Art Treasures Adorn Walls of Upper Moreland Public Library

The combines knowledge and imagination with its stunning original art collection.

Elaine of the Friends of the Library reawakened interest in the artwork at a recent township commissioner’s meeting, just in time for the upcoming , which begins in April.  

Elaine Klawans noted that the works on the library's walls are “museum-quality original works of art.”  

The pieces were painted by renowned artists whose works appear in museums and in private collections alike.  

Who knew?

She and her husband Alan assembled the library’s art collection. Back in the late 1990s, the library board, of which she was a member, asked Alan Klawans’ for his help to create the crown jewel of the newly built library: a premier art collection.

There was no one better to ask. The Klawans are both artists.

They also have connections with other artists, not to mention their own extensive art collections, said Alan Klawans, a well-known printmaker.

 “Over the years,” he said, “we’ve swapped work with other artists, which we would be glad to give to the library.

“That would be the core of the new collection,” he said.

With a modest budget of $5,000, Alan Klawans, who, at the time, was the retired art director at SmithKline Beckman in Philadelphia, set to work.

First, he and Elaine gave the library 17 works from their own collection. Then, he commissioned artist friends and others to submit works of photography, acrylics, oil painting and sculpture.

“The most important works,” he said, “are behind the check-out counter.”

As patrons check out their books, they see “The History of Willow Grove,” a series of four brilliantly colored paintings by folk artist and postage-stamp illustrator, Joan Landis. Alan Klawans, who calls her a “dear friend,” commissioned her to paint the history of the town. (See photo gallery.)

But where did Landis get her intimate knowledge of the way things used to be? How did she know, for example, that the Underground Railway, as portrayed in one of her paintings, once made regular stops in Willow Grove?

Or that pig farmers once loaded their hogs to market here? Or that downtown Willow Grove had its own movie theater? And drugstore?

To get such historical accuracy in the pieces, Alan Klawans enlisted the help of Joe Thomas, then president of the , who dug out photos and archival materials from the society’s repository. Alan Klawans mailed a box of memorabilia to Landis at her Burbank, CA, studio to work from. 

“I told her I didn’t have much of a budget,” said Alan Klawans. “But fortunately, she and the other artists were excited about having their work exhibited in a public library.”

About 30 paintings now beautify the walls of the brick library building, completed in 1997, with its huge end windows and skylights.

Alan Klawans’ good buddy, the sculptor Robert Jackson, constructed "The Reader," a whimsical sculpture near the newspaper nook, out of found objects including a baseball glove, plastic ears and nose, and a child’s rocket ship.

“He did it for practically nothing,” said Alan Klawans.

Alan Klawans also had the enviable job of being in charge of the library decor, he said, including the color of the walls.

“I chose certain colors to convey a particular mood, an uplifting mood. The previous colors were all gray,” he said.

Overall, Alan Klawans is pleased with the whole aesthetic of the library, which was finalized in October 2002, with the dedication of the new art collection.  

Now, 10 years later, the library is undergoing more renovations.

"Our upcoming renovations and redesign of the library space will provide the opportunity for our community to view this collection with new eyes,” said Cathy Gilmore, the library’s assistant director.

At other institutions, "many people in charge are not visually sensitive,” said Alan Klawans.

When he taught printmaking at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, he found the decor downright depressing.

“The place is absolutely dismal,” he told the head of the college. “You have an art school, and the place is worse than a prison.”

Not so with the Upper Moreland Public Library.  

“It’s not just walls with books,” he said. “It has a personality.”