PAST PROGRAMS & EVENTS

Miss one of our programs? Use the drop down at right to view CPLF programs from past years,
or check out this collection of CPLF programs and events.

March 26, 2025

Fireside Chat in the Library
Can We Talk? Media, Ethics, and Dialogue Across Boundaries 
with Professor Patrick Belanger
6:30 PM, Reading Room at Harrison Memorial Library

Join CSUMB Professor of Communications Patrick Belanger as he explores varying ideas about how to reinvigorate public communication and enrich deliberative democracy.

Registration coming soon

March 13, 2025

Community Night with the Library
Media Literacy: Essential Tools for Critical Thinking 
with Jevin West
6:30 PM, Center For Performing Arts at Carmel High School

Join University of Washington professor and co-founder of the Center for an Informed Public Jevin West as he addresses the issue of misinformation and provides strategies to discern genuine information from falsehoods.

Registration coming soon

February 19, 2025

Community Night with the Library
GPS: A Tale of Science and Subterfuge with Dr. Frank van Diggelen
7:00 PM, Carpenter Hall at Sunset Center

Join one of America’s foremost experts on GPS, former Stanford professor, current distinguished engineer at Google and member of NASA’s GPS advisory board, Dr. Frank van Diggelen, to learn more about this story of science and subterfuge, the myriad ways GPS impacts our lives, and how this technology might be used in the future.

Registration coming soon

January 22, 2025

Henry Meade Williams Local History Lecture Series
Sponsored by the Frank & Eva Buck Foundation and Robert & Lacy Buck
Timeless Treasures: Preserving Cultural Heritage Through Architectural Conservation with Kent Seavey and Seth Bergstein
7:00 PM, Carpenter Hall at Sunset Center

Historic cottages and buildings with architectural significance contribute to Carmel’s unique charm. Join architectural historians Kent Seavey and Seth Bergstein as they discuss the landmark buildings of Carmel and the importance of historic conservation to maintain community character.

Registration coming soon

January 8, 2025

Henry Meade Williams Local History Lecture Series
Sponsored by the Frank & Eva Buck Foundation and Robert & Lacy Buck
Literary Luminaries: 
Six Trailblazing Writers Who Shaped Carmel with Vince Emery
6:30 PM, Reading Room at Harrison Memorial Library

Jack London, Upton Sinclair, Mary Austin, Robinson Jeffers, George Sterling, Sinclair Lewis: As writers, they found artistic refuge and inspiration in Carmel. Join writer and publisher Vince Emery as he explores their literary legacy.

Registration coming soon

December 4, 2024

Henry Meade Williams Local History Lecture Series
Sponsored by the Frank & Eva Buck Foundation and Robert & Lacy Buck
Carmel’s Leading Man: Herbert Heron and the Forest Theater with Actor Taelen Thomas and Professor Susan Shillinglaw
6:30 PM, Reading Room at Harrison Memorial Library 

Join actor Taelen Thomas and Professor Susan Shillinglaw for a deep dive into the life of Shakespearean-trained actor Herbert “Bert” Heron, who oversaw the construction of the Forest Theater in 1910 and established the Carmel theater scene. This program will feature dramatic readings from Heron’s letters.

November 13, 2024

Henry Meade Williams Local History Lecture Series
Sponsored by the Frank & Eva Buck Foundation and Robert & Lacy Buck
Don’t Worry, Your Orchestra is Here: How Dene Denny and Hazel Watrous Brought Music to Carmel with David Gordon
7:00 PM, Carpenter Hall at Sunset Center

Discover the lives of two extraordinary musical visionaries, the Carmel women who inspired David Gordon’s historical book Carmel Impresarios: A Cultural Biography of Dene Denny and Hazel Watrous.

October 23, 2024

Henry Meade Williams Local History Lecture Series
Sponsored by the Frank & Eva Buck Foundation and Robert & Lacy Buck
Jane Gallatin Powers and the Ladies of the Club: How the Women Artists of Early Carmel Shaped its Destiny with Erin Lee Gafill
7:00 PM, Carpenter Hall at Sunset Center

September 25, 2024

Henry Meade Williams Local History Lecture Series
Carmel’s True Beginnings: The Vision of James Franklin Devendorf with Jack Galante – Henry Meade Williams Local History Lecture

March 20, 2024

Henry Meade Williams Local History Lecture Series
Kipp Stewart: A Life in Painting, Design and Architecture

March 6, 2024

Fireside Chat with the Library
The Cost of Silence in a World of Noise: Navigating the Complexities of Self-censorship

This year we will continue to see dogma and polarization. Can we engage others with civility and have dialogue with those who don’t already agree with us? Join Patrick Belanger, PhD, California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB) in a Fireside Chat at the Library on stepping out of echo chambers to engage in public dialogue about matters of shared importance.

February 22, 2024

Community Night with the Library
I.M. Pei and the Making of Modern America

 Join biographer Michael Cannell, in conversation with USA Today Correspondent Marco della Cava, as they explore iconic architect I.M. Pei’s influence in architecture, inseparable from politics and power.

January 11, 2024

Community Night with the Library
When Brains Meet Buildings

A Conversation on the Intersection of Neuroscience and Architecture with Professor, Neuroscientist and Author, Michael A. Arbib.

December 8, 2023

Holiday Winter Wonderland Fun at the Library
3:30 PM – 5:30 PM, Carmel Public Library, Park Branch Children’s Library

Please join us at Park Branch Children’s Library (Corner of 6th and Mission Streets, Carmel) for Holiday Winter Wonderland Fun at the Library including games, crafts, snacks and fun for everyone! (Children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult) (831) 624-2811 or email: info@CarmelPublicLibraryFoundation.org.

REGISTER TODAY!

November 16, 2023

Community Night with the Library
Cultural Architect: A Poet’s Path to Building Community

Join the City of Oakland’s first and current Poet Laureate Dr. Ayodele Nzinga for a poetry reading and thought-provoking discussion on the importance of fostering a city’s cultural arts center.

October 18, 2023

Community Night with the Library
Your Personal Carbon Footprint

How does your personal lifestyle rank on Your Personal Carbon Footprint Scorecard? Join CEO of the California Arts and Sciences Institute, physicist, and U.S. energy authority Dr. C. Michael Hogan on an interactive journey of our lifestyle footprint via calculating our personal impact on the environmental crisis. By measuring lifestyle choices including food consumption, transportation choices, gardening preferences, use of electronic devices, and financial decisions, we we can all play a more proactive role in the carbon emissions cycle and in our overall ecological and biological health system.

Dr. Hogan is renowned for his peer reviewed work and research, which focuses on biological, physical, ecological and environmental expertise. Hogan received a PhD in physics from Stanford University and BS from Princeton University

September 13, 2023

Henry Meade Williams Local History Lecture Series
The Bruton Sisters: Modernism in the Making

Margaret, Esther, and Helen Bruton, sisters and distinguished artists in the unique era of the 1920’s-1960’s, were known for their various mediums and modern artistic methods. Their work, recently on exhibit at the Monterey Museum of Art, depicts their creativity and innovation, which later impacted future artists.

Join Wendy Van Wyck Good, a Bruton scholar, author, archivist, and former librarian at the Carmel Public Library, as she leads the discussion on the “three amazing sisters’” influence on California art, design, and architecture, and their ties to both Carmel and the Central Coast.