July 1, 2025 • 8 mins
HOW ABOUT A LITTLE VETERAN ART? Jefferson County Public Library has partnered with the Veterans of Foreign Wars to showcase artwork by their members and photography from the Denver Vet Center. Throughout the month of July, several JCPL locations will host the work of different local artists. There will be a one-hour reception at each location for the artists showing there, providing the public with an opportunity to listen to their stories and discover how artistic expression helps triumph over adversity. I'm talking with Sean Eads, JeffCo Public Library Programming Coordinator, today at 2:30 about it. Find out more here.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I want to talk to Jefferson County Public Library Programming
Coordinator Sean Eads about a super cool program that they
are putting together and that you can go and enjoy it.
Jefferson County Public Libraries, Sean, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
First of all, well, thank you Mandy.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Well, let's talk about what's going on. You guys have
teamed up with the VFW and the Denver Vet Center
to do what what's happening?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Well, in the month of July, we seven of our
ten libraries are going to host art displays by these
very talented veterans, a combination of photography and painting in
most cases, and we are going to host receptions for
(00:50):
them also throughout the month.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
We invite people to.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Come and both to experience the art and to here
they're really amaze and inspirational stories.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
How did you become aware of the fact and I
know that VFW number one in Denver is I think
revolutionizing the VFW model by moving away from the come
and drinkier model that has been so pervasive since probably
the beginning of the VFW and moving into trying to
really help veterans find unique in different ways to manage
(01:28):
post traumatic stress and other just sort of issues that
they may be dealing with. And I mean, how did
you come to find out that there is veteran art,
there is veteran photography. How did this come into your wheelhouse?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So I've been before.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I was the program coordinator for Jeff co I was
a reference librarian at the Stanley Lake Library really for
the last twenty years, and Stanley Blake, like most of
the locations, have an art wall, and one of our
regular patrons was a gentleman named Charles Jamison, who is
a member of both the VIA Photography Group and the
(02:05):
VFW Art Center. And we started talking. He was coming
in our library and many of the other libraries have
these very intensely technological like video editing and photographic editing stations,
so he was making use of that and we started
we started talking, and he was showing his art at
(02:26):
Stanley Lake and I was just incredibly impressed, and.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
He was saying, oh, you haven't seen anything.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I mean, he had invited me down actually to the
VFW to meet.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Many of the artists.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
And I had long been interested in the idea of
at least like one time a year, as many of
the art walls as possible, kind of being unified and
allowing them to speaks like an institutional voice of the
library's role in the community, and you know where we
stand and what we represent, what our values are really
(03:00):
springs out of that.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So each library, and there's multiple libraries, and I put
a link to the Jefferson County Public Library Events page
so you can if you're in jeff Co or you
want to go to one of these. They start the
first one that I see is Saturday, July twelfth, and
they seem to run through the end of the month.
And what is going to happen at each of these
individual events at each of these individual libraries.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
We're all going to be a little bit different. I'll
be hosting each reception.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
There will be you know, light food and drink, but
I want the receptions really to follow the wishes of
the artists that are going to be be there. In
most cases, we're talking about two artists at each location.
Some locations will have three. Some artists have asked that
(03:52):
they would like to do kind of like a formal
talk about their work as an introduction, you know, maybe
like a PowerPoint or a slideshow. Other are artists would
rather make it a little bit more low key and
just you know, kind of meet people and talk more
as a one on one so each one will be
quite different.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
But I really wanted to go as the artists themselves
would like it to go.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
But you know, that's one of the whole points of
these receptions, are you So many of our patrons do
love art, but they wouldn't necessarily want to drive down
to Santa Fe. Maybe they don't want to go to
the first Friday at night and they don't feel, you know,
good about driving a night or finding a parking space,
so they're kind of missing out.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
This is a way to.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Bring those powerful stories in the art, you know, to
our community in the convenience of a library setting.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
How did you guys decide what to show or you know,
was that a decision made by the artists? So I
think that's an interesting kind of question from the perspective
of I'm always interested to see what artists want seen
versus what maybe would be curated by someone else's eye.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, it is completely up to them. I mean, you know,
our art walls aren't huge. You're not going to be
seeing an art gallery when you walk in on average,
each artist is going to have maybe four to five
pieces up for display, and so we're letting them decide
what's closest to their heart. But you're going to see
a tremendous variety of art when you come. I mean,
(05:23):
if you go down to Lakewood, for example, you'll see
an artist named Jerry Royel who really focus on these
striking historical representations of Chicanos and Native Americans and like
the Southwest experience, and that's part of his own heritage.
