and our intrepid Operations Manager Eva Geertz.

and — An eclectic and marvelous group of Books, Zines and other published treasures lovingly made by our local community, including works by: Marsha Borden, Alexis Brown, Akinei Burruss Jr., George Corsillo, Matthew Feiner, Eden Fisher, Allan Greenier, Fritz Horstman, Martha W. Lewis, Linda Lindroth & Craig Newick, Courtney L. Malanga, Mary Tyrrell, Susan Yolen, George Zdru, & Robert Zott

This exhibit will include related tours, readings, presentations performances and a special closing event.

As we like to say: ” The Institute Library: Where Mystery is More Than Just a Genre”

---

This event is free and open to the public; we do want to remind people who’ve never been here before that the Institute Library can only be reached by walking up a flight of stairs, and the Library is not ADA-compliant.

---

About the Gallery:

The Gallery team is made up of Martha Willette Lewis, Maxim Schmidt, Scott Schuldt, Susan McCaslin and Ann Marlowe.  This core group keeps the gallery running smoothly. You may note that we are all practicing artists and creatively engage which is – we believe – the special sauce here. Along with the Library’s wonderful staff and volunteers, we all take great care to offer great exhibits and programming year round in our exhibition space. Your support and participation are what makes this place thrive as a site of culture, calm and welcome. I look forward to seeing you soon in the Gallery Upstairs at the Institute Library, a weird utopia, a homemade oasis, a place – we hope you will agree- like no other. THANK YOU. All the best, Martha Willette Lewis, Resident Curator

image courtesy of Harold Shapiro

---

The Gallery Upstairs at the Institute Library features a challenging roster of contemporary art exhibitions throughout the year. We offer visual art with strong connections to words, language, literature, libraries, and collections, with the active interest of sparking dialogue, providing a locus and salon for visual culture within our community. 

---