Book Club
Monthly meetings on the first Wednesdays of each month 9:30 - 10:30 AM PST at the Triton Museum of Art. (doors open at 9:00 a.m. for coffee and donuts; presentation begins at 9:30 a.m.)
We invite you to read selected novels about art or famous artists before we meet, and then join us on the first Wednesday morning of each month, for an art history presentation about that month’s novel, the portrayed artist, and related art, as presented by Triton Museum Executive Director Preston Metcalf and Triton Museum Associate Curator Vanessa Callanta. Learn how the novel does — or doesn’t — comport to the actual history of its subject, and hear more about the artwork and the artists’ times in which they were created.
Admission to the monthly book club art history lectures is free for Triton Museum of Art Members ($5 donation requested for non-members), and all are welcome, whether you have actually read the book or not. Coffee and pastries will be served.
Discussions are held safely distanced & in person at the Triton Museum of Art Free for TMA members, $5 suggested donation for non-members
Take a look at what we'll be reading for 2026!
This Upcoming Month's Book:
James by Percival Everett
September 2nd, 2026
Art From the Other Perspective
A brilliant reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. While many narrative set pieces of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light. There is a reason James was named winner of the national Book Award AND the Pulitzer Prize.
James is a gifted reimagining of one of the greatest literary works in American letters. It reveals the perspective of the other side of the story … a point of view often neglected. In this presentation, Executive Director will look at the art of early America, not from the dominant Anglo-European art so familiar to us all, but through the creations of slaves and those who fight for their own humanity to be recognized.
