The Westport Library will honor Westport artist Miggs Burroughs at a special reception on Monday, Aug. 21 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Miggs Burroughs at the opening of his Westport Library “Signs of Compassion” exhibit in May with Chris Timmons, curator of library exhibits. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Lynn U. Miller for WestportNow.com
The repertoire of the lifelong town resident includes designing the town flag, an Easter egg for Ronald Reagan’s White House that is now housed in the Smithsonian Institution, a U.S. postage stamp, and a Time magazine cover.
The event titled “Bravo & Thank You, Miggs!” caps Burroughs’ yearlong artist-in-residence role at the library, where he has served “as the library’s ambassador to the town,” library officials said.
Among his myriad tasks, Burroughs hosted a series of “Artist-to-Artist” talks with others exhibiting in the library’s Great Hall, as well as offering up design challenge prompts each month to the community.
Burroughs’ residency ends at the same time his exhibit, “Signs of Compassion,” also wraps up.
The exhibit is a tribute to a poem about compassion by Emily Dickinson, expressed word by word in American Sign Language, as portrayed in 30 lenticular (animated) images of members of the community.
In conjunction with Burroughs’ exhibit, the library will host a screening Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Large Reading Room of the newly released documentary “Emily Dickinson: My Letter to the World.”
Dickinson scholar Jerome Charyn is scheduled to introduce the film to be followed by a Q&A with its producer Sol Padopoulos.
Over the years Burroughs has volunteered his time and talent to numerous town projects, including Tunnel Vision on Main Street and a tunnel at the Metro-North Westport station.
A member of the Silvermine Guild in New Canaan and of the Westport Arts Center, he is one of only about a dozen artists in the country working in the medium of lenticular imagery.
“Everyone is invited,” the announcement of Burroughs’s party says.
For further information, call (203) 291-4800 or visit http://www.westportlibrary.org.
