News & Events - Art Displays and Exhibits

June 2012

Jackie Peterson Exhibits Pastels

Jackie Peterson will exhibit her pastel drawings of landscapes and flowers throughout the library beginning May 2.  Ms. Peterson describes herself as "a New Englander, born & raised in CT. The changes of the seasons offer numerous exciting compositions to paint." She is a graduate of the Hartford Art School and enjoys sharing information with people of all ages through Continuing Education in Middletown and surrounding areas.  She accepts commissions of all kinds: people and animal portraits, as well as house and garden pictures. Jackie says "I am a recorder through my artwork of God's beauty around me and I hope these images touch another heart." 

Ms. Lee’s Dragons

The dragons in the lobby display case are from the personal collection of Madeleine Lee. They have escaped from the pages of books, crystal caves, mountains and clouds.

July 2013

Unearthing Community: Archaeology of the Berman Triangle

Between Vine Street, Cross Street, and Knowles Avenue, an innocuous looking triangle of land forms the ‘Leverett Beman Historic District,’ listed on the State Register of Historic Places and part of the Connecticut Freedom Trail. This area, known also as the ‘Beman Triangle,’ is the site of one of the earliest planned African American communities in the United States. Through much of the mid- to late-nineteenth centuries, multiple houses stood on this land, all owned and inhabited by free black property owners. Many of these buildings still stand today.  This exhibit in the lobby at Russell Library, 123 Broad Street, Middletown presents information from excavations at the Beman Triangle.

Paintings by Juan Carlos Bautista

Paintings by Juan Carlos Bautista will be exhibited during July and August at Russell Library, 123 Broad Street, Middletown.  Each of his paintings "speaks" of some aspect of his experience in the world.  From an early age, he was attuned to the beauty of the world and felt a need to find ways of adding to it.  Although his main venue is painting, he also writes poetry and has been influenced by the novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, poet Jorge Luis Borges, and painters Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro and Henri Matisse. At the same time, he is fascinated by the cultures of antiquity including the ancient Greeks and Romans and the Incas of his native South America.  He is private in his faith, believing that the greatest of gods are those of Peace and of Love, and he hopes that his works will contribute to building a better world.

Juan Carlos Bautista has been a resident of nearby Cromwell for the past several years.
He was born in Tumbes, the City of the Eternal Summer, on the northern coast of Peru at the border with Ecuador.