CARLSBAD — The city of Carlsbad Library & Cultural Arts Department is celebrating $66,000 in donations. Arts patron Patricia M. White donated $41,000 in support of the city’s William D. Cannon Art Gallery, and longtime library patron and former librarian Jill LeCroissette donated $25,000, which will support library renovations getting underway later this year. Both donors were Carlsbad residents who died in 2014.
According to Library & Cultural Arts Director Heather Pizzuto, the funds from the LeCroissette Family Trust will have long-lasting benefits by supporting the modernization of the city’s Georgina Cole Library and Carlsbad City Library on Dove Lane.
“Ms. LeCroissette’s gift will help fulfill our goal of ensuring our libraries stay current as centers for information, technology and services,” said Pizzuto.
Work is scheduled to begin on the Cole Library in late summer 2015 and be completed in about four months. Renovations on the Carlsbad City Library on Dove Lane will begin after the Cole Library reopens. Both facilities will get better gathering and meeting spaces, improved wireless access and new technology, and new flooring, paint and furniture. The construction will be phased so that only one library will be closed at a time, to ensure community members continue to have access to library services at other locations.
The donation from the Patricia M. White Trust was designated to benefit the city’s Cannon Art Gallery, in the Dove Library complex. The gallery attracts more than 40,000 patrons annually with rotating exhibits featuring nationally known artists.
LeCroissette enjoyed a long career as an academic and special collection librarian and became a full-time artist in 1982. LeCroissette’s artwork and her quilts have been displayed in the Carlsbad City Library and the William D. Cannon Art Gallery.
In 2014, the Carlsbad City Library received a $2 million donation from the Benson Family Trust in support of Carlsbad City Library Learning Center programs and services, as well as the library’s collection of books, e-books and other materials.
Carlsbad City Library at 1775 Dove Lane and the Georgina Cole Library at 1250 Carlsbad Village Drive support programs and services such as TGIF Concerts in the Parks, the William D. Cannon Art Gallery, the Carlsbad Sculpture Garden, Family Open Studios, Three Part Art, Carlsbad Community Arts Grants and other activities. For information visit carlsbadca.gov/arts.
