Events by this organizer

Thursday afternoons @ 12:30 starting June 30th

The Junior Library welcomes back Litchfield County’s 4-H program through the University of Connecticut for an in-person summer program series. Children are invited to learn about agriculture & 4-H. We will explore the various aspects of planting & growing, fishing, sewing, and eating the foods most familiar to Connecticut natives. Mark your calendars for afternoon fun at the library this summer!

To register please call 860-868-2310 or email Ms. Linda at [email protected]

SCHEDULE:

Thursday, June 30 @ 12:30- Exploring 4-H- You might be wondering “What is 4-H?” And “will it be interesting to my children?” We will be covering topics from animals and plants to crafts and the environment. There is something for everyone! Explore all aspects of 4-H.

Thursday, July 7 @ 12:30 – Under the Water- What lives under the water? Dive into the living things that live under the water like: Fish, clams, oysters, and plants. We will learn about water species in Connecticut Rivers and the Long Island Sound.

Thursday, July 14 @ 12:30- Udderly Underrated– Do you know where milk comes from? Let’s learn about all the products that are made with milk. From cheese, butter and of course ice cream! We will break down all of the great dairy products!

Thursday, July 21 @ 12:30- I speak to the trees– Ever read the Lorax by Dr. Seuss? This week we will learn about the life cycles of plants and the trees we love so much. You will even be able to bring a vegetable plant home with you to start your journey in gardening and growing your own food!

Julian Jessop, an eccentric, lonely artist and septuagenarian believes that most people aren’t really honest with one another. But what if they were? And so he writes—in a plain, green journal—the truth about his own life and leaves it in his local café. It’s run by the incredibly tidy and efficient Monica, who furtively adds her own entry and leaves the book in the wine bar across the street. Before long, the others who find the green notebook add the truths about their own deepest selves—and soon find each other In Real Life at Monica’s Café.

The Authenticity Project’s cast of characters—including Hazard, the charming addict who makes a vow to get sober; Alice, the fabulous mommy Instagrammer whose real life is a lot less perfect than it looks online; and their other new friends—is by turns quirky and funny, heartbreakingly sad and painfully true-to-life. It’s a story about being brave and putting your real self forward—and finding out that it’s not as scary as it seems. In fact, it looks a lot like happiness.

The Authenticity Project is just the tonic for our times that readers are clamoring for—and one they will take to their hearts and read with unabashed pleasure.

Copies of the book are available for checkout at the circulation desk.

Register here

Join us Monday, July 11th @ 1 pm for a showing of “Father Stu”

When an injury ends his amateur boxing career, Stuart Long moves to Los Angeles to find money and fame. While scraping by as a supermarket clerk, he meets Carmen, a Sunday school teacher who seems immune to his bad-boy charm. Determined to win her over, the longtime agnostic starts going to church to impress her. However, a motorcycle accident leaves him wondering if he can use his second chance to help others, leading to the surprising realization that he’s meant to be a Catholic priest. 2h 4m.

Register here

Australian author, Jade Miles believes that a slower, simpler life is key to creating a healthier home, environment and a healthier you. Her most recent book, Futuresteading: Live like tomorrow matters: Practical skills, recipes and rituals for a simpler life details the principles of futuresteading and offers easy-to-understand information and hands-on ideas. Ms. Miles will talk about her book and some of the practical skills you can implement at home.

Learn to grow delicious food and medicinal plants; share rituals with loved ones through the seasons; feast on healthy home-cooked food for the family; nourish body and soul with outdoor expeditions and moments of rest; and create wonders with your hands.

Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.

Jade Miles and her husband Charlie Showers run Black Barn Farm, a biodiverse orchard, nursery and workshop space in North East Victoria, Australia which is a magnet for visitors to learn about permaculture, homesteading, as well as to pick-their-own from some of the 98 varieties of heritage fruit and berries. Jade co-hosts the weekly Futuresteading podcast with Catie Payne, is active in the media about living regeneratively, hosts schools programs and sits on a number of boards in the name of reconnecting us to nature, food and a simpler existence.