If you were to go to Stanley Lake right now,
(05:44):
you'll see the work of an artist named John DEAs
Starling who was in the Navy and is really interested
in like science fiction and fantasy and like think of
like space opera and anime, and so her work reflects that.
Charles Jamison, who I mentioned, will be showing at Arvada
(06:05):
and he is really kind of like a landscape and
architecture photographer.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So you're going to see a whole lot of different things.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
If you think of it not so much as a
pub pub crawl, but like a library crawl, you're going
to go see different things.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Well, I just have to say, Sean, I wanted to
have you on the show because when I got this
press release about this event. I have long believed in
the power of the arts to be healing. And it
doesn't matter what the art is, whether you sing or
you dance, or you paint, or you take pictures, or
you write or whatever it is, or you participate.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
In a drama class.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I think that you know, doing something and creating something
that that allows you to express an emotion or feeling
is an incredibly part, a big part of healing. And
I just wanted to commend you for recommending that that
Jefferson County Public Libraries give voice to this, because I
know that there's going to be a veteran who sees
this who is going to be inspired, right, or even
(07:03):
someone who's not a veteran but is dealing with their
own trauma who's going to be inspired. So hats off
to Jefferson County Public Libraries for doing this in the
first place.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I really appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
One thing I was saying to the artists as I
was encouraging them to participate was, you know, we obviously
know artists subjective. You can stare at a painting that
maybe took somebody two years to do and you end
up shrugging at it because it just doesn't, you know,
move you.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But their stories and the stories.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
That you're going to hear are not subjective in the slightest.
That's really the programming element to this, in my opinion.
There's no one that you're going to go and see
this art and listen to these artists and not come
away feeling inspired and changed in some way. And to me,
that's like the most primal basic element or what a
library program and a what a library experience should be.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Sew Needs. He is the director of Programming for Jefferson
County Public Libraries. I really appreciate your time today, and again,
thank you for giving a space for these stories to
be told, in this art to be shown. I'm very
appreciative of that.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on all right.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Thanks Sean
I want to talk to Jefferson County Public Library Programming
Coordinator Sean Eads about a super cool program that they
are putting together and that you can go and enjoy it.
Jefferson County Public Libraries, Sean, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
First of all, well, thank you Mandy.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Well, let's talk about what's going on. You guys have
teamed up with the VFW and the Denver Vet Center
to do what what's happening?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Well, in the month of July, we seven of our
ten libraries are going to host art displays by these
very talented veterans, a combination of photography and painting in
most cases, and we are going to host receptions for
(00:50):
them also throughout the month.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
We invite people to.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Come and both to experience the art and to here
they're really amaze and inspirational stories.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
How did you become aware of the fact and I
know that VFW number one in Denver is I think
revolutionizing the VFW model by moving away from the come
and drinkier model that has been so pervasive since probably
the beginning of the VFW and moving into trying to
really help veterans find unique in different ways to manage
(01:28):
post traumatic stress and other just sort of issues that
they may be dealing with. And I mean, how did
you come to find out that there is veteran art,
there is veteran photography. How did this come into your wheelhouse?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So I've been before.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I was the program coordinator for Jeff co I was
a reference librarian at the Stanley Lake Library really for
the last twenty years, and Stanley Blake, like most of
the locations, have an art wall, and one of our
regular patrons was a gentleman named Charles Jamison, who is
a member of both the VIA Photography Group and the
(02:05):
VFW Art Center. And we started talking. He was coming
in our library and many of the other libraries have
these very intensely technological like video editing and photographic editing stations,
so he was making use of that and we started
we started talking, and he was showing his art at
(02:26):
Stanley Lake and I was just incredibly impressed, and.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
He was saying, oh, you haven't seen anything.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I mean, he had invited me down actually to the
VFW to meet.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Many of the artists.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
And I had long been interested in the idea of
at least like one time a year, as many of
the art walls as possible, kind of being unified and
allowing them to speaks like an institutional voice of the
library's role in the community, and you know where we
stand and what we represent, what our values are really
(03:00):
springs out of that.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So each library, and there's multiple libraries, and I put
a link to the Jefferson County Public Library Events page
so you can if you're in jeff Co or you
want to go to one of these. They start the
first one that I see is Saturday, July twelfth, and
they seem to run through the end of the month.
