A warm welcome...

The Friends of Kent Library would like to extend an enthusiastic and warm welcome to Sharon Dirac, who has recently joined our Board of Directors. Welcome Sharon!

Reflections on Art in the Kent Library

The Friends of the Kent Library in conjunction with Arts on the Lake and Director of the Kent Library are sponsoring ongoing exhibits throughout the year with one-artist shows. The artists alternate monthly so that the patrons of the library have an ever-changing exhibit. This brings a wide variety of artists to the library, and also gives the artists an opportunity to have a one-person show with exposure to the 300 daily visitors to the library. The exhibits are placed on the wall next to the genealogy room and change at the beginning of each month There are currently three groups that are based at Arts on the Lake in Kent that supply artists-The Reflectionist artists, the Visual Arts Committee, and The Photography Group. These groups rotate and the artists are picked randomly.

The Reflectionist artists are a group of 28 artists who have formed a cooperative after years of painting together as a group under the direction of Alexander Shundi, The Reflectionists have an educational objective. The three yearly exhibits at AotL are designed to set up a dialogue between the artist and the viewer. The artist answers a question such as, “What was the artist thinking?” in a paragraph and the viewers write their response to the art or the comment. The dialogues are posted on the Reflectionist website: reflectionist.org This approach enables both the artist and the viewer to reflect on the artistic process and their responses to a work of art, and to share their insights.

The Visual Arts Committee is the large Arts on the Lake committee for all visual artists members, Painters, sculptors, photographers and all other mediums. They have several large group shows a year and sponsor special show such as the High School students show.

The photograpy group is a newly formed group for professional and amateur photographers who are will begin showing at the library next year.

The exhibits are coordinated by Bonnie Eggena, VP of the Friends of the Kent Library and director of the Reflectionist Group- with the help of many others on the Friends Art committee, the director of the Kent Library Frank Rees, and the representatives of the three art groups at Arts on the Lake.