San Mateo art and culture festival underway

Sarah Meier-Heredia, development director of the San Mateo Library Foundation, said the event is designed to bring out the community to see the different art and culture available in San Mateo. The library foundation provides financial support for the San Mateo public libraries and offers community events to help implement the library’s vision. It hopes to create a citywide culture and community experience that allows people to visit new locations and events beyond a traditional library space.

“I am just so thrilled that we are being received so well,” Meier-Heredia said of the initial events during the week.

The library foundation usually hosts a gala at this time of year but decided to shift to an event that anyone in the community could attend throughout the week. The library board plans to make the inaugural event an annual occurrence, aiming to expand next year and add more downtown celebrations by 2026.

“We are committed to doing this for five years if we can get the support,” Meier-Heredia said.

Sunday saw the opening kickoff to remember the county’s first Black doctor and Hillsborough’s first Black resident, Dr. James Hutchinson, who died in 2021, and have a jazz performance from renowned soul singer Tiffany Austin. Hutchinson, known as the “the walking doctor” for his daily walks around the neighborhood near his office in the mornings before work, first started seeing patients in San Mateo in 1952.

San Mateo City Librarian James Moore said a rare opportunity for the community is to attend an April 26 panel discussion with author and former Stanford Dean Julie Lythcott-Haims on whether talking to artificial intelligence will be the most important skill this century. Panelists include Bryan Brown, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education; Jennifer Giltnane, a research translational pathologist at Genentech; and Nancy Magee, San Mateo County superintendent of schools.

“This is a talk that is going to be perfect for where we are in the heart of Silicon Valley, and it is a balanced talk where no one is selling anything,” Moore said. “It’s really just people getting a chance to hear the thoughts of individuals with a lot of insight into the workings of Stanford, tech and all the things that influence us around here.”

April 27 at 5:45 p.m. will have a pop-up showcase on B Street with poetry performances and dance competitions, while April 28 at the public library’s main branch will have an after-hours food and music celebration from 6:30-9 p.m. The April 29 San Mateo farmers’ market will be the site of a children’s reading area with various city and elected officials coming to read on Saturday.

Moore said library staff and the library foundation worked together to evolve from a gala event to create a city celebration beyond books that highlights performance, theater, music and technology. Moore’s future vision for the library is embracing the role of being a cultural entity. While the library will always be a place where people can check out books, he sees more opportunities for performances, music and lectures. The library could also play a bigger role in preserving and telling the story of local history in San Mateo. He wants the library to embrace its role as the city and community collective memory bank.

Moore said the library has excess space that can be updated and reconfigured. Fewer people use computers at the library and more reference materials are now online. Moore is looking at how to utilize and reconfigure the space, with the potential for more music, teleconferencing and classes to enrich San Mateo residents. Moore said he has talked with the College of San Mateo about offering classes at the library for credit, with some community members able to audit the classes.

“When I look at the future, I think about converting more of our space into small group meeting rooms where a team of people can get together and work on a project, or individuals who work from home can come and work in privacy,” Moore said.

People can go to sanmateocelebrates.com/2023 for more information about the events.