Current Exhibitions
Main Library Art Gallery
The Library's Special Collections Exhibition: Daniel Chester French: Art & Enterprise in Concord
February & March 2023
We invite you to the exhibit Daniel Chester French: Art and Enterprise in Concord, on view in the second-floor Art Gallery at the Main Library. Why, you ask, are we leading the Library’s 150th anniversary-year celebration with an exhibit on Daniel Chester French. William Munroe, the Library’s founding benefactor, initially intended that the Library expand into hosting an art museum. The Library immediately began taking in the art upon opening the doors with art pieces like David Scott's Ralph Waldo Emerson and Daniel Chester French's bust of Simon Brown, French’s oldest surviving portrait bust. Done as a commission for the Concord Farmers’ Club, of which both Brown and Daniel Chester French’s father, Henry Flagg French, were members. By the time French completed the Seated Emerson in 1914, located in the Library’s rotunda, French was acknowledged, “to be the first sculptor of America.” His monumental career capstone, the Lincoln Memorial, was still in its planning stages.
Yet, in Concord, French would always be the favored son who created the defining symbol of the town, the Minute Man. His sculptures captured the town's unique place in history, and the community allowed him to develop both his artistic vision and vocation. Special Collections is pleased to highlight French’s art and enterprise in Concord in the current exhibit.
The William Munroe Special Collections holds over 200 pieces of art, including sculptures, paintings, and lithographs, from a wide variety of artists from Concord and beyond. Over the past two years, Special Collections completed a comprehensive inventory and documentation of the Library’s unique art collection, including creating high-quality digital images of the complete collection that are on view on our art collection website here.
------------------
Macro Photography Exhibit by Paul Scopa
April 2 - 29, 2023
Photographer Paul Scopa will display 30 framed and matted macro photos. Simply defined, macro photography produces photographs of small items larger than life size. Most photographs in the exhibit will show common items including blueberries, raisins, cereal, insects, a baseball, and coins. The detail will amaze you. Paul Scopa had two careers. For 20 years he was an elementary school science teacher. He then entered the Franklin $100 Bill field of science textbook publishing as an editor and ended his 24-year publishing career as a vice president at McGraw-Hill Publishing. He has always been interested in photography starting when he was a teenager and he bought a Kodak Brownie Camera for $5.00. Paul became a “serious” photographer when he received his first digital camera. He is interested in all genres of photography. His photographs can be viewed at: www.paulscopaphotography.com. As a former teacher, Paul chose macro photography because he wants this exhibit to appeal to both children and adults. He has fond memories of when he taught students how to use a microscope. Now he can produce magnified images using a camera!
