Library invites public to unveiling of commissioned artworks

The North Liberty Community Library will unveil its first commissioned artworks at a reception on Sunday, Oct. 11, at 3:30 p.m. in the library. The works by Jennifer Lynn Bates, a series themed “Everyone Loves to Read,” will be on permanent exhibition. The reception is free and open to the public.
“I am interested in how libraries engage their communities to cultivate lifelong readers. As the artist, I hope to inspire a love of reading through visual art,” said Bates, who is scheduled to attend the unveiling. “As a former North Liberty resident and lifelong reader, I am thrilled to leave a permanent mark on a library our family loved so much.”
In addition to enhancing the library’s collection, the new works will serve as the centerpiece of a future space where area artists will be invited to display their work.
“We’re excited to offer another venue where our community can experience art and where we can encourage self-expression, part of the library’s larger strategic goals,” said Library Director Jennie Garner.
Bates, currently of Waterloo, works in mixed media, combining papers, textiles, paint and appropriated imagery, as well as in printmaking, watercolor, video and installation. Bates is interested in dichotomies: the temporal and the eternal, the individual and the sum of individuals, good and evil. She notes that the tension between these is real: today or forever, me or us, truth or misconception.
She earned her master’s of fine arts from the Pratt Institute and her bachelor’s of fine arts from Iowa State University. She’s taught art and design since 2002 at a variety of Midwestern colleges and university including ISU and the University of Nebraska at Kearney.