Hillary Rodham Clinton Children's Library and Learning Center, 2013
Little Rock, Arkansas

Based on experiential learning with hands-on education, the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library and Learning Center was built on an abandoned six acre site in the heart of Little Rock. Boosting hope for a neglected neighborhood, it has served as an exemplary tale of urban renewal.

A charrette with youth uncovered a surprising and heartbreaking result: their top desire wasn’t for the latest video game technologies… it was food security. They wanted to learn how to feed themselves. Children also desired a place that was uplifting, inspirational, and full of natural light, while feeling safe, secure, and sheltered. This library and learning center offers not only books, but also a performance space, teaching kitchen, instructional greenhouse, vegetable garden, and an arboretum. Children can cultivate, harvest, prepare meals, and sell produce in a planned farmer’s market. It is the state’s first library holistically imagined as a children’s education destination.

The architecture’s inspiration is based on the childhood memories of many Arkansans, growing up in rural areas where playgrounds were really fields, creeks, utilitarian structures such as barns, sheds, and the constructed forts built by their own hands. The library acts as a large shed in the woods: its roof lifts to the sky as the site falls, sheltering spaces within while visually opening to the site’s restored ecosystem. The architecture speaks of the technical nature of construction, expressing all connections and systems, much like a child’s erector set.  The building is a teacher.

Music Among Neighbors: The Banjo Babies
Saturday, April 1, 5:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Next up in our Music Among Neighbors series is Ella Vorenberg and the bluegrass band The Banjo Babies. The Banjo Babies got together this past fall after meeting in the New York bluegrass scene. They’ve played bar jams and small venues in the city, and are excited to bring bluegrass to the Library!

Sam Dallas - Bass
Ella Vorenberg - Vocals
David Chernack - Guitar
Tom Gause - Fiddle
Sam Chester - Banjo
Jackson Earles - Mandolin

Ella Vorenberg is a resident of New York, where she teaches fifth grade at an independent school. Ella's parents Amy and Tom Vorenberg are recent transplants to Norfolk. Please register here and join us for an evening of music among neighbors.

Click here to View More Information About The Norfolk Library Night Owl - March 31, 2023