Athenaeum Music & Arts Library

This is a small civic jewel that smells faintly of varnish and old paper. Sunlight cuts through high windows onto Spanish Renaissance plaster, catching dust motes above rows of music scores and leather bound art tomes. On weekday afternoons you will hear a piano practice drifting from a classroom, the click of a docent pointing out a mural on a map, and an audience of retirees applauding a twenty minute chamber piece in the rotunda. Students in paint splattered smocks move between easels in the art studio, and the gallery by the left wall offers quiet, sharp exhibitions that change with the season. Membership cards sit in a tidy rack at the desk. If you are here for a concert, use the rotunda entrance on Wall Street and expect the room to start promptly.