A Fine Romance

Libraries just do not loan out books, but can be the site of travelling exhibitions. Thankfully Smyrna is going to be the site of this show and you are all welcome to visit.

SMYRNA LIBRARY SELECTED TO HOST TRAVELING EXHIBIT

The exhibit A Fine Romance: Jewish Artists, American Songs 1910-1965 will be traveling through San Francisco, Baltimore, and Houston during a 55-city tour celebrating the music of artists like George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Jerome Kern. One of the other stops it will be making is at Smyrna Public Library.

“We’re very excited to have this exhibit here in Smyrna,” said Carol Kersey, branch director at the library. “This will be a chance to celebrate diversity and to enjoy music that has really defined America.” The exhibit will be the key attraction of this year’s Walter King Hoover Winter Reading Program, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2012.

A Fine Romance was developed by Nextbook, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Jewish literature, culture, and ideas, and the American Library Association Public Programs Office. The national tour of the exhibit has been made possible by grants from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, the Righteous Persons Foundation, the David Berg Foundation, and an anonymous donor, with additional support from Tablet Magazine: A New Read on Jewish Life. Locally, Friends of Smyrna Library, the Vanderbilt University music department, Dance with Stacey, and the MTSU English department have given their support.

The grand opening of the exhibit will be January 13 at the library. Scheduled to appear are Dr. Jim Lovensheimer, professor of ethnomusicology at Vanderbilt University, and the Vanderbilt Jazz Quintet. Other events will be scheduled throughout the run of the event, which will conclude in late February.

Smyrna Public Library is located at 400 Enon Springs Road West in Smyrna. The Library is the cornerstone of our community, enriching lives through free resources for learning, fun, and opportunity. For more information, call 615-459-4884 or visit www.linebaugh.org.

I hope you can take time to go and visit this show. With live music I suspect it will be an enriching experience.