January

A new month and a new year – January 2024. While no one knows what the coming year will bring, there is always something new at the Aurora Center for the Arts and the Fosston Library. If one of your New Years resolutions has to do with getting more organized, the library has just the thing for you. On Thursday, January 11 at 7 p.m., there will be a virtual organizing workshop with Minnesota author Jessica Litman, who wrote Home Sweet Organized Home No registration is required. Just go to larl.org/organization. No worries if that’s a bad time for you, a recording will be available until February 8. If you are resolving to read more books in 2024, you may as well join Book Blizzard, the library’s winter reading adventure, for a shot at some cozy prizes. Complete a reading log for every four books you read (or listen to) from January 2 to February 29 to be entered into the prize drawing. Forms are available at the library or online at larl.org/bookblizzard. The library book club continues to provide two options to attend: Tuesday, Jan. 9, at 7 p.m. and Tuesday, Jan.16, at 2 p.m. Both groups will be discussing the book, The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson. If you need a copy of the book, check with the library. Bingo for the kids, always a popular activity, is scheduled for Wednesday, January 17, at 3:30 p.m. Everyone hopes for a prize. Works by Cindy Kolling of Gully are scheduled to be displayed at the Sorensen Gallery mid-January through February. The exhibit is entitled “It’s Not Nothing… and Those Aren’t Weeds.” It sounds interesting. The Aurora Center for the Arts will be holding its annual meeting in February this year. Watch for more information next month. And a reminder – the library will be closed Monday, January 15, in observance of Martin Luther King Day.

September

September is here – days are shorter and maybe cooler, the squirrels are busy gathering acorns, and students are back in school. At the Fosston Community Library Arts Center, now to be known as the Aurora Center for the Arts, music lessons will be resuming as well. Jeff Menten will be available to teach violin, viola, cello, string bass and guitar. His schedule is already quite full, but he should have room for some online students. You may contact him at 218-255-0087. I will once again be giving piano lessons. My contact information is aagekay@gvtel.com, 218-435-6710 (land line) or 218-289-3968 (call or text). If you are interested in lessons for yourself or your child, please contact the instructors directly. Now, back to the name change for the FCLAA, as it has been known for 43 years. The board of directors has decided it’s time for a change. To learn more about this decision, you are invited to a re-branding event on Wednesday, Sept. 13, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. I’m quite sure there will be refreshments. Also beginning in September at the Fosston Library is preschool storytime on Monday, Sept. 11, at 10:30 a.m. (Notice the change of day) and bingo for kids on Wednesday, September 20, beginning at 3:30 p.m. A special program is coming up on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 1 p.m. There will be music and storytelling by The Skally Line as performers Fred Keller and Bill Cagley travel around the curves and bends of early American music, playing Appalachian ballads, fiddle tunes, stringband blues, bluegrass and more, accompanied by forgotten rip-roaring stories from Minnesota’s history. This program is geared toward adults, and admission is free, thanks to funding from the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund. On October 3, a leather-working activity for adult is planned for 6:30 p.m.. There is no cost to the participants, but preregistration is required. For more information contact the library at 218-435-1320. The library book club will hold its first meeting of the fall on Tuesday, Oct. 9. This year we will be offering two options as to time, one at 2 p.m. and one at 7 p.m. The book for October is West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. For more information or to reserve a copy of the book, call the library.