Kia Vang is a Senior Librarian and Community Engagement Team member with the Hennepin County Library (HCL) system. She has been at HCL for 10 years, the first five as Youth Services Librarian at the Wayzata Branch. Before that Kia worked at the Madison Public Library while she was in library school. She also had internships in academic libraries, but once she found her way to public libraries, she loved the amazing community spaces and the range of programming.
HCL’s Community Engagement Unit, an 11-person team, formed in 2022 with the goal of embedding racial equity in library programming and partnerships and providing consistency across HCL’s 41 branches. The team reviews programming and partnership proposals submitted by staff and helps develop measurable outcomes and strategies to mitigate any barriers to access, among other things. The team members have different focus areas, and Kia’s is arts, cultural and literary programming.
Part of her job is supporting artist connections for exhibits in the Cargill Gallery at the Central Library in downtown Minneapolis. The Gallery highlights artists with limited access to exhibiting their work. The exhibits change every two months. (For information on the Cargill Gallery, visit https://www.hclib.org/en/about/locations/cargill-gallery )