Save the Date!
Friends of Forbes Artisans Fair
Sunday, October 2, 2022 
10 am – 3 pm

Located at Forbes Library. There will be 36 Artisans, along with food trucks. Free parking will be available in the Smith College parking garage. Free to attend!

Fundraiser by Friends of Forbes Library, inc. All proceeds go to Forbes Library for books, equipment, and programs.

Complete Our Survey!

Forbes Library is developing a new strategic plan. Your responses to this survey will guide the library's decisions in crafting a plan for a better Forbes Library. This survey is voluntary and anonymous, and will take five to ten minutes to complete. All questions are optional. Thank you for participating.

Participants may enter to win one of two $100 Northampton gift cards!

Laurel Park: Celebrating 150 Years Inspired by Nature: Watercolor Paintings by Marilyn Greco and Prints by Mary Messick

October 3-29, 2022

Laurel Park is a cluster of 100 cottages and 5 community buildings on 40 acres of shared woodland in Northampton. It was founded 150 years ago by Methodists, and was a popular center for summer camp meetings and Chautauqua gatherings in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today it is a secular year-round community, still administering itself on shared land. It is a peaceful spot that retains much of the “camp feeling” of earlier days.
This exhibition features historical photographs and informative texts arranged on panels beautifully designed by Kandy Littrell. They are replicas of the permanent historical signs, made with a grant from the Northampton Community Preservation Committee, which will be unveiled at a public celebration on October 22, 2022, beginning in Laurel Park’s Tabernacle at 11 am. All are welcome!

MARILYN GRECO
Watercolor paintings

Whether working with a paintbrush or through a photographic lens, I am most inspired by nature as the subject of my creative process. I explore landscapes, seascapes, flowers, wildlife, and buildings in natural settings. I find that creating the images of nature on paper in my studio evokes within me the same peace and reflection that I feel when I am present in the natural world. Making art is my way of paying tribute to the wonder of my natural surroundings.

Before discovering my love for painting, and before deepening my longtime love of photography, my primary creative outlet had been through writing. With time, I began to see and experience connections between my writing and visual art practices, as both are ways to tell stories. Both writing and visual arts provide an outlet for expression that requires ideas, risk, and reflection. Both inspire letting go of fear, a willingness to be open to exploration, and patience for the process of finding one’s voice. My journey in writing has been long and rewarding. My journey in painting has just begun.

MARY MESSICK
Prints (monoprints, etchings, collagraphs)

My leaf prints are part of a larger body of visual works titled “In the Garden of Eden.” For me, leaves are symbols of the extraordinary natural paradise we inhabit. As a printmaker I am especially interested in color, line, and texture and how they are present in nature. By manipulating these elements, I strive to express my inner experience of being alive. I also write poetry. I have incorporated lines from a series of poems I wrote during the pandemic in the “Spiked Virus Diary” collages.