Dear Community,
Thank you for your interest and concern about our Volumes of Appreciation mural, which existed to honor donors who supported our 2000 expansion and additional donors of note in the years since. We contacted donors whose names were on the wall and whose contact information we had on file to share the following note on the mural:
“Thank you so much for your support of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. As you likely know, our elevator machinery was destroyed in last July’s flooding. In order to meet the current building code, the elevator machinery needed to be elevated above the flood elevation. The only possible location for the new elevator machine room involved the removal of the Volumes of Appreciation Wall. After consulting with the mural artist and our contractor, it was determined that the mural could not be salvaged. We will be creating a new plaque to honor the donors who were previously listed on the wall. The plaque will be located near the front entrance of the library in the current location of the “community events” bulletin board. We hope to have the new plaque installed in the coming months. We are grateful to you and all the donors who were recognized on the wall, and grateful to artist Emilia Olson for gracing our building with her art for so many years.”
I had conversations with the artist ahead of time, and she shared that while it would be great if the mural could be saved, she understood the situation, noted that she never expects her art to live on forever, and was not interested in repainting it from scratch. The contractor determined that because of the construction of the wall behind the mural, the mural couldn’t be saved — at least without significant cost, time, and effort.
The mural was a beautiful addition to the library, and a lovely recognition to more than 150 donors who have given so generously to the library. We have photographed and documented the mural, and we look forward to honoring these donors via a new plaque.
We are so grateful to everyone who supports our library every day in a myriad of ways.
Thank you,
Dan Groberg
Executive Director
Kellogg-Hubbard Library