The Bergenfield Library has an intriguing new public exhibit in its lower lobby, titled “Fabulous Fabrics From Five Continents.” On display are fabrics and designs made from many materials and from many cultures on loan from Ms. Judy Manton, who put together the collection over decades of world travel.

On Tuesday, February 21 at 10:30 a.m., Manton, an adjunct professor of cross-cultural studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, will give a talk and powerpoint presentation about the collection and many other items too numerous to currently display.

Most of the fabrics are hand-woven or hand-decorated. Techniques include dye, batik, applique, hand-printing and embroidery on silk, cotton, bark cloth and goat hair. Some of the extraordinary pieces are Coptic cotton fragment, intensely embroidered wedding kurtas from the Sindh in Pakistan, exquisite embroidered pieces from minority areas in China and Ms. Manton’s heirloom, which is a hand-woven, wool bedspread dating back to 1848.

Other special pieces are a silk applique of the eight precious treasures of Buddhism made for Manton in a monastery in Tibet and pictorial story cloth made in a refugee camp by a woman from Laos who embroidered her escape from the Pathet Lao.

The fabrics exhibit will be on display until the end of February.

Tuesday programs are sponsored by the Friends of the Bergenfield Library. They begin at 10:30 a.m., are free and open to the general public. At 10:15 a.m. coffee and tea are served courtesy of the Friends. The Friends welcome new members to support their activities and fundraising efforts. The Bergenfield Library is located at 50 W. Clinton Avenue. Stop by the library or phone 201-387-4040 for more information on programs for adults or about the Friends.