Friends of the Peabody Institute Library
Become a Friend now with an easy-to complete online application or print application.
And join us at a Friends meeting, which is open to the public and are usually held on the third Wednesday of the month. We welcome anyone interested in the workings and the welfare of the library to attend and learn about what we do.
The Friends of the Peabody Institute Library is a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to enriching the community’s cultural and educational life and enhancing the activities of our library.
The Friends sponsor the following:
- Museum passes to 15 different institutions
- Concerts and musical programs for children and adults
- Various in-person and Zoom lectures
- Community-based events
- Library initiatives and improvements
These are a few of offerings from the Friends in the past year:
- Annual book sale (Members can shop early at a preview night!)
- A performance and talk on the Harlem Renaissance
- Various in-person and Zoom lectures, including a glimpse into the Academy Awards
- A family-friendly Holiday Open House
- Drummers from Brazil
Become a Friend now with an easy-to-complete online application or print application.
And join us at a Friends meeting (jump New This Month), which is open to the public and are usually held on the third Wednesday of the month. We welcome anyone interested in the workings and the welfare of the library to attend and learn about what we do.
New This Month
MONTHLY MEETING
Friends’ meetings are open to the public and are usually held on the third Wednesday of the month. We welcome anyone interested in the workings and the welfare of the library to attend and learn about what we do. Our ANNUAL MEETING will be held on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 at 6:30 PM in the Gordon Room.
SPECIAL EVENTS
ANNUAL MEETING AND SPEAKER
Wednesday, May 14, 2025 at 6:30 PM in the Gordon Room.
Register here!
A brief business meeting at 6:30 will be followed by guest speaker at 7:00, award-winning, Gloucester-based author JoeAnn Hart. Through the power of fiction, JoeAnn writes about the pervasive and widespread effects of the climate crisis on the natural world and the human psyche. She will read from her most recent book, Arroyo Circle, a story of reclamation in a time of loss, and discuss how narrative, fiction or nonfiction, is the best way for people to grasp something as big and scary as climate change.
Her other books include the prize-winning environmental and animal fiction collection Highwire Act & Other Tales of Survival, the crime memoir Stamford ’76: A True Story of Murder, Corruption, Race, and Feminism in the 1970s, as well as Float, a dark comedy about plastics, and Addled, a social satire. Her work explores the relationship between humans, their environments, and the more-than-human world.
Praise for Arroyo Circle:
“JoeAnn Hart has achieved the impossible: a beautifully written, page-turner of a novel about the climate crisis. Arroyo Circle, and its richly drawn characters, is urgent, impassioned and revelatory. If the world around us is burning, Hart is the poet/naturalist who will guide us through the flames.” —Laura Harrington, author of A Catalog of Birds
Become a Friend!
When you become a Friend of the Peabody Institute Library,
you enable us to enrich the community’s cultural and
educational life and to enhance the activities of our library.
All our activities are free and open to the public.
Your contribution funds:
- Museum passes to 15 different institutions
- Concerts and musical programs for children and adults (photos)
- Various in-person and Zoom lectures
- Community-based events, such as the annual Holiday Open House and annual Book Sale
- Library initiatives and improvements
Annual membership levels are:
- Friend $20
- Supporter/Family $30
- Sponsor $50
- Benefactor/Corporate $100 and above
Become a Friend now with an easy-to-complete online application or print application. You may drop your print application at the library circulation desk or mail it to Friends of Peabody Institute Library, 15 Sylvan Street, Danvers, MA 01923.
The Friends is a vibrant, sociable group which warmly welcomes volunteers. Please email President Ellen Clarkson to let her know your interest in event planning, hospitality, publicity, fundraising, and/or assisting with the book sale.
The Peabody Institute Library is a beloved and vital Danvers institution, and your membership contribution will sustain its impact in the coming year, and beyond. Thank you!
Give
Beyond membership, you can support the Friends with a gift or memorial donation here or by sending a check written to Friends of the Peabody Institute Library and mail to Friends of Peabody Institute Library, 15 Sylvan Street, Danvers, MA 01923.
If you would like to become a local business sponsor or corporate patron, please contact us at friends.pil.danvers@gmail.com.