ELPL’s New Musical Children’s Garden Was Years in the Making

The East Lansing Public Library recently opened a Musical Children’s Garden after years of anticipation. 

Library Director Chrissie Evaskis-Garrett said the project has roots all the way back in 2019. 

“The director at the time thought that it would be a wonderful place to have a beautiful garden where kids could play and the community could come together,” Evaskis-Garrett said.

This led former director Kristen Shelley to focus on raising funds to build the garden. 

“During that time, for our yearly Books, Bites and Bids fundraiser, the focus was on this garden for a few years,” Evaskis-Garrett said. “So we had this money earmarked for this idea of a green space in front of our library.”

When Evaskis-Garrett’s predecessor Kevin King took over, the idea for the garden evolved to include flower-shaped instruments to make the space more interactive. 

“We still keep the garden part,” Evaskis-Garrett said. “It’s a lovely place, but it gives the kids in the community something a little more kinetic to do, you know, and so he went through and he purchased it.”

Once the instruments arrived, Evaskis-Garrett found herself taking on this project as the library’s director. In addition to providing a new space for children to interact, the garden was designed to improve the library’s stormwater drainage infrastructure.

“I became interim director,” Evaskis-Garrett said. “So all of a sudden I was presented with a whole construction project that I had to get up to speed with.

“They don’t teach us how to handle building things in library school,” Evaskis-Garrett said. “We fixed the storm water drainage as well.” 

The musical garden had its grand opening celebration last month after construction started in August of 2025.

The space includes musical instruments shaped like flowers, a floor made of green rubber padding and actual flowers. 

“It’s really been open for about a month and a half or so,” Evaskis-Garrett said. “We were waiting for the flowers to bloom [for the grand opening] because we wanted to invite people to come see [the garden] in its fullness.”

This opening doubled as a meet-and-greet with Evaskis-Garrett, who was named library director in the spring, after serving as interim director for several months.

Evaskis-Garrett said she enjoyed this project because she knows it will have a lasting impact.

“Yes, we have programs, yes, we have books,” Evaskis-Garrett said. “But a lot of what I think we deal in here is memories. I just feel lucky to have gotten to be a part of it at all.”