Did you know your Abilene Public Library offers a new club that joins a passion for reading along with a love of the arts? It’s called the Art Book Club, and this is a joint venture with our friends at the Center for Contemporary Arts. Having started in August, this group meets during ArtWalk Nights in Downtown Abilene to discuss books that will have you seeing the world of art in a whole new light.
We just had our September meeting this week and we invite you to join us on Thursday, October 12 at 6:30PM for our next book club meetup. In October, we will be meeting at Grain Theory, located at 202 Pine St. Ste. 201 in Downtown Abilene and the featured title we’ll discuss this evening is Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King. Be sure to bring some cash with you to dine with us this evening and partake in a great discussion led by Evynne Caffey, an art teacher with decades of experience.
Look for a copy at your library, or borrow one from a friend, and feel free to meetup with other avid readers and art enthusiasts for a lively discussion at a popular venue during ArtWalk Night in Abilene. For more information about the Art Book Club, contact librarian Jay Smith at 325-676-6025 or via email at jay.smith@abilenetx.gov.
About Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling | In 1508, despite strong advice to the contrary, the powerful Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo Buonarroti to paint the ceiling of the newly restored Sistine Chapel in Rome. During the four extraordinary years that Michelangelo spent laboring over the 12,000 square foot ceiling, power politics, and personal rivalries swirled around him. He battled ill health, financial, and family difficulties, inadequate knowledge of the art of fresco, and the Pope’s impatience - a history that is more compelling than most novels. The author presents a magnificent tapestry of day-to-day life for the artist, the upheaval of early 16th-century Italy, as well as uncommon insight into the intersection of art and history. In the end, Michelangelo produced one of the world’s most renowned artistic wonders.