The Bookmobile will not be at any stops this week for scheduled maintenance. We will resume a normal schedule Tuesday, May 28.

52 for 150: What’s So Special About Ken Ferguson?

Posted by on April 18, 2011

For week 16 of our Kansas sesquicentennial series, we’re focusing on ceramist Ken Ferguson (1938-2004), former Professor and Chair of the ceramics department at Kansas City Art Institute for over thirty years. “In 1981 Ferguson was voted one of the twelve greatest living potters in a readers’ survey by Ceramics Monthly magazine. His students included many successful contemporary ceramists including Richard [...]

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52 for 150: What’s So Special About Architect Michael Graves?

Posted by on April 4, 2011

In the spirit of National Library Week, for week 14 of our Kansas sesquicentennial series we’re taking a closer look at the library as an “art object” and at Michael Graves, the architect behind the design of our current building. Architecture merges science with design to create living, functional spaces which, over time, can become iconic cultural symbols [...]

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52 for 150: What’s So Special About Your Library’s Sheet Music Collection?

Posted by on March 7, 2011

For week 10 of our Kansas sesquicentennial series we’re celebrating National Music In Our Schools Month—the theme this year is “Music Lasts A Lifetime”—by taking a closer look at our collection of Sheet Music. Between our John Ripley collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century songs, jazz  and wartime music, and our local music written by songwriters from Topeka [...]

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52 for 150: What’s So Special About Your Library’s Hirschberg African Art Collection?

Posted by on February 27, 2011

As Black History Month comes to a close, we’re taking a closer look at our Hirschberg African art collection for week nine of our Kansas sesquicentennial series. Dr. Cotter Hirschberg was director of training and child psychiatry as well as the first dean of the Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. From 1969 [...]

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52 for 150: What’s So Special About Aaron Douglas?

Posted by on February 20, 2011

It’s week eight of our Kansas sesquicentennial series. As we continue to highlight African-American artists in our collection for Black History Month, this week we’re taking a closer look at one of our own: native Topekan, Harlem Renaissance artist and founder of the Fisk University Art Department, Aaron Douglas. Philosopher and educator Alain Locke called Douglas the “pioneering Africanist”, and [...]

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