MANSFIELD — It may seem unusual, but once a month people go to the Mansfield/Richland County Public Library to experience live music.
“We want to have a vast mix of music available for all people to experience,” said Keli Dotson, Adult Programming coordinator. “We’ve had anything from bagpipers to Celtic music, eastern Indian music — all different kinds.
“We do it to let people have the experience of hearing and seeing it first hand when they normally wouldn’t be able to. We want people to be able to experience all kinds of things: books, movies, music. And just maybe give them the opportunity to see, hear and experience things they wouldn’t normally be able to do.”
The events began after the library’s first levy passed in 1996, Dotson said. The concerts were commissioned as a “thank you” to the community, and the Friends of the Library contribute money to hold the events.
Dotson, who has been in charge of the concerts for about a year, said she has begun a new direction of inviting local musicians to the library to play.
The concerts take place one Sunday afternoon a month. The 90-minute concerts begin at 2 p.m.
“My personal view is that we have a lot of local talent in Richland County and surrounding areas,” she said. “My direction is to tap into some of that. I’ve had a lot of local musicians play since I took over a year ago and I want to continue to do that, whether it’s county, or folk, or hard rock — all different kinds of music. I just think there is a lot of untapped, local musicians out there.
“I’d love to have them contact me (to come play).”
Still, live music at the library, a traditionally quiet place, seems a bit unorthodox.
“It’s the modern library,” Dotson said. “We still have areas in the library that remain more quiet, but we want people to have come in and enjoy themselves. A lot of times to do that you need to be verbal and you need to experience the things.
“That is one of the things I think may be a misconception. That the only reason to come to the library is to read a book and ‘shush’ in the corner. It’s just not that way anymore.”
Still, Dotson said the live music can’t be so loud people can’t focus on their work.
“We can’t have humongous amps or thing that make a huge noise,” she said. “I like to think of it as an unplugged version of your band. We still have to be able to answer the phones. One smaller amp works fine.”
Dotson added the library has great acoustics and sound travels well.
For Black History Celebration Month, the library will have a day full of music on Feb. 3. Dotson said four different groups will play the event, which kicks off at 10:30 a.m. The final act begins at 1:30 p.m.
February 11 the library is hosting Sy’Velt; Feb 18 Another Element; March 18 is Just Jazz Live! featuring Joel Claypool; April 15 is Fiddletyme and May 20 is Pale Criminal.
