This spring, the revamped American Craft Council Library Salon Series brought its first round of finely crafted conversation to Minneapolis.

In March, people gathered for a dialogue between Jennifer Komar Olivarez, associate curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and American Craft’s editor in chief Monica Moses about the MIA show “Craft and the Hand: From Visible to Integral” (through April 21, 2013). The next month’s salon, dubbed “Curating Your Life,” brought together print collector and art history professor Gabe Weisberg, book artist Harriet Bart, and sociologist Marybeth Stalp. For May’s salon, Garth Johnson – artist, educator, and blogger at extremecraft.com – showed his favorite films from the ACC Archives as part of a kickoff party for Art-A-Whirl, an annual open studio weekend in the ACC’s Northeast Minneapolis neighborhood.

“Our goal is to make the ACC Library a collaborative learning space for the craft community,” librarian Jessica Shaykett says. “The Salon Series is a great way to not only introduce folks to the many print and digital resources the library has to offer, but to do so through social activities and shared conversations.”

The final salon of the spring season, “Give & Take,” is June 21 on ACC’s rooftop patio overlooking the Mississippi River. The evening of presentations, performances, and games is co-presented by Works Progress, an artist-led public art and design studio that encourages people to share their passions with those around them.

“There’s a lot of potential here,” education coordinator Jordan McDonald says. “We’re reaching out to a new audience – people who perhaps haven’t been to our shows or read our magazine.”

This fall, four more salons will take place at the ACC Library. For additional information about the June 21 salon and the series, and video from salons past, visit craftcouncil.org/library.