by Bev Leonhardt,
Warren Public Library

Throughout December of 2017, the Wetmore Gallery at Warren Public Library in Warren exhibited a selection of festive vintage Christmas sheet music cover art surrounded by lovely decorations.

The sheet music was selected from our Robertson Sheet Music Collection, comprised of about 3500 pieces of historic American popular music selections spanning 1865 to 1955 donated by former Warren surgeon and pianist Hugh Robertson’s family.

We played host to a series of fantastic local musicians and musical presentations– Barbershop, Handbells and Harp, Christmas Jazz, Piano and a Youth Connections Show. Visitors and patrons were offered the opportunity to appreciate the artwork while enjoying the music, sit and take in the concert as a more formal audience, or experience it surrounding them as they looked for books or worked elsewhere in the library as the design of our gallery allowed it to “roam.”  A great time was had by all!

As we discovered, music and libraries complement each other well.  If you’ve never considered incorporating a music event, we can highly recommend the experience.