Curtain Call’s Theatre Arts Workshops: Back to School Means Back in Action!
For over 30 years, Stamford’s longest-running and only nonprofit, theatre-producing company has offered opportunities for kids grades K+, teens, and adults to ACT OUT with classes after school, evenings and weekends throughout the school year, AND full-day summer workshops! Our Fall 2024 Session of exciting lineup of classes for kids (grades K+), teens, and adults in acting, improv, musical theatre, dance, AND MORE begin September 16, 2024 and run for eight weeks. (See our website for details.) Scholarships, payment plans and sibling discounts. For questions, contact our Education Director, Brian Bianco at brian@curtaincallinc.com.
Curtain Call's Fall Drama Arts Classes for Kids, Teens & Adults
Sheffer Gallery
September 7 through December 10
Reception: Tuesday, September 10, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a keynote presentation by cartoonist and comics historian Brian Walker starting at 7 pm.)
The State of Cartooning will display works by active members of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, including Greg, Brian, and Neal Walker, who carry the legacy of their father, Mort Walker, the creator of Beetle Bailey. Other featured artists include Ray Billingsley, Bob Englehart, Bill Janocha, Sean Kelly, Maria Scrivan, and more.
Founded in 1946, National Cartoonists Society (NCS) activities and events primarily took place in New York City until 1983, when the first Reuben Award Ceremony was held in Los Angeles. At that time, the NCS also began organizing a system of regional chapters for members to participate in. There are currently 23 chapters in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Brian Walker started the NCS Connecticut chapter in 1993, involving many remaining Golden Age cartoonists. Meetings were held at local restaurants, including the Silvermine Tavern, Cobbs Mill Inn, The Redding Roadhouse, and Red Barn. From 1994 to 2017, a special Legend Award was presented to 22 Connecticut Cartoonists at their annual fall dinner. Although membership has decreased as the older generation has passed on, the Connecticut chapter is still active. The State of Cartooning displays works by some of the current members of the NCS.
The State of Cartooning
Sheffer Gallery
September 7 through December 10
Reception: Tuesday, September 10, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a keynote presentation by cartoonist and comics historian Brian Walker starting at 7 pm.)
Curated by Walker with help from the Library’s Exhibit Curator Carole Erger-Fass, Cartoon County: The Golden Age of Cartooning in Connecticut derives from Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection and aims to explore an important piece of local history. It will feature 40+ original cartoons by some of the area’s greats, including Dik Browne, Mel Casson, Stan Drake, John Cullen Murphy, Leonard Starr, Jack Tippit, Mort Walker, and more.
Proximity to major syndicates and publishers in New York City drew cartoonists to Fairfield County. Many worked at home in their studios, frequenting Max’s Art Supplies on the Post Road and seeking companionship with their professional peers at local spots: over a game of golf at Longshore, or at local restaurants like Mario’s Place, across from Westport’s train station.
Cullen Murphy, author and son of the cartoonist behind Prince Valiant and Big Ben Bolt, refers to the history of cartooning in Connecticut with fondness.
“For a period of about 50 years, right in the middle of the American Century, many of the nation’s top comic strip cartoonists, gag cartoonists, and magazine illustrators lived within a stone’s throw of one another in the southwestern corner of Connecticut,” he wrote in Cartoon County, “a bit of bohemia amid those men in their gray flannel suits.”
The Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection (Westpac) was conceived by local art teacher Bert Chernow, who began acquiring a diverse collection of artworks in 1964. Featuring many notable local artists, Westpac comprises more than 1,800 works in a broad range of media including paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, illustrations, cartoons, photographs, sculptures, and murals.
Westport cartoonist Mel Casson was instrumental in building Westpac’s Cartoon Collection, which includes more than 120 original comic strips, gag cartoons, editorial cartoons, and illustrations. Over the years, the Westpac collection has been displayed in schools and public buildings around town to educate and entertain residents.
This exhibit features many highlights from the collection, representing the major cartoon genres. The graphics on the walls are from Mort Walker’s 1980 book, The Lexicon of Comicana, which will be reissued by New York Review Books in 2025.
Special thanks to Westpac co-chairs Ive Covaci and Anne Boberski, and to the Drew Friedman Community Arts Center for their continued support.
Cartoon County: The Golden Age of Cartooning in Connecticut
The Gallery at GFC is proud to announce the opening of Jason Pritchard's latest show Riverbanks to Shorelines: The Art of Water's Path. The paintings in this exhibition feature the magical interplay between light and water along the coastline and within the communities that hug the shore. Jason captures water dancing, shimmering, or frozen as ice beneath cloud-filled New England skies. These gorgeously rendered works in oil are balm for the soul.
Riverbanks to Shorelines: The Art of Water’s Path
Join us for "My Story Revealed", a global student art exhibit at the New Canaan Library!
“My Story Revealed" invites you on a visual journey through the heart of personal and cultural narratives. This exhibit honors the art of storytelling by showcasing the compelling and diverse experiences of some of the 8-18 year old students taking part in our international Global Voices - ArtLink exchanges over three decades.
Whether their pieces are beautifully rendered or simply drawn, delightful or thought provoking, the creation of these pieces has been a journey of self-discovery. Through their work, the young artists have expressed their identities, shared their stories, and conveyed the aspects of their lives and society they treasure - or are concerned about.
This collection brings together diverse artistic youth voices from 28 ArtLink partner countries, transcending political systems and geographical boundaries. We believe that art is a universal language, uniting us through the shared experiences and dreams of its young creators, promoting a common humanity that will lead to a more peaceful future.
As you explore the exhibit, we invite you, the viewer, to reflect on your own story, your own journey, cultivating a deeper sense of empathy and appreciation for the multi-faceted tapestry of human experiences we are all part of. We hope to see you there!
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Creative Connections is a nonprofit in Norwalk, CT, dedicated to promoting global understanding and empathy through art-based exchanges between youth worldwide. We connect students in the U.S. with peers in other countries, encouraging cultural sharing and cross-cultural learning. We focus on fostering global citizenship and creative communication through programs like Global Voices - ArtLink, which highlights diverse perspectives and cultural storytelling.
Details:
The opening reception will be on 9/30 from 5:30-7:30pm
The exhibit will remain up until Spring 2025.
Where:New Canaan Library, New Canaan, CT
Please contact scanessa@creativeconnections.org with any questions.
Join us for "My Story Revealed", a global student art exhibit at the New Canaan Library.
An Exhibition Like No Other!
This groundbreaking exhibition highlights ongoing, cutting-edge dinosaur research by American Museum of Natural History paleontologists and other leading scientists from around the world.
