VAIL PUBLIC LIBRARY IS ONE OF 84 ORGANIZATIONS NATIONWIDE TO RECEIVE A NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS BIG READ GRANT
Eagle County to read and celebrate
“Lab Girl” by Author & Scientist Hope Jahren
as One Book One Valley celebrates year 10 in 2020-2021
Vail Public Library is a recipient of a grant of $9,150 to host the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read in Eagle County. An arts endowment initiative in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens how the community understands the world, different communities and fellow humans through the joy of sharing a good book.
Vail Public Library is one of 84 nonprofit organizations selected to receive an NEA Big Read grant to support a community reading program between October 2020 and June 2021. The NEA Big Read in Eagle County will focus on “Lab Girl” by Hope Jahren. Activities will take place as part of the county’s One Book One Valley community reading initiative celebrating its 10th year in 2021.
“We have become even more aware this year of the important ways the arts help us connect with others, and how they bring meaning, joy and comfort to our lives,” said Mary Anne Carter, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts in a news release. “By bringing the NEA Big Read to Eagle County, Colorado, Vail Public Library will provide thoughtful and fun programming while also strengthening community bonds.”
“We are thrilled to have been awarded this NEA Big Read Grant, especially during these challenging times,” said Lori A. Barnes, Vail Public Library’s director of Library Services. “Community reads inspire conversation, promote literacy and community, and bring readers and writers together through civic discourse and intellectual discussion. OBOV supports thought-provoking ideas and conversation among diverse populations within the community,”
Since 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded more than 1,600 NEA Big Read programs, providing more than $22 million to organizations nationwide. Over the past 13 years, grantees have leveraged more than $50 million in local funding to support NEA Big Read programs. More than 5.7 million Americans have attended an NEA Big Read event, approximately 91,000 volunteers have participated at the local level, and 39,000 community organizations have partnered to make NEA Big Read activities possible. For more information about the NEA Big Read, including book and author information, podcasts and videos, visit arts.gov/neabigread.
VIRTUAL KICKOFF EVENT
to start this 6 month journey
Monday October 19, 2020 | 6 p.m.
Zoom Meeting ID# 829 6973 3201
Need help with Zoom? Email srivera@vailgov.com
“Lab Girl” By Hope Jahren
Acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren has built three laboratories in which she’s studied trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Her first book is a revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also so much more.
Lab Girl is a book about work, love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren’s stories: about her childhood in rural Minnesota with an uncompromising mother and a father who encouraged hours of play in his classroom’s labs; about how she found a sanctuary in science, and learned to perform lab work done “with both the heart and the hands”; and about the inevitable disappointments, but also the triumphs and exhilarating discoveries, of scientific work.
Yet at the core of this book is the story of a relationship Jahren forged with a brilliant, wounded man named Bill, who becomes her lab partner and best friend. Their sometimes rogue adventures in science take them from the Midwest across the United States and back again, over the Atlantic to the ever-light skies of the North Pole and to tropical Hawaii, where she and her lab currently make their home.
About the Author
