Exhibit replaces 16 portraits of library founders

The Desmond-Fish Public Library offers a scavenger hunt for kids, who receive a sticker for finding 26 red-paper mittens with letters written on them that are sprinkled about the children's room.

Now, adults can get in on the game, searching for their own treasures that diversify the institution's longstanding artistic motif.

Although the building looks like an old colonial house, it was built in 1980. For more than 40 years, 16 painted portraits of the families of founders Alice Curtis Desmond and Hamilton Fish III (along with one of the Marquis de Lafayette) occupied the walls.

After the 2020 killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, the library Board of Trustees formed a Racial Equity and Social Justice committee, which determined that "the portraits were tying the library to the past and that placing different artwork on the walls could communicate to patrons that we are a place where everyone is equally welcome," says board president Anita Prentice.

Then, the pandemic hit, followed by a few years of grappling with whether to change the library's name because of then-Congressman Fish's interactions with Germany during the build-up to World War II. (In 2024, the board voted 18-4 to keep it.)

Attention returned to the library walls. The Fish portraits have been placed in storage, says Prentice, although some might be reinstalled. The Desmond family paintings are on long-term loan to the Alice Desmond Center for Community Engagement at her former home in Newburgh.

To fill the bare space, local artist Peter Bynum floated the idea of hosting annual themed exhibits. Bill Burback led the group that decided how to proceed, and consultant Karlyn Benson kept everyone organized, says Prentice.

Last year, after members of the project saw an exhibit curated by an upstate artist known as ransome at SUNY New Paltz's Dorsky Museum (that included one of Bynum's works), they recruited him to put together Picture Us: A New Exhibition in Portraiture, which continues through March 29.

Local, national, and worldwide artists contributed, though not all works reflect the rubric. For example, "Deep Dive" by Alia Ali juxtaposes three busy patterns of Indian fabric that mesh in harmony.

In "Burger Hill," an oil-on-linen by Nadine Robbins that looks like a photograph, the subject's skin glistens. Characters in G. Brian Karas's 10 works hanging in the children's room exude an odd but playful quality. Jordin Islip used 14 materials for his collage "Left Behind," including paint, shopping bags, wallpaper, sandpaper and newspaper.

The four acrylics (with collage) completed by ransome last year are standouts. Located in the Alice Room, a cozy nook with comfortable chairs, they show content and confident young people accentuated by streaks of color. In "Jardin Girl" and "Fille Du Jardin," the bursting background complements the girls' shirts.

Hazy self-portraits by JaFang Lu reflect stillness, but the ones by Dylan Rose Rheingold suggest movement. Beverly McIver uses abstract techniques to create coherent representations of two faces and "Renee in Her Purple Dress."

The squiggly lines in a six-pack of John Ebbert's self-portraits look like he swirled the graphite pencil around, only lifting it off the paper after a joyful ride.

Placed in the Fish Room, another serene reading space that contains busts of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, a man's shoulders, head and dreadlocks emerge from a blur of blue water ("Swimmer," by Patty Horing).

Says Prentice: "I love the way the subjects of all the portraits, from the children to the older folks, gaze calmly down at the patrons and seem to assess us as we look back."

The Desmond-Fish Public Library, at 472 Route 403, is open daily. See desmondfishlibrary.org.