The Gallery: Current and Upcoming Exhibitions
MCL is proud to offer The Gallery, a space for the exhibition of original works by local and regional artists. The Gallery has the same operating hours as the Library as a whole, and hosts openings when new artists take up residence on our walls.
Current Exhibition
November 21 – January 3 “My Life… In Knots” by Alp Basdogan
Artist Statement:
Love is Eternal. In this cycle, Old Becomes New. This is reflected in my Life and my Work. Both… My Loves.
I enjoy developing new, unique projects and supporting artists and craft makers around the globe in every way possible. I love my daughter, son, and wife. Welcome to my life… in knots. Thank you for being here.
Biography:
Alp Basdogan was born into a prominent rug merchant family in Adana, Turkey. He studied at the University of Michigan before leaving to help his father’s business, and opened his first showroom in New York City in 1984. By 1988, he started production and realized that the rug market was struggling due to international trade and the rise of digital looms. To adapt, Alp infused traditional Turkish techniques with modern designs, using vegetable dyes and handspun wool.
By 1992, he expanded to a 6,000-square-foot showroom on 5th Avenue and was the first to use vintage rugs for upholstery. He opened several trade showrooms across the U.S. and received six Best Rug awards between 1994 and 2009. His patchwork designs gained fame, and he provided rugs for Broadway productions, showcasing a blend of old and new.
In 2003, Alp opened Depot 62 in Manchester, Vermont, a retail showroom with a café-bistro serving organic Southern Turkish cuisine. Since 2005, he has been a board member of the Oriental Rug Importers Association, helping to establish schools in developing weaving countries and collaborating with the Turkish government to preserve rug-weaving culture.
In addition to his business endeavors, Alp is passionate about teaching the importance of history and culture. He enjoys activities like racecar driving, scuba diving, and hiking, and in 2007, his family’s property was featured on The History Channel. In 2012, they launched Palatium on the property, a restaurant serving Southern Turkish cuisine, further blending tradition with modernity.
Upcoming Exhibition
January 9 – February 21 Pieces for Peace by CITYarts
CITYarts engages youth with professional artists in the creation of public art, including murals and mosaics. Through this creative process, CITYarts empowers, educates, and connects youth and children locally and around the world to become active participants in realizing their potential and transforming communities.
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Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, CITYarts created the Pieces for Peace project under the Young Minds Build Bridges program. It is designed to build bridges of intercultural understanding by bringing together American youth and their international peers in the creation of 6”x6” artworks combining to form an Online Mosaic composed of tile-sized drawings, painting, and poems that answer the question: “What does Peace look like to me?”
Selected works then travel around the world in an exhibition. All of these ideas have inspired the imagery in our CITYarts Peace Walls– a collection of seven large-scale outdoor mosaic murals. They are located in Harlem, New York; Karachi, Pakistan; Tel Aviv Jaffa, Israel; London, United Kingdom; Berlin, Germany; Toro, Spain; and Wetteren, Belgium. Our Traveling Exhibition, which displays highlights from 126 participating countries, has visited 48 venues in 18 countries. Having organized at least one workshop in 126 different countries to date, our goal is to reach all of the world’s 193 nations. We are giving youth of all nationalities the chance to connect through PeacePals under the UN flag, who will transform into adults that give back to their communities.
“With our programs, we plant seeds of very-much-needed creative young leadership around the world.” – Tsipi Ben-Haim, Founder Executive & Creative Director, CITYarts
Youth Gallery
Upcoming Exhibition
January 9 – February 21 Pieces for Peace works created by students from Long Trail School and Burr & Burton Academy
Presented alongside the CITYarts Pieces for Peace Traveling Exhibition in the main gallery space, this companion display highlights the creativity and perspectives of students from Long Trail School and Burr & Burton Academy, who contributed their own works to the global Pieces for Peace initiative.
Participating students were invited to reflect on the central prompt, “What does peace look like to me?” and to explore the theme across disciplines, from art and literature to history, social studies, world languages, and science. Using a 6″ x 6″ format shared by thousands of young artists worldwide, students created paintings, drawings, collages, photographs, poems, and mixed-media compositions that express their individual visions of peace.
Their works join a global conversation that now spans more than 12,000 artworks from 126 countries, submitted by over 1,500 schools and organizations across six continents. These youth-created pieces form the heart of the CITYarts Online Mosaic, fuel an international traveling exhibition, and have inspired the creation of seven large-scale CITYarts Peace Walls around the world.
This local installation celebrates the thoughtful, imaginative contributions of our community’s young people and honors their place within this worldwide movement toward understanding, connection, and peace.
MCL is proud to offer the Youth Gallery space on the walls of the Children’s Library. The Youth Gallery features the work of local young artists and hosts a gallery opening for each exhibit.
Lower Level Gallery
Current Display
The Lost Ski Areas of Vermont by the Manchester Historical Society & the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum
You’re invited to explore a special pop-up exhibit in the lower gallery of the Manchester Community Library. This collaborative display between the Manchester Historical Society (MHS) and the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum (VTSSM) in Stowe highlights Vermont’s “lost” ski areas.
For more than 20 years, VTSSM has been documenting Vermont’s “lost” ski areas. Their research has identified 190 closed ski areas and six that never opened. This exhibit features a selection of sites located south of Route 4, including #35: Snow Valley, which is highlighted here.
To learn more about Vermont’s lost ski areas, please visit vtssm.org or call 802-253-9911.
Contact
To get information about The Gallery or pitch an exhibition, contact Paige Vignola at pvignola@mclvt.org or (802) 549-4574.