Register here

Thursday afternoons @ 12:30 starting June 30th

The Junior Library welcomes back Litchfield County’s 4-H program through the University of Connecticut for an in-person summer program series. Children are invited to learn about agriculture & 4-H. We will explore the various aspects of planting & growing, fishing, sewing, and eating the foods most familiar to Connecticut natives. Mark your calendars for afternoon fun at the library this summer!

To register please call 860-868-2310 or email Ms. Linda at [email protected]

SCHEDULE:

Thursday, June 30 @ 12:30- Exploring 4-H- You might be wondering “What is 4-H?” And “will it be interesting to my children?” We will be covering topics from animals and plants to crafts and the environment. There is something for everyone! Explore all aspects of 4-H.

Thursday, July 7 @ 12:30 – Under the Water- What lives under the water? Dive into the living things that live under the water like: Fish, clams, oysters, and plants. We will learn about water species in Connecticut Rivers and the Long Island Sound.

Thursday, July 14 @ 12:30- Udderly Underrated– Do you know where milk comes from? Let’s learn about all the products that are made with milk. From cheese, butter and of course ice cream! We will break down all of the great dairy products!

Thursday, July 21 @ 12:30- I speak to the trees– Ever read the Lorax by Dr. Seuss? This week we will learn about the life cycles of plants and the trees we love so much. You will even be able to bring a vegetable plant home with you to start your journey in gardening and growing your own food!

Gunn Library and the Hickory Stick Bookshop welcome author Courtney Maum to discuss her latest memoir in conversation with Dani Shapiro.

The Gunn Memorial Library and the Hickory Stick Bookshop are pleased to welcome authors Dani Shapiro and Courtney Maum for a conversation about Maum’s latest book, The Year of the Horses. Both authors will be at the library on Thursday, July 14 @ 6:30 pm and signed copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event, courtesy of the Hickory Stick Bookshop.

Maum’s memoir captures a woman’s journey out of depression and the horses that guide her, physically and emotionally, on a new path forward. At the age of thirty-seven, Courtney Maum finds herself in an indoor arena in Connecticut, moments away from stepping back into the saddle. For her, this is not just a riding lesson, but a last-ditch attempt to pull herself back from the brink even though riding is a relic from the past she walked away from. She hasn’t been on or near a horse in over thirty years.

Dani Shapiro also has a forthcoming novel titled Signal Fires due out this October. Her earlier memoir, Inheritance will be available for purchase at this event.

Seating for this event is limited. Registration is required. You can purchase copies of both books at the Hickory Stick Bookshop or online at hickorystickbookshop.com.

Register here

About the Authors:

Courtney Maum is the Author of five books, including the game changing publishing guide BEFORE AND AFTER THE BOOK DEAL and the memoir, THE YEAR OF THE HORSES, (chosen by The Today Show as the best read for mental health awareness), Courtney is a writer and book coach hellbent on preserving the joy of art-making in a culture obsessed with turning artists into brands. A nominee for the Joyce Carol Oates prize and the host of the monthly “Beyond Fiction” conversation series at Edith Wharton’s The Mount, Courtney’s essays and articles on creativity have been widely published in outlets like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian, and her short story “This is Not Your Fault” was recently turned into an Audible Original. A frequent interviewer of high-profile writers such as Anne Perry, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Edouard Louis, Courtney is also the founder of the learning collaborative, The Cabins. You can learn more at CourtneyMaum.com

Dani Shapiro is a bestselling novelist and memoirist and host of the podcast “Family Secrets” (now in its sixth season). Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, and Time. She has taught at Columbia and New York University and is the co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference. Her new novel, Signal Fires, will be published by Knopf in October.

Join us Monday, July 18th @ 1 pm for a showing of “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

When an interdimensional rupture unravels reality, an unlikely hero must channel her newfound powers to fight bizarre and bewildering dangers from the multiverse as the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Register here

Thursday afternoons @ 12:30 starting June 30th

The Junior Library welcomes back Litchfield County’s 4-H program through the University of Connecticut for an in-person summer program series. Children are invited to learn about agriculture & 4-H. We will explore the various aspects of planting & growing, fishing, sewing, and eating the foods most familiar to Connecticut natives. Mark your calendars for afternoon fun at the library this summer!

To register please call 860-868-2310 or email Ms. Linda at [email protected]

SCHEDULE:

Thursday, June 30 @ 12:30- Exploring 4-H- You might be wondering “What is 4-H?” And “will it be interesting to my children?” We will be covering topics from animals and plants to crafts and the environment. There is something for everyone! Explore all aspects of 4-H.

Thursday, July 7 @ 12:30 – Under the Water- What lives under the water? Dive into the living things that live under the water like: Fish, clams, oysters, and plants. We will learn about water species in Connecticut Rivers and the Long Island Sound.

Thursday, July 14 @ 12:30- Udderly Underrated– Do you know where milk comes from? Let’s learn about all the products that are made with milk. From cheese, butter and of course ice cream! We will break down all of the great dairy products!

Thursday, July 21 @ 12:30- I speak to the trees– Ever read the Lorax by Dr. Seuss? This week we will learn about the life cycles of plants and the trees we love so much. You will even be able to bring a vegetable plant home with you to start your journey in gardening and growing your own food!

Join us Monday, July 25th @ 1 pm for a showing of “Mothering Sunday”

The story takes place on Mother’s Day in 1924. Fir Mr. and Mrs. Evan give their housekeeper, Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young), the day off, as the couple are set to go to their neighbour’s house to celebrate his engagement. The truth is Jane and the neighbour, Paul, have been having an affair for many years.

Register here

In accordance with the By-laws of the Corporation, Article V, section 5.01, an annual meeting shall be held for the purpose of electing Trustees and for the transaction of such other business as may come before the meeting. The Committee on Trustees will present a slate of individuals for nominations as Trustees. Trustees elected will serve until July 2025.

Reports to be given include: the President’s report, Treasurer’s report, and Executive Director’s report.

For information please speak with a staff member at the circulation desk.

Valerie Gumpper shares a collection of photographs by her father, Robert Gumpper, showing a wide range of antique processes. Gumpper’s photographs will be on display at the Gunn Memorial Library through July 30th, 2022

Gumpper started using cameras and a darkroom at his father’s business at the age of ten. He studied and was most influenced at an early age by the Pictorial Movement and the Photo Secessionists. By the time he was sixteen he had taken the first-place award in the Detroit Photographers Guild.
The height of Gumpper’s productivity occurred here in Bridgewater, CT during the turbulent ‘60s and ‘70s, producing sensual images of nudes, landscapes, still life and sculpture. His work expressed anti-war statements in some, his fear of death and the unknown in others, as well as evoking simple beauty in many. Gumpper ran a portraiture business from his studio and taught the photographic processes he became known as a master of.
His Chlorobromide print “Enchanted Castle” shows his early love for antique photographic processes, and the evocative use to which they can be put and is in the Permanent Collection of The Detroit Institute for the Arts. He avidly studied and produced prints in a wide range of antique processes: Gum Bichromate, Platinum and Palladium printing, Kallitype, Dye Transfer, and his favorite, Bromoil and related oil processes.

Gumpper studied at The Mortensen School of Photography in Laguna Beach, California. Mortensen, a Hollywood still photographer, specializing in studio lighting and photography. Gumpper: “I was interested not so much his techniques as in his outlook. He was less concerned with the specific person he was photographing and more interested in finding the universal in them. He looked for something timeless” Gumpper stated in a 1985 interview for the New York Times.

Gunn Memorial Library is located at 5 Wykeham Road at the juncture of Route 47 opposite the Green in Washington, CT. Library hours may be found at gunnlibrary.org. For more information call (860)868-7586 or email the library circulation desk, [email protected].

Join us for a gathering of friends and supporters – cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, music, and more – all to support an institution that stands at the center of our community.