It explores how paleontologists today are using an incredible array of new technologies — from bioengineering computer software to CT scans — along with new discoveries and new ideas to investigate and reinterpret many of the most persistent and puzzling mysteries of dinosaurs, such as what they really looked like and how they actually moved and behaved, as well as the complex and hotly debated theories of why — or even whether — they became extinct.
Exhibition organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, in collaboration with the Houston Museum of Natural Science; the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco; The Field Museum, Chicago; and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh.
Made possible with generous support from GoHealth Urgent Care.
This exhibition is free for SM&NC Members, and included in the price of daily admission for visitors.
Exhibition on View: Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas
The Flinn Gallery is honored to launch its 2024-25 season with a unique solo exhibition, The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita. Curated by Leslee Asch, the exhibition displays Kumi Yamashita’s works of unconventional vision, versatility, and variety. The Opening Reception will be September 19 from 6-8pm.
Kumi Yamashita uses simple materials to yield surprising results. In describing her shadow work and the elusive qualities of light, she says, “I sculpt using both light and shadow. I construct single or multiple objects and place them in relation to a single light source. The complete artwork is therefore comprised of both the material (the solid objects) and the immaterial (the light or shadow.)”
In addition to Yamashita’s Light & Shadow series, the exhibition includes provocative portraits created by winding a single unbroken sewing thread around thousands of small galvanized nails.
Equally enticing is a piece of denim in which the threads have been systematically removed to create an enchanting portrait. Yamashita describes her process for this piece as, “Sometimes there is something beautiful about things falling apart. Undoing one thing while simultaneously creating another. Here I’ve taken fabric and pulled out bits and pieces of the lighter color thread to create the image.”
Yamashita’s work has been widely praised both nationally and internationally. Her solo shows include the Seattle Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Esplanade - Theaters on the Bay in Singapore as well as museums in Taiwan, China and Japan. She has been in numerous museum group shows, including the Louvre’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and San Francisco’s Exploratorium.
Yamashita’s work allows viewers to expand their understanding of the possibilities of the varied media she skillfully employs, and the breadth of her vision. Curator Leslee Asch adds, “The work must be seen in person to be appreciated; expect the unexpected.”
Kumi Yamashita lives and works in Woodstock, NY. She was born in Takasaki, Japan, and received her MFA from Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, and her BFA from Cornish College of Arts in Seattle, WA. Yamashita’s work can be found in impressive public collections such as Microsoft, American Express, Le Meridien, Shenyang, China; Tokyo’s Akiru Medical Center, and permanent collections at numerous museums.
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The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita opens with a reception
from 6-8pm on September 19.
The Flinn Gallery which is located on the second floor of the Greenwich Library,
101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT.
The show will run through November 6.
The Flinn Gallery is a non-profit organization sponsored by Friends of the Greenwich Library.
Gallery hours are Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm Thursday 10am-8pm, and Sunday 1-5pm.
Events:
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 19 from 6-8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, October 26 at 2pm
The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita
A very moving art exhibition featuring three extraordinary Connecticut Artists expressing the essence and effect of shadow, light, the subliminal mind and the human spirit.
THE DARK OF LIGHT
Eight area artists will be showcased in Wilton Library’s October art exhibition, “Resilience, Reflection, and Revelations.” The exhibition features the diverse works of women artists: Pam Ackley (Killingworth), Afsaneh Djabbari-Aslani (New Canaan), Alma Faham (Danbury), Cynthia Fazekas (Shelton), Mari Gyorgyey (Stamford), Katya Lebrija (Wilton), Pam Rouleau (Old Greenwich), and Nomi Silverman (Greenwich). They will exhibit their works in an array of styles, media choices, and subject matter, all portraying vibrant and varied types of resilience found in life and nature.
The opening reception on Friday, October 4 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. is free and open to the public. Exhibition runs through November 7. A majority of the works will be available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the library.
"Resilience, Reflection, and Revelations" Art Exhibition at Wilton Library
Elisa Contemporary Art is pleased to present a Solo exhibit of the Candy and Toy Mandala Photographs by Paula Brett. It is now open at the One River School in Westport. The exhibit will run from through November 27 at 833 Post Road East, Westport CT. Gallery hours are: Monday - Friday, 10am - 6pm and Saturday/Sunday 10am - 2pm.
Join us for a Reception on Saturday, November 23 from 2-4pm
From color-infused paintings to video self-portraits, Paula Brett’s body of work incorporates various combinations of media dealing with ideas such as created identity, coincidence, ritual, and transitory spaces.
The limited edition photographs are Mandalas made from pieces of Candy, Jewels, Toys, Cars and other favorites. According to Paula, “The mandala symbolizes the law of the universe and since man is also a microcosm of the universe, many cultures believe that the mandala also symbolizes the human soul. Mandalas serve as collection point for universal forces…My intention with these mandalas is to arrange everyday sweets and favorite objects into a pattern which becomes sacred, where delicious turns divine, the enticing now exquisite.”
Brett has exhibited work in New York, CT, Chicago, San Francisco, Budapest and Romania.
About One River School:
Founded in 2012 in Englewood, NJ, “one river” west of New York City, One River School has embarked on a mission to "transform art education"® in America. Today, their innovative program teaches thousands of students in fifteen locations across six states. We are thrilled to be working with One River Westport.
About Elisa Contemporary Art
Elisa Contemporary Art represents a portfolio of emerging through mid-career contemporary artists. Founded in 2007 by
Lisa Cooper, Elisa Contemporary Art is dedicated to promoting the appreciation and collection of art as a way to enrich
and heal our lives, our communities, and the world. The Riverdale NY Gallery opened in 2008. The Art Salon in Fairfield
CT opened in May 2017 (by appointment only). Elisa Contemporary Art has participated in international art fairs in New
York, Miami and the Hamptons and curated 40+ art exhibits in public/private spaces in the Tri-State.
For additional information, visit us at www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com or Instagram: @ElisaContemporary Art
Solo Exhibit of Candy and Toy Mandala Photographs by Paula Brett
Heather Gaudio Fine Art is pleased to present Betsy Eby: Of This Natural World, her first solo exhibition at the gallery. The public is invited to attend an opening reception for the artist on September 26, 5-7pm, and the show will run through November 2nd.
Betsy Eby’s encaustic paintings are infused with a unique sensibility informed by the artist’s Pacific Northwest heritage, her concerns for nature and a lifelong classical piano practice. Using trowels, knives, brushes and heat, Eby pours and spreads hot and cold natural wax-based paint onto a wooden panel, layering gestures to create nuanced marks across the surface. The paintings in this exhibition are inspired by the wilderness of nature and the way in which the natural world serves as a tonic for the human spirit. Created in her Maine summer retreat, Eby’s new body of work captures the music and rhythms portrayed in nature: the lulling of waves, the fragrance of the sea air, resinous bay berries, blueberries, honey suckle in the breeze…. all have their own sound and melodies that speak to the artist. “There is musical accompaniment in nature,” the artist states.
Eby savors nature holistically, poetically depicting the essence of the verdant and granite landscape against the backdrop of a shimmering coastline, using abstraction to fuse that which animates her senses. Like notes shimmering on a page, the paintings are soft gestures akin to ascending scales, glissandos or arpeggiations within ambient-like sound beds. The marks on Ravel, glyphs fleeting across the surface within and through atmospheric grounds, came from listening to the composer in the background as she worked in the studio. Eby’s work synthesizes and distills all that surrounds her, intuitively harnessing and conveying her environment on the panel. Setting Eby’s new paintings apart from previous series are the grounds, which at first glance appear more neutral but are informed with a shifting color nuance. The artist finds herself with a more atuned sensory input of late, and this is evident in her most recent work.
“I make nature based, abstract paintings that convey the musical frequencies of an ecologically balanced, natural world unspoiled by human encroachment. They are meditations on undisrupted skies, habitats and oceans, calling attention to the natural rhythms of our environment and the elements and our interconnectedness within them.”
Eby received her B.A. from the University of Oregon and splits her time between her studios in Columbus, Georgia and Wheaton Island in Maine. She has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions and her work forms part of many important private, corporate and public collections including the Columbus Museum and the Georgia Museum of Art in Georgia; the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington; and the Art in Embassies in Gambia, Brunei, Dubai and Papua New Guinea.
Heather Gaudio Fine Art specializes in emerging and established artists, offering painting, works on paper, photography, and sculpture. The gallery provides a full range of art advisory services, from forming and maintaining a collection, to securing secondary market material, to assisting with framing and installation. The focus is on each individual client, selecting art that best serves his or her vision, space, and resources. The six exhibitions offered every year are designed to present important talent and provide artwork appealing to a broad range of interests. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday; 10:30am to 5:30pm; and by appointment.
Betsy Eby: Of This Natural World
Sacred Space, organized by guest curator Juanita Sunday, draws on the rich history of the Brandywine Workshop and Archives, founded in Philadelphia in 1972 by artist Allan Edmunds. As of 2023, FUAM is home to a Brandywine “satellite collection,” joining other institutions including Harvard Art Museums, RISD Museum, and the University of Delaware Museums. This exhibition features works from FUAM’s own collection as well as loans from Brandywine itself.
Sacred Space encourages a deep exploration of spiritual connection, inviting viewers to reflect on the ancestral wisdom and memory passed down through generations. The exhibition serves as a portal into the interconnected realms of spirituality, time, space, memory, and culture. The artists pay homage to their forebears, drawing upon cultural traditions, rituals, and sacred practices to honor and preserve, as well as question, the invaluable heritage that shapes our identities.
“My belief is that art is best as the articulation of spiritual ideas or transformative intention. It can be an agent of spiritual inspiration or personal and social transformation.” - Michael D. Harris
Image: Martin Payton, Portal, 1990, offset lithograph. Partial gift of the Brandywine Workshop and Archives and Museum Purchase with funds from the Black Art Fund, 2024 (2024.0601) © Martin Payton
Sacred Space: A Brandywine Workshop and Archives Print Exhibition
This exhibition presents a group of woodcuts, engravings, and etchings from the late 15th through late 18th centuries drawn from the Wetmore Collection at Connecticut College. The collection was assembled in the early 20th century by Fanny S. Wetmore, and bequeathed to the College in 1930. From familiar favorites like Dürer’s Adam and Eve and Rembrandt’s Three Trees to hidden gems like the gold-sprinkled surface of Maria Katharina Prestel’s Virtue Overcoming Vice, the show explores more than three centuries of artistic innovation on paper.
Although little is known of Wetmore herself, her collecting activities place her within a tradition dating back to the rise of printmaking in early modern Europe. The surging production of prints by the beginning of the 16th century represented a sea change for both artists and consumers. For artists, prints provided additional revenue, increased their personal fame, and offered greater latitude for experimentation outside the traditional patronage structure. For consumers, prints represented access to visual art on an unprecedented scale; even those who would never have been able to commission an independent work from a great artist could now readily obtain an engraving or an etching. Prints were easily transported, could be pasted up on walls or into albums, and even large collections of them took up relatively little room. And, with the rise of reproductive printmaking, even geographically distant or physically inaccessible artworks could be added to the collector’s “paper museum.”
This exhibition is the second in the Museum’s history to have been co-curated with Fairfield University students, and has been supported by generous funding from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Image: Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve, 1504, engraving
Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection
Please join us for the opening reception of the Weston Library Photography Club photography exhibition opening reception.
Sunday, October 6th 1-3pm
Weston Public Library
56 Norfield Road, Weston, CT
If you cannot make the opening, please visit the exhibit during the Library open hours. Call to ensure the Community Room is open for visitors: 203-222-2665
Opening Reception- Photography Exhibition "A Closer Look"
Stand Together Against Racism (S.T.A.R), in partnership with The Glass House and the Carriage Barn Arts Center, is hosting its third annual "Through Your Looking Glass" student art showcase. This event celebrates how art, design, and architecture can promote social justice, inclusion, equity, and diversity.
Students of all ages from Fairfield County, CT, including college students, are invited to submit art that reflects a social justice topic that's important to them. (Check out the S.T.A.R website to see what other students have submitted.) We welcome all forms of art, such as paintings, drawings, photography, mixed media, sculpture, videos (including TikTok-style), or architectural designs.Art is due by November 9.
This showcase is not a competition—all student artwork will be displayed at the Carriage Barn Arts Center in New Canaan starting with an opening reception on Saturday, November 16. All artists, with their families and friends should plan to attend. The showcase will remain up for approximately two weeks.
Fill out the pre-registration form linked iin this post so we know you intend to submit! When your art is ready, you'll complete a separate release form.
Fairfield County Student Social Justice Art Showcase - Call for Submissions NOW - Opening Reception 11/16
How did Rembrandt, Barocci, and Canaletto create their etchings and engravings? Learn about the traditional techniques and tools of intaglio printmaking with Master Printer Chris Shore of the Center for Contemporary Printmaking.
These 45-minute sessions will be conducted in the Bellarmine Hall Galleries where the exhibition Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection is on view through December 21 (click here to learn more about the exhibition).
Image: Federico Barocci, St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, ca. 1581, etching and engraving. Courtesy of the Wetmore Collection, Connecticut College.
Please note that only 2 tickets may be reserved per order. If you have questions, please contact museum@fairfield.edu.
Gallery Demonstration: Tools and Techniques for Etching and Engraving
Designed for teens and adults of all ages who are either non-musicians, novice singers or instrumentalists, or hobbyists who believe that they have a story to tell through music, the Songwriters Workshop provides a one-on-one coaching environment with access to acoustic and electronic instruments along with a digital recording studio to allow students to craft the songs they hear in their head, hum in the car or sing in the shower! Sessions are 45 minutes each between 4:00 - 6:30pm. One or two students per session depending on availability.
Your coach, Dr. K, has been writing songs for 30 years. In his workshop at Westport School of Music he will help you:
- explore song structure
- express your lyrically
- work with instruments
- compose and record
- edit, mix and publish your work!
CRAFTING A SONG - Songwriters Workshop
Tuesday, October 29 at 6:00 p.m.: Join renowned CNN historian Timothy Naftali in conversation with Fairfield University Professor Philip Eliasoph, PhD., who serves as the university’s Special Assistant to the President for Arts and Culture. Naftali has helped to establish the study of modern international and espionage history, and he has also written extensively on U.S. presidential impeachments. Apart from serving as the founding executive director of the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Naftali was a consultant to both the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group and to the 9/11 Commission. Naftali is the author of numerous bestselling titles, including Kruschev’s Cold War and Impeachment: An American History. Naftali and Eliasoph will engage in a wide-ranging conversation, covering some of the top issues in American politics today, as well as moments of particular turmoil in our political past.
Meet the Author | Timothy Naftali
Paleobiologist Dr. Aki Watanabe of the American Museum of Natural Histor y and New York Institute of Technology will bring you inside “a day in the life” of a 21st century paleontologist.
While Dr. Watanabe’s work focuses on how the “intelligent” brains of modern birds evolved from their dinosaur ancestors, his talk will highlight many types of fieldwork around the world, as well as exciting new data currently being analyzed in modern-day dinosaur science. Open to adults and teens 14+
Members: $10
Non-Members: $20
SM&NC's Dinosaur Programming for Adults this season complements the institution's exhibition on view: "Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas"
SM&NC Nights Out: Fieldwork & New Findings in Dinosaur Science
How did Rembrandt, Barocci, and Canaletto create their etchings and engravings? Learn about the traditional techniques and tools of intaglio printmaking with Master Printer Chris Shore of the Center for Contemporary Printmaking.
These 45-minute sessions will be conducted in the Bellarmine Hall Galleries where the exhibition Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection is on view through December 21 (click here to learn more about the exhibition).
Image: Federico Barocci, St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, ca. 1581, etching and engraving. Courtesy of the Wetmore Collection, Connecticut College.
Please note that only 2 tickets may be reserved per order. If you have questions, please contact museum@fairfield.edu.
Gallery Demonstration: Tools and Techniques for Etching and Engraving
Westport Country Playhouse will open its 2024-25 Season with “The 39 Steps,” a fast-paced frenzy of espionage and murderous mayhem based on Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film, running from October 22 through November 9. Performance schedule is Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 and 7 p.m., Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. (No Wed. or Sat. matinees during preview week). Tickets start at $40.
The 39 Steps
Curtain Call’s Theatre Arts Workshops: Back to School Means Back in Action!
For over 30 years, Stamford’s longest-running and only nonprofit, theatre-producing company has offered opportunities for kids grades K+, teens, and adults to ACT OUT with classes after school, evenings and weekends throughout the school year, AND full-day summer workshops! Our Fall 2024 Session of exciting lineup of classes for kids (grades K+), teens, and adults in acting, improv, musical theatre, dance, AND MORE begin September 16, 2024 and run for eight weeks. (See our website for details.) Scholarships, payment plans and sibling discounts. For questions, contact our Education Director, Brian Bianco at brian@curtaincallinc.com.
Curtain Call's Fall Drama Arts Classes for Kids, Teens & Adults
This event will showcase the work of 2024-25 Korry Fellow Dooley-O, along with the work of renowned artist Jerry Gant. The exhibition is curated by Jahmane and pays tribute to the remarkable contributions of these two iconic figures in the world of hip hop. Dooley-O, a graffiti writer, rapper, and music producer from New Haven, Connecticut, broke new ground in the hip hop scene with his extraordinary talent. Jerry Gant, a Newark, NJ native who passed away in 2018, was a prolific graffiti artist, poet, and performer whose artistry went beyond the boundaries of hip hop. Through their groundbreaking art and unwavering dedication to their craft, these legends have made an enduring impact on the cultural landscape.
Dooley-O, A Legacy In Hip Hop
Sheffer Gallery
September 7 through December 10
Reception: Tuesday, September 10, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a keynote presentation by cartoonist and comics historian Brian Walker starting at 7 pm.)
Curated by Walker with help from the Library’s Exhibit Curator Carole Erger-Fass, Cartoon County: The Golden Age of Cartooning in Connecticut derives from Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection and aims to explore an important piece of local history. It will feature 40+ original cartoons by some of the area’s greats, including Dik Browne, Mel Casson, Stan Drake, John Cullen Murphy, Leonard Starr, Jack Tippit, Mort Walker, and more.
Proximity to major syndicates and publishers in New York City drew cartoonists to Fairfield County. Many worked at home in their studios, frequenting Max’s Art Supplies on the Post Road and seeking companionship with their professional peers at local spots: over a game of golf at Longshore, or at local restaurants like Mario’s Place, across from Westport’s train station.
Cullen Murphy, author and son of the cartoonist behind Prince Valiant and Big Ben Bolt, refers to the history of cartooning in Connecticut with fondness.
“For a period of about 50 years, right in the middle of the American Century, many of the nation’s top comic strip cartoonists, gag cartoonists, and magazine illustrators lived within a stone’s throw of one another in the southwestern corner of Connecticut,” he wrote in Cartoon County, “a bit of bohemia amid those men in their gray flannel suits.”
The Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection (Westpac) was conceived by local art teacher Bert Chernow, who began acquiring a diverse collection of artworks in 1964. Featuring many notable local artists, Westpac comprises more than 1,800 works in a broad range of media including paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, illustrations, cartoons, photographs, sculptures, and murals.
Westport cartoonist Mel Casson was instrumental in building Westpac’s Cartoon Collection, which includes more than 120 original comic strips, gag cartoons, editorial cartoons, and illustrations. Over the years, the Westpac collection has been displayed in schools and public buildings around town to educate and entertain residents.
This exhibit features many highlights from the collection, representing the major cartoon genres. The graphics on the walls are from Mort Walker’s 1980 book, The Lexicon of Comicana, which will be reissued by New York Review Books in 2025.
Special thanks to Westpac co-chairs Ive Covaci and Anne Boberski, and to the Drew Friedman Community Arts Center for their continued support.
Cartoon County: The Golden Age of Cartooning in Connecticut
Sheffer Gallery
September 7 through December 10
Reception: Tuesday, September 10, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a keynote presentation by cartoonist and comics historian Brian Walker starting at 7 pm.)
The State of Cartooning will display works by active members of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, including Greg, Brian, and Neal Walker, who carry the legacy of their father, Mort Walker, the creator of Beetle Bailey. Other featured artists include Ray Billingsley, Bob Englehart, Bill Janocha, Sean Kelly, Maria Scrivan, and more.
Founded in 1946, National Cartoonists Society (NCS) activities and events primarily took place in New York City until 1983, when the first Reuben Award Ceremony was held in Los Angeles. At that time, the NCS also began organizing a system of regional chapters for members to participate in. There are currently 23 chapters in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Brian Walker started the NCS Connecticut chapter in 1993, involving many remaining Golden Age cartoonists. Meetings were held at local restaurants, including the Silvermine Tavern, Cobbs Mill Inn, The Redding Roadhouse, and Red Barn. From 1994 to 2017, a special Legend Award was presented to 22 Connecticut Cartoonists at their annual fall dinner. Although membership has decreased as the older generation has passed on, the Connecticut chapter is still active. The State of Cartooning displays works by some of the current members of the NCS.
The State of Cartooning
Join us for "My Story Revealed", a global student art exhibit at the New Canaan Library!
“My Story Revealed" invites you on a visual journey through the heart of personal and cultural narratives. This exhibit honors the art of storytelling by showcasing the compelling and diverse experiences of some of the 8-18 year old students taking part in our international Global Voices - ArtLink exchanges over three decades.
Whether their pieces are beautifully rendered or simply drawn, delightful or thought provoking, the creation of these pieces has been a journey of self-discovery. Through their work, the young artists have expressed their identities, shared their stories, and conveyed the aspects of their lives and society they treasure - or are concerned about.
This collection brings together diverse artistic youth voices from 28 ArtLink partner countries, transcending political systems and geographical boundaries. We believe that art is a universal language, uniting us through the shared experiences and dreams of its young creators, promoting a common humanity that will lead to a more peaceful future.
As you explore the exhibit, we invite you, the viewer, to reflect on your own story, your own journey, cultivating a deeper sense of empathy and appreciation for the multi-faceted tapestry of human experiences we are all part of. We hope to see you there!
-----
Creative Connections is a nonprofit in Norwalk, CT, dedicated to promoting global understanding and empathy through art-based exchanges between youth worldwide. We connect students in the U.S. with peers in other countries, encouraging cultural sharing and cross-cultural learning. We focus on fostering global citizenship and creative communication through programs like Global Voices - ArtLink, which highlights diverse perspectives and cultural storytelling.
Details:
The opening reception will be on 9/30 from 5:30-7:30pm
The exhibit will remain up until Spring 2025.
Where:New Canaan Library, New Canaan, CT
Please contact scanessa@creativeconnections.org with any questions.
Join us for "My Story Revealed", a global student art exhibit at the New Canaan Library.
The Gallery at GFC is proud to announce the opening of Jason Pritchard's latest show Riverbanks to Shorelines: The Art of Water's Path. The paintings in this exhibition feature the magical interplay between light and water along the coastline and within the communities that hug the shore. Jason captures water dancing, shimmering, or frozen as ice beneath cloud-filled New England skies. These gorgeously rendered works in oil are balm for the soul.
Riverbanks to Shorelines: The Art of Water’s Path
An Exhibition Like No Other!
This groundbreaking exhibition highlights ongoing, cutting-edge dinosaur research by American Museum of Natural History paleontologists and other leading scientists from around the world.
It explores how paleontologists today are using an incredible array of new technologies — from bioengineering computer software to CT scans — along with new discoveries and new ideas to investigate and reinterpret many of the most persistent and puzzling mysteries of dinosaurs, such as what they really looked like and how they actually moved and behaved, as well as the complex and hotly debated theories of why — or even whether — they became extinct.
Exhibition organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, in collaboration with the Houston Museum of Natural Science; the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco; The Field Museum, Chicago; and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh.
Made possible with generous support from GoHealth Urgent Care.
This exhibition is free for SM&NC Members, and included in the price of daily admission for visitors.
Exhibition on View: Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas
The Flinn Gallery is honored to launch its 2024-25 season with a unique solo exhibition, The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita. Curated by Leslee Asch, the exhibition displays Kumi Yamashita’s works of unconventional vision, versatility, and variety. The Opening Reception will be September 19 from 6-8pm.
Kumi Yamashita uses simple materials to yield surprising results. In describing her shadow work and the elusive qualities of light, she says, “I sculpt using both light and shadow. I construct single or multiple objects and place them in relation to a single light source. The complete artwork is therefore comprised of both the material (the solid objects) and the immaterial (the light or shadow.)”
In addition to Yamashita’s Light & Shadow series, the exhibition includes provocative portraits created by winding a single unbroken sewing thread around thousands of small galvanized nails.
Equally enticing is a piece of denim in which the threads have been systematically removed to create an enchanting portrait. Yamashita describes her process for this piece as, “Sometimes there is something beautiful about things falling apart. Undoing one thing while simultaneously creating another. Here I’ve taken fabric and pulled out bits and pieces of the lighter color thread to create the image.”
Yamashita’s work has been widely praised both nationally and internationally. Her solo shows include the Seattle Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Esplanade - Theaters on the Bay in Singapore as well as museums in Taiwan, China and Japan. She has been in numerous museum group shows, including the Louvre’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and San Francisco’s Exploratorium.
Yamashita’s work allows viewers to expand their understanding of the possibilities of the varied media she skillfully employs, and the breadth of her vision. Curator Leslee Asch adds, “The work must be seen in person to be appreciated; expect the unexpected.”
Kumi Yamashita lives and works in Woodstock, NY. She was born in Takasaki, Japan, and received her MFA from Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, and her BFA from Cornish College of Arts in Seattle, WA. Yamashita’s work can be found in impressive public collections such as Microsoft, American Express, Le Meridien, Shenyang, China; Tokyo’s Akiru Medical Center, and permanent collections at numerous museums.
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The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita opens with a reception
from 6-8pm on September 19.
The Flinn Gallery which is located on the second floor of the Greenwich Library,
101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT.
The show will run through November 6.
The Flinn Gallery is a non-profit organization sponsored by Friends of the Greenwich Library.
Gallery hours are Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm Thursday 10am-8pm, and Sunday 1-5pm.
Events:
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 19 from 6-8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, October 26 at 2pm
The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita
A very moving art exhibition featuring three extraordinary Connecticut Artists expressing the essence and effect of shadow, light, the subliminal mind and the human spirit.
THE DARK OF LIGHT
Eight area artists will be showcased in Wilton Library’s October art exhibition, “Resilience, Reflection, and Revelations.” The exhibition features the diverse works of women artists: Pam Ackley (Killingworth), Afsaneh Djabbari-Aslani (New Canaan), Alma Faham (Danbury), Cynthia Fazekas (Shelton), Mari Gyorgyey (Stamford), Katya Lebrija (Wilton), Pam Rouleau (Old Greenwich), and Nomi Silverman (Greenwich). They will exhibit their works in an array of styles, media choices, and subject matter, all portraying vibrant and varied types of resilience found in life and nature.
The opening reception on Friday, October 4 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. is free and open to the public. Exhibition runs through November 7. A majority of the works will be available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the library.
"Resilience, Reflection, and Revelations" Art Exhibition at Wilton Library
Elisa Contemporary Art is pleased to present a Solo exhibit of the Candy and Toy Mandala Photographs by Paula Brett. It is now open at the One River School in Westport. The exhibit will run from through November 27 at 833 Post Road East, Westport CT. Gallery hours are: Monday - Friday, 10am - 6pm and Saturday/Sunday 10am - 2pm.
Join us for a Reception on Saturday, November 23 from 2-4pm
From color-infused paintings to video self-portraits, Paula Brett’s body of work incorporates various combinations of media dealing with ideas such as created identity, coincidence, ritual, and transitory spaces.
The limited edition photographs are Mandalas made from pieces of Candy, Jewels, Toys, Cars and other favorites. According to Paula, “The mandala symbolizes the law of the universe and since man is also a microcosm of the universe, many cultures believe that the mandala also symbolizes the human soul. Mandalas serve as collection point for universal forces…My intention with these mandalas is to arrange everyday sweets and favorite objects into a pattern which becomes sacred, where delicious turns divine, the enticing now exquisite.”
Brett has exhibited work in New York, CT, Chicago, San Francisco, Budapest and Romania.
About One River School:
Founded in 2012 in Englewood, NJ, “one river” west of New York City, One River School has embarked on a mission to "transform art education"® in America. Today, their innovative program teaches thousands of students in fifteen locations across six states. We are thrilled to be working with One River Westport.
About Elisa Contemporary Art
Elisa Contemporary Art represents a portfolio of emerging through mid-career contemporary artists. Founded in 2007 by
Lisa Cooper, Elisa Contemporary Art is dedicated to promoting the appreciation and collection of art as a way to enrich
and heal our lives, our communities, and the world. The Riverdale NY Gallery opened in 2008. The Art Salon in Fairfield
CT opened in May 2017 (by appointment only). Elisa Contemporary Art has participated in international art fairs in New
York, Miami and the Hamptons and curated 40+ art exhibits in public/private spaces in the Tri-State.
For additional information, visit us at www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com or Instagram: @ElisaContemporary Art
Solo Exhibit of Candy and Toy Mandala Photographs by Paula Brett
The Carriage Barn Arts Center presents Edward Keating: A Fearless Legacy Photography Exhibition of the Pulitzer prize-winning photographer from New Canaan October 12 - November 13, 2024
This new exhibition highlights the late Pulitzer-prize winning photographer’s 40-year career, as well as his connection to New Canaan, CT. Curated with members of the photographer’s family, this first-ever retrospective features 80 photographs and additional archival materials that offer insight into Keating’s career and life as a photographer. The exhibition spans decades of his work and features editioned estate prints as well as rare and unique vintage silver gelatins printed by Keating that are available for sale.
Born in 1956 and raised in New Canaan, CT, Edward Keating moved to New York City in 1981 to become a photographer. He taught himself how to photograph by chronicling the street life of everyday New Yorkers.
Hired as a Staff Photographer at The New York Times in 1991, he covered national and international news. He was also a regular contributor to the Sunday New York Times Magazine. In addition, he co-founded the "Vows" wedding column. In 2002, Keating won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage on the attacks of 9/11. He additionally shared the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting with New York Times staff for the series, "How Race is Lived in America.” After leaving the Times in 2002, he became a regular contributor to New York Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine, Vanity Fair and Time.
From Kosovo to Crown Heights, Keating often put himself in the center of highly charged conflicts - ignoring the dangers -- to best capture the emotion, devastation and humanity with his camera. Keating’s camera stayed around his neck until the very end. At just 65 years of age, he passed away in September 2021, as a result of many months of long exposure to toxic material while covering 9/11 at Ground Zero.
The Carriage Barn Arts Center is located in New Canaan's Waveny Park, hours are Wednesday-Saturday 10am-3pm and Sunday 1-5pm. Visit carriagebarn.org for more information.
Edward Keating: A Fearless Legacy, Photography Exhibition at the Carriage Barn Arts Center
Heather Gaudio Fine Art is pleased to present Betsy Eby: Of This Natural World, her first solo exhibition at the gallery. The public is invited to attend an opening reception for the artist on September 26, 5-7pm, and the show will run through November 2nd.
Betsy Eby’s encaustic paintings are infused with a unique sensibility informed by the artist’s Pacific Northwest heritage, her concerns for nature and a lifelong classical piano practice. Using trowels, knives, brushes and heat, Eby pours and spreads hot and cold natural wax-based paint onto a wooden panel, layering gestures to create nuanced marks across the surface. The paintings in this exhibition are inspired by the wilderness of nature and the way in which the natural world serves as a tonic for the human spirit. Created in her Maine summer retreat, Eby’s new body of work captures the music and rhythms portrayed in nature: the lulling of waves, the fragrance of the sea air, resinous bay berries, blueberries, honey suckle in the breeze…. all have their own sound and melodies that speak to the artist. “There is musical accompaniment in nature,” the artist states.
Eby savors nature holistically, poetically depicting the essence of the verdant and granite landscape against the backdrop of a shimmering coastline, using abstraction to fuse that which animates her senses. Like notes shimmering on a page, the paintings are soft gestures akin to ascending scales, glissandos or arpeggiations within ambient-like sound beds. The marks on Ravel, glyphs fleeting across the surface within and through atmospheric grounds, came from listening to the composer in the background as she worked in the studio. Eby’s work synthesizes and distills all that surrounds her, intuitively harnessing and conveying her environment on the panel. Setting Eby’s new paintings apart from previous series are the grounds, which at first glance appear more neutral but are informed with a shifting color nuance. The artist finds herself with a more atuned sensory input of late, and this is evident in her most recent work.
“I make nature based, abstract paintings that convey the musical frequencies of an ecologically balanced, natural world unspoiled by human encroachment. They are meditations on undisrupted skies, habitats and oceans, calling attention to the natural rhythms of our environment and the elements and our interconnectedness within them.”
Eby received her B.A. from the University of Oregon and splits her time between her studios in Columbus, Georgia and Wheaton Island in Maine. She has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions and her work forms part of many important private, corporate and public collections including the Columbus Museum and the Georgia Museum of Art in Georgia; the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington; and the Art in Embassies in Gambia, Brunei, Dubai and Papua New Guinea.
Heather Gaudio Fine Art specializes in emerging and established artists, offering painting, works on paper, photography, and sculpture. The gallery provides a full range of art advisory services, from forming and maintaining a collection, to securing secondary market material, to assisting with framing and installation. The focus is on each individual client, selecting art that best serves his or her vision, space, and resources. The six exhibitions offered every year are designed to present important talent and provide artwork appealing to a broad range of interests. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday; 10:30am to 5:30pm; and by appointment.
Betsy Eby: Of This Natural World
Sacred Space, organized by guest curator Juanita Sunday, draws on the rich history of the Brandywine Workshop and Archives, founded in Philadelphia in 1972 by artist Allan Edmunds. As of 2023, FUAM is home to a Brandywine “satellite collection,” joining other institutions including Harvard Art Museums, RISD Museum, and the University of Delaware Museums. This exhibition features works from FUAM’s own collection as well as loans from Brandywine itself.
Sacred Space encourages a deep exploration of spiritual connection, inviting viewers to reflect on the ancestral wisdom and memory passed down through generations. The exhibition serves as a portal into the interconnected realms of spirituality, time, space, memory, and culture. The artists pay homage to their forebears, drawing upon cultural traditions, rituals, and sacred practices to honor and preserve, as well as question, the invaluable heritage that shapes our identities.
“My belief is that art is best as the articulation of spiritual ideas or transformative intention. It can be an agent of spiritual inspiration or personal and social transformation.” - Michael D. Harris
Image: Martin Payton, Portal, 1990, offset lithograph. Partial gift of the Brandywine Workshop and Archives and Museum Purchase with funds from the Black Art Fund, 2024 (2024.0601) © Martin Payton
Sacred Space: A Brandywine Workshop and Archives Print Exhibition
This exhibition presents a group of woodcuts, engravings, and etchings from the late 15th through late 18th centuries drawn from the Wetmore Collection at Connecticut College. The collection was assembled in the early 20th century by Fanny S. Wetmore, and bequeathed to the College in 1930. From familiar favorites like Dürer’s Adam and Eve and Rembrandt’s Three Trees to hidden gems like the gold-sprinkled surface of Maria Katharina Prestel’s Virtue Overcoming Vice, the show explores more than three centuries of artistic innovation on paper.
Although little is known of Wetmore herself, her collecting activities place her within a tradition dating back to the rise of printmaking in early modern Europe. The surging production of prints by the beginning of the 16th century represented a sea change for both artists and consumers. For artists, prints provided additional revenue, increased their personal fame, and offered greater latitude for experimentation outside the traditional patronage structure. For consumers, prints represented access to visual art on an unprecedented scale; even those who would never have been able to commission an independent work from a great artist could now readily obtain an engraving or an etching. Prints were easily transported, could be pasted up on walls or into albums, and even large collections of them took up relatively little room. And, with the rise of reproductive printmaking, even geographically distant or physically inaccessible artworks could be added to the collector’s “paper museum.”
This exhibition is the second in the Museum’s history to have been co-curated with Fairfield University students, and has been supported by generous funding from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Image: Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve, 1504, engraving
Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection
Join us on Wednesday, October 30 from 12-3pm for a hands-on workshop! Learn to design, carve, and print your own engraved prints , led by Master Printer Chris Shore (Center for Contemporary Printmaking). Supplies provided.
LIMITED TO 20 PARTICIPANTS due to space/supplies! You must RSVP to attend. FYE Thrive Credit eligible .
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection, on view through December 21 (click hereto learn more about the exhibition).
Image: Cornelis de Visscher, Sleeping Cat, 1657, engraving. Courtesy of the Wetmore Collection, Connecticut College
Workshop: Making Engraved Prints
On View October 16, 2024 – March 9, 2025
In preparation for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026, the Greenwich Historical Society presents a timely and dynamic exhibition that takes a fresh look at the impact of the Revolutionary War on our community.
The Revolution may have started in Massachusetts, but it soon spread to Connecticut, particularly Fairfield County and Greenwich, the gateway to Patriotic New England. With their safety and livelihood at risk, residents had to choose whether to support American Independence, to remain loyal to King George III or claim neutrality. This is the story of the people of Greenwich and their neighbors in Fairfield County, living, working, fighting, fleeing or dying on the front line of the Revolutionary War.
Original materials from the Revolution belonging to the Greenwich Historical Society, as well as other museums and archives, will be used to illustrate the impact of the War on our community.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of related programs and events
Greenwich During the Revolutionary War: A Frontier Town on the Front Line
Please join us for the opening reception of the Weston Library Photography Club photography exhibition opening reception.
Sunday, October 6th 1-3pm
Weston Public Library
56 Norfield Road, Weston, CT
If you cannot make the opening, please visit the exhibit during the Library open hours. Call to ensure the Community Room is open for visitors: 203-222-2665
Opening Reception- Photography Exhibition "A Closer Look"
Join Special Collections Librarian Cecily Dyer for an expansive talk illustrating the founding of Pequot Library. Dyer will explain the rise of the Marquand family, detailing how one woman, Virginia Marquand Monroe, used her family’s considerable wealth and goodwill to create an institution for the public’s benefit. Come prepared with any questions you might have about the library’s history.
Out of the Vault: The Founding of Pequot Library
Stand Together Against Racism (S.T.A.R), in partnership with The Glass House and the Carriage Barn Arts Center, is hosting its third annual "Through Your Looking Glass" student art showcase. This event celebrates how art, design, and architecture can promote social justice, inclusion, equity, and diversity.
Students of all ages from Fairfield County, CT, including college students, are invited to submit art that reflects a social justice topic that's important to them. (Check out the S.T.A.R website to see what other students have submitted.) We welcome all forms of art, such as paintings, drawings, photography, mixed media, sculpture, videos (including TikTok-style), or architectural designs.Art is due by November 9.
This showcase is not a competition—all student artwork will be displayed at the Carriage Barn Arts Center in New Canaan starting with an opening reception on Saturday, November 16. All artists, with their families and friends should plan to attend. The showcase will remain up for approximately two weeks.
Fill out the pre-registration form linked iin this post so we know you intend to submit! When your art is ready, you'll complete a separate release form.
Fairfield County Student Social Justice Art Showcase - Call for Submissions NOW - Opening Reception 11/16
Join us for a special CLOSING RECEPTION at The Townhouse Gallery in Stamford to celebrate our biggest exhibition of the year! The 44th Annual Faber Birren Color Show is a must-see. Admission is free. Come meet our juror, local artists, and enjoy light refreshments🍷!
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30TH
5:30-7PM
44th Annual Faber Birren National Color Show CLOSING RECEPTION
Join us to provide input and learn more about Stamford's next large-scale mural project!
The Stamford Arts & Culture Commission (SACC) has received a National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) Grant to create a Wall Mural that is a part of the newly built Stamford Transportation Center parking garage (located on North State Street). To execute this project, SACC is seeking an artist or team of artists to design and paint a mural that depicts/reflects Stamford’s landmarks and culture (e.g., parks, waterfronts, beaches, downtown, nature centers, public transportation) abstract art and/or rail transportation. Once completed, this Wall Mural will serve as a vibrant interactive community-serving corridor that both pedestrians and drivers will appreciate. Please view the RFP and required documents below.
NEW MURAL RFP: Artist and Community Information Session
Lecture: Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live: Witch Trials in Early New England
Date: October 30, 2024
Time: 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: Mill Hill Historic Park – Town House Museum, 2 East Wall St., Norwalk, CT
Speaker: Leslie Lindenauer, Professor & Author
Join the Norwalk Historical Society for an engaging evening on the history of witch trials in New England, led by renowned professor and author Leslie Lindenauer. Did you know that decades before the infamous Salem witch trials, many people were tried for witchcraft in Connecticut? This lecture will delve into these early trials and explore how the portrayal of witches and Salem itself has evolved over time.
- Purchase Tickets: Online: $15 – Purchase Here, At the door: $25
Light refreshments will be served.
For more information, contact us at info@norwalkhistoricalsociety.org or visit our website at norwalkhistoricalsociety.org.
Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to learn more about one of the darker chapters in New England’s history!
Discover the Untold History of New England Witch Trials – October 30th!
Westport Country Playhouse will open its 2024-25 Season with “The 39 Steps,” a fast-paced frenzy of espionage and murderous mayhem based on Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film, running from October 22 through November 9. Performance schedule is Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 and 7 p.m., Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. (No Wed. or Sat. matinees during preview week). Tickets start at $40.
The 39 Steps
Paranormal researcher and popular lecturer Dustin Pari returns to Fairfield Public Library to do a deep dive into "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," a Halloween TV classic. Pari focuses on the themes represented in the cartoon, some behind-the-scenes stories of the program's creation, and an analysis of the Peanuts characters themselves. Join us for this inspiring Halloween treat!
"It's a Great Lecture, Charlie Brown"
Join us as we interview Bram-Stoker Award Winning Author Tim Waggoner about his new book X: The Novel, an adaptation of the wildly popular X horror movie starring Mia Goth! All participants will be entered to win a signed copy of the book!
RSVP here: https://forms.office.com/r/feq4LGcMyV
Book description: In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas. But when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast find themselves fighting for their lives…
Tim Waggoner writes horror, dark fantasy, and media tie-ins, including Supernatural, Kingsman, and Resident Evil. He’s a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, a one-time winner of the Scribe Award, and a two-time finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award. Tim teaches creative writing and composition at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.
Virtual: X: The Novel: An Interview with Award Winning Author Tim Waggoner
Inspired Writers Series presented by the MFA Program
Sarah Schulman is not simply a powerful writer but also a sophisticated observer and practitioner of politics, a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist and historian whose work offers startling insights into contemporary culture and our opportunities for activism and political change. Her latest book, “Let the Record Show,” is a history of ACT UP New York, the late ‘80s and early ‘90s activist group that reshaped AIDS activism, and she will be in conversation with National Book Award-winning author and Fairfield professor Phil Klay to discuss writing and politics.
Sarah Schulman is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, nonfiction writer and AIDS historian. She holds an endowed chair in creative writing at Northwestern University and is on the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace.
Sarah Schulman
Curtain Call’s Theatre Arts Workshops: Back to School Means Back in Action!
For over 30 years, Stamford’s longest-running and only nonprofit, theatre-producing company has offered opportunities for kids grades K+, teens, and adults to ACT OUT with classes after school, evenings and weekends throughout the school year, AND full-day summer workshops! Our Fall 2024 Session of exciting lineup of classes for kids (grades K+), teens, and adults in acting, improv, musical theatre, dance, AND MORE begin September 16, 2024 and run for eight weeks. (See our website for details.) Scholarships, payment plans and sibling discounts. For questions, contact our Education Director, Brian Bianco at brian@curtaincallinc.com.
Curtain Call's Fall Drama Arts Classes for Kids, Teens & Adults
Sheffer Gallery
September 7 through December 10
Reception: Tuesday, September 10, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a keynote presentation by cartoonist and comics historian Brian Walker starting at 7 pm.)
Curated by Walker with help from the Library’s Exhibit Curator Carole Erger-Fass, Cartoon County: The Golden Age of Cartooning in Connecticut derives from Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection and aims to explore an important piece of local history. It will feature 40+ original cartoons by some of the area’s greats, including Dik Browne, Mel Casson, Stan Drake, John Cullen Murphy, Leonard Starr, Jack Tippit, Mort Walker, and more.
Proximity to major syndicates and publishers in New York City drew cartoonists to Fairfield County. Many worked at home in their studios, frequenting Max’s Art Supplies on the Post Road and seeking companionship with their professional peers at local spots: over a game of golf at Longshore, or at local restaurants like Mario’s Place, across from Westport’s train station.
Cullen Murphy, author and son of the cartoonist behind Prince Valiant and Big Ben Bolt, refers to the history of cartooning in Connecticut with fondness.
“For a period of about 50 years, right in the middle of the American Century, many of the nation’s top comic strip cartoonists, gag cartoonists, and magazine illustrators lived within a stone’s throw of one another in the southwestern corner of Connecticut,” he wrote in Cartoon County, “a bit of bohemia amid those men in their gray flannel suits.”
The Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection (Westpac) was conceived by local art teacher Bert Chernow, who began acquiring a diverse collection of artworks in 1964. Featuring many notable local artists, Westpac comprises more than 1,800 works in a broad range of media including paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, illustrations, cartoons, photographs, sculptures, and murals.
Westport cartoonist Mel Casson was instrumental in building Westpac’s Cartoon Collection, which includes more than 120 original comic strips, gag cartoons, editorial cartoons, and illustrations. Over the years, the Westpac collection has been displayed in schools and public buildings around town to educate and entertain residents.
This exhibit features many highlights from the collection, representing the major cartoon genres. The graphics on the walls are from Mort Walker’s 1980 book, The Lexicon of Comicana, which will be reissued by New York Review Books in 2025.
Special thanks to Westpac co-chairs Ive Covaci and Anne Boberski, and to the Drew Friedman Community Arts Center for their continued support