Page 10 THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, September 5, 2025 The Many Faces of the Malden Public Library H ave you ever noticed large, winged creatures with spiraling reptilian tails and feline faces poking their heads out of the brownstone walls of the Malden Public Library? Elizabeth Scorsello says, “In my fascination for architectural details, I became intrigued with the many creatures that inhabit the walls of H. H. Richardson’s Converse Memorial Building and began a quest to photograph each one. Here is my first collection.” Her photographs will be on display at the Malden Public Library throughout the month of September. Scorsello received her fine arts degree in painting from Massachusetts College of Art and remained in Boston for 20 years. She later returned to Malden, T where she exhibits her paintings, drawings and photographs at The Gallery@57, where she is a founding member, with the Malden Sketch Group at 350 Main St., and at other local galleries. She has written several articles for Malden’s Neighborhood View, a citizen journalism project. App-Y Hour at the Malden Public Library L ooking to take advantage of everything your smartphone can do, but not sure where to start? A tech instructor from Mystic Valley Elder Services (MVES) will be at the Malden Public Library to host “App-Y Hour” on Tuesday, September 23, from 10 a.m.-12 p.m.! Learn about the best apps available on the App Store or Google Play for transportation, grocery delivery, fitness, health and wellness, virtual patient gateways, puzzles, brain games, social media, playing online with grandchildren, online shopping, e-reading, music, movies and television, caregiver support, hearing aids, visual aids and more. There will be two tablets available for showing examples, and attendees will get an App Guide packet to take home. Current MVES clients can arrange for transport to and from the library through MVES. Gallery Talk: The Florida Highwaymen: A Legacy of Landscape Painting he Malden Public Library will present a gallery talk with Roger Lightle, owner of Highwaymen Art Specialists in Vero Beach, Florida. Lightle started collecting works by “Highwaymen” artists 26 years ago. He has curated the annual Backus Museum Highwaymen Exhibit for over 10 years, as well as curating other Highwaymen exhibitions throughout Florida and the United States. He will share the interesting, surprising, humorous and important stories that shed welcome light on the lives and works of these worthy artists. The talk will be held at the library on Friday, September 19, at 3 p.m. The talk honors the generous gift of three new works to the library’s permanent art collection by Highwaymen artists: Harold Newton, Sam Newton and Alfred Hair. The Highwaymen painters created careers as landscape painters against the backdrop of racially segregated Jim Crow Florida. Denied access to gallery representation and excluded from the mainstream art world, they sold their art works wherever they could — including out of the trunks of their cars parked on the side of the interstate. Widely hailed as the most talented of the Florida Highwaymen painters, and often referred to as “the original Highwayman,” Harold Newton (1934-1994) is the artist who, along with Alfred Hair, is credited with founding the group of painters who came together in Fort Pierce, Florida, to make and sell their work. Unable to show his work in many of the whites-only galleries, Harold Newton transformed his car into a mobile gallery, selling his art directly to people around Florida (often along Route 1). Harold Newton was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Smithsonian permanent collection in Washington, D.C., in 2016. nowned artist A.E. “Beanie” Backus, who welcomed both Newton and Hair into his studio. The Highwaymen paintings follow in the legacy of other important landscape artists in the Library’s collection, including Joseph M. W. Turner, Frederick Watts, George Innes, George Loring Brown and Thomas Hill. Following the program, light Harold Newton The Highwaymen artists depicted the state’s scenic coastrefreshments will be served. The Malden Public Library’s Converse Memorial Building & Art Galleries are located at 36 Salem St. in Malden. Gallery Hours: Wednesday, 2-4; Saturday, 2-3, or by apThe Highwaymen line and wild backcountry, often in dazzling combinations of color and tone. These artists’ works are very much part of the lineage of European and American landscape painting that stretches back to the nineteenth century. They learned the basic skills of landscape painting from the repointment. Call 781-324-0218 or access info@maldenpubliclibrary.org. This exhibition is made possible by the generous donations of John Giso and funds from the Estate of Wilfred J. Carr & the Trustees of the Malden Public Library.
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