The Alice C. Sabatini Gallery is home to Topeka’s oldest public art collection. The nucleus of this collection was created when Library board member Edward Wilder purchased a large collection of Art Nouveau glass and ceramics for the Library while on a tour of Europe in 1901. The collection has expanded over the years to include regional paintings and prints, American contemporary ceramics, glass paperweights, West African decorative arts, southwest reliquary woodcarvings and 19th-century Chinese decorative arts.

The Sabatini Gallery produces six exhibits annually: two national, juried art competitions (Topeka Competition for 3D work and The Printed Image for 2D original, fine art prints), an annual art exhibit for young people designed to ignite and maintain a love for art through enriching arts experiences, works from the TSCPL permanent collection and a variety of contemporary, regional artists.

Alice C. Sabatini (1931–1997) | Born in Lamar, CO and raised in Lyons, KS, Alice received a B.S. in architectural art from Kansas State University, a B.A. in art education and an M.F.A. in drawing from the University of Kansas. Alice was a life-long supporter of the Library and our fine arts community. Interest from the Alice C. Sabatini Endowment, created through The Library Foundation, helps fund our children's show as well as an outreach program targeting at-risk children and their caregivers in daycare settings.

Larry Peters | (Gallery Director 1968–2003) A prolific ceramist and active member of the Topeka arts community for many years, Peters steadily built our "clay body" of works in the Library's Permanent Collection for decades. Because of this commitment to excellence, the Library's permanent art collection has a broad sampling of work from many mid to late 20th-century artists: Voulkos, Eberle, Bohls, MacKenzie, Pharis, Garzio, Troy. Peters shows regularly in group and solo exhibitions throughout Northeast Kansas and has work on loan to the US Embassy in Athens, Greece. He is the founder and president of the Kansas Artist Craftsmen Association as well as a member of The Collective Gallery in Topeka, KS with his wife, reknowned Kansas artist and former Washburn University art faculty professor, Barbara Waterman-Peters.