And what is going to happen at each of these
individual events at each of these individual libraries.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
We're all going to be a little bit different. I'll
be hosting each reception.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
There will be you know, light food and drink, but
I want the receptions really to follow the wishes of
the artists that are going to be be there. In
most cases, we're talking about two artists at each location.
Some locations will have three. Some artists have asked that
(03:52):
they would like to do kind of like a formal
talk about their work as an introduction, you know, maybe
like a PowerPoint or a slideshow. Other are artists would
rather make it a little bit more low key and
just you know, kind of meet people and talk more
as a one on one so each one will be
quite different.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
But I really wanted to go as the artists themselves
would like it to go.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
But you know, that's one of the whole points of
these receptions, are you So many of our patrons do
love art, but they wouldn't necessarily want to drive down
to Santa Fe. Maybe they don't want to go to
the first Friday at night and they don't feel, you know,
good about driving a night or finding a parking space,
so they're kind of missing out.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
This is a way to.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Bring those powerful stories in the art, you know, to
our community in the convenience of a library setting.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
How did you guys decide what to show or you know,
was that a decision made by the artists? So I
think that's an interesting kind of question from the perspective
of I'm always interested to see what artists want seen
versus what maybe would be curated by someone else's eye.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, it is completely up to them. I mean, you know,
our art walls aren't huge. You're not going to be
seeing an art gallery when you walk in on average,
each artist is going to have maybe four to five
pieces up for display, and so we're letting them decide
what's closest to their heart. But you're going to see
a tremendous variety of art when you come. I mean,
(05:23):
if you go down to Lakewood, for example, you'll see
an artist named Jerry Royel who really focus on these
striking historical representations of Chicanos and Native Americans and like
the Southwest experience, and that's part of his own heritage.
If you were to go to Stanley Lake right now,
(05:44):
you'll see the work of an artist named John DEAs
Starling who was in the Navy and is really interested
in like science fiction and fantasy and like think of
like space opera and anime, and so her work reflects that.
Charles Jamison, who I mentioned, will be showing at Arvada
(06:05):
and he is really kind of like a landscape and
architecture photographer.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So you're going to see a whole lot of different things.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
If you think of it not so much as a
pub pub crawl, but like a library crawl, you're going
to go see different things.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Well, I just have to say, Sean, I wanted to
have you on the show because when I got this
press release about this event. I have long believed in
the power of the arts to be healing. And it
doesn't matter what the art is, whether you sing or
you dance, or you paint, or you take pictures, or
you write or whatever it is, or you participate.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
In a drama class.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I think that you know, doing something and creating something
that that allows you to express an emotion or feeling
is an incredibly part, a big part of healing. And
I just wanted to commend you for recommending that that
Jefferson County Public Libraries give voice to this, because I
know that there's going to be a veteran who sees
this who is going to be inspired, right, or even
(07:03):
someone who's not a veteran but is dealing with their
own trauma who's going to be inspired. So hats off
to Jefferson County Public Libraries for doing this in the
first place.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I really appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
One thing I was saying to the artists as I
was encouraging them to participate was, you know, we obviously
know artists subjective. You can stare at a painting that
maybe took somebody two years to do and you end
up shrugging at it because it just doesn't, you know,
move you.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But their stories and the stories.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
That you're going to hear are not subjective in the slightest.
That's really the programming element to this, in my opinion.
There's no one that you're going to go and see
this art and listen to these artists and not come
away feeling inspired and changed in some way. And to me,
that's like the most primal basic element or what a
library program and a what a library experience should be.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Sew Needs. He is the director of Programming for Jefferson
County Public Libraries. I really appreciate your time today, and again,
thank you for giving a space for these stories to
be told, in this art to be shown. I'm very
appreciative of that.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on all right.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Thanks Sean
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