Winfield Public Library, in partnership with Winfield Arts and Humanities and the USD 465 Foundation, is excited to host Teresa Covacevich Grana for Impressions of Mexico:  the Journey of Sue Jean Covacevich at 10:00am on Saturday, November 8. The presentation traces Covacevich’s creative journey, her marriage to businessman Nicolas Salazar Covacevich, and her community projects which involved the children of Winfield. The program will also explore the rich traditions of Mexican art and how it infused Sue Jean’s own artwork. Special consideration will be given to the influence of artists Francisco Cornejo, Gerald Murilo, Diego Rivera, and Birger Sandzen. Sandzen visited Covacevich during her time in Mexico, and was a lifelong friend and mentor.

Teresa Covacevich Grana is the daughter of the artist and a cultural historian.  A collection of Covacevich’s art, Mexican Impressions, is on loan from the USD 465 Foundation and will be on display at the library through November 15.

The USD 465 Foundation has a collection of over 200 works of art that have been graciously given to our Winfield School District for the purpose of education through exposure to quality works of art. The collection began in 1933 with a gift of a print from Birger Sandzen, as a prize for the winning Winfield student and their school, through a state-wide contest. With over 80 artists currently represented, much can be learned from art principles and design, from various techniques, and as expressions of human creativity that apply to cross-curricular learning.

Read this summer with WPL – pick up your packets as early as May 17th.

• Kick-Off Party: Start the summer with our Family Night – Color Our Summer! on June 2nd from 4:00pm to 7:45pm.
• Tinker Tuesdays: Get creative with hands-on activities every Tuesday, starting June 3rd, with two shifts available (9:30am-12:30pm and 12:30pm-3:30pm).
• Story Times: Join us for engaging story sessions every Friday and Saturday morning, beginning June 6th.
• Book Clubs: Dive into exciting reads like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling and Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan on various dates.
• Special Events: Enjoy unique programs like reading to therapy dogs, teen nights, and family nights featuring magic, music, and more!

And don’t forget, we also have an Adult Summer Reading Program! It’s a fantastic opportunity for adults to explore new genres, meet fellow readers, and enjoy a summer filled with great books and engaging discussions.

Dive into a world of adventure, imagination, and discovery this summer with our exciting reading program. Whether you’re a bookworm or just looking for a fun way to spend your summer days, we’ve got something for everyone. Enjoy thrilling stories, earn cool rewards, and participate in fun activities. Here are some highlights:

Don’t miss out on the chance to make this summer unforgettable! 

Winfield Public Library welcomes Michèle LaRue for a performance of The Bedquilt on Monday, April 28 at 6:30pm in the library’s Community Room.

In this “riveting” program, two vibrant American stories return us to the days when quilts created community. We join a gaggle of townswomen – and meet a solitary spinster – who fashion remarkable art for everyday use.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s “The Bedquilt” reveals the suspenseful journey of an unlikely heroine: Aunt Mehetabel. Elderly and unmarried, she is taken for granted by her family…although she is “clever in the way of patching bedquilts.” Mehetabel grows as the story unfolds, winning admiration and finding self-respect. She painstakingly devotes herself to realizing her ideal: “a pattern beyond which no patchwork quilt could go.”

“The Bedquilt,” written in 1906, is introduced by the gleeful account of “A Quilting Bee in Our Village,” penned by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, eight years earlier. In Freeman’s little town, good food, gossip, and games make a successful bee – sewing is just the start.

Professional actress Michèle LaRue tours nationally with her repertoire of TALES WELL TOLD: stories from America’s Gilded Age. In The Bedquilt, she creates a dozen distinctive characters, concluding her program with Aunt Mehetabel’s surprising backstory.

Michèle’s TALES come “from a time when literature was written for the ear.” Before radio’s invention, she explains, “family and friends made their own home entertainment – reading aloud by flickering candle, kerosene lamp, or gaslight. Today, only the lighting has changed: adult audiences still hang on every word. Despite TV and films, the internet and special effects, we still crave simply to listen to a tale well told.”

 Michèle premiered The Bedquilt in Victorian Cape May, New Jersey, for The East Lynne Company, mentored by its producing artistic director, Warren Kliewer. She has performed the program twice for the prestigious American Quilter’s Society, whose president declared, “You had the audience in your command. We could have heard a pin drop.” Madison, Wisconsin’s annual Quilt Expo has also featured The Bedquilt and quilting societies in Washington State have brought back Michele three times. “I was spellbound!” they exclaimed in Seattle, and “Riveting – twice – I would love to hear it again!” Visit http://www.michelelarue.com.

A Chicago native, University of Kansas graduate, and New Jersey resident, Michèle is touring the Sunflower State with two programs:  The Bedquilt and Places, Please, Act One – theatrical poems by Warren Kliewer. North Newton is honoring his work in a four-day festival, April 24-27. Michele performs Places, Please, Act One on Friday, April 25, 11:00am, at Kidron Hall. She is a decades-long member of both actors’ unions – Actors’ Equity and SAG-AFTRA – and a much-published theatre writer and book editor.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879-1958) has been called “one of the most popular and engaging American writers of the first half of the twentieth century.” Born and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, she wrote more than forty books, including translations and nonfiction, as well as novels and short-story collections.

Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930) spent most of her life in Randolph, Massachusetts. The people she knew and the scenes she witnessed in New England form the background for most of her tales of small-town and rural life.