photo by: Shawn Valverde

File photo of the Lawrence Public Library on Friday, July 26, 2024.

With its biggest fundraiser this year, the Lawrence Public Library is hoping to raise both excitement for the World Cup and money for one of the its own long-term goals: a permanent performance space on the library lawn next door.

The library announced earlier this month that its After Hours at the Library annual fundraiser will take place on March 6. The theme for this year is “We Welcome the World,” and it’s intended to celebrate the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Kathleen Morgan, the director for the Lawrence Public Library Friends & Foundation, said the party will feature “little bites” of different international cuisines from Lawrence restaurants, a special World Cup-inspired cocktail from John Brown’s Underground, a scavenger hunt activity for guests and flags from each of the qualified countries hanging in the library to “get people excited” for the international sporting event in the Kansas City area.

Morgan said the annual fundraiser has become critical for supporting a lot of the library’s programming, but this year it will also focus on raising funds for something else that has been on the library’s radar. The library wants to build a permanent pavilion that can serve as a performing space on its lawn.

Brad Allen, the executive director of the Lawrence Public Library, told the Journal-World via email that in the original concept of the new library’s campus, the lawn was going to be an amphitheater. Currently, when the library hosts an outdoor event at the space, the staff has to set up a stage and use a temporary electrical power box that the library borrows from the city’s Parks, Recreation and Culture department — a process Allen described as “complicated, laborious and time-consuming.”

Allen said the library had put in funding requests through the city’s Capital Improvement Plan since 2023, but with the uncertainty of getting funding through those means, the library then began to seek private donations to help develop a performance space. Allen said he hoped adding a permanent space like that could be a first step in reimagining the library lawn, including potentially turning it into a “signature event space” that could bring more arts and culture events to downtown Lawrence.

“Our vision for this stage goes beyond the library’s needs and to the broader community need for a space like this for outdoor events,” Allen said.

photo by: Screenshot from Lawrence Public Library

An artist’s rendering shows an early concept for a permanent outdoor pavilion that could be built on the Lawrence Public Library lawn.

Morgan said the library has been actively fundraising for the performance space, but it also made it this year’s “fund-a-need” project as part of the After Hours fundraiser. Morgan said last year’s project was to expand the digital library, and two years ago the project was the library’s DIY Memory Lab, a space for digitizing home movies, photos and other documents which has become one of the library’s “more popular services.”

Morgan said last year’s fundraiser brought in around $130,000. While the library receives tax dollars that pay for much of its infrastructure — “the books, the bodies and the buildings,” as Morgan phrased it — the money raised with private donations helps pay for extra things like the summer reading program and author talks that make its services more vibrant.

“It really makes us shine as a public library in this community,” Morgan said.

Morgan said the library is able to accomplish more than the bare minimum because of the “incredibly generous” community support in Lawrence. The possibility of adding a performance space that could expand library programming and attract other community events is something that the library is excited about, and Morgan hopes the After Hours fundraiser can help “finish the job” of raising money for it.

“I think Lawrence deserves and expects an excellent public library, and this additional private support really makes it possible,” Morgan said.

The After Hours fundraiser will take place at the library, 707 Vermont St., on Friday, March 6 from 7 to 9:30 p.m. For more information about the event or to buy tickets, visit lplafterhours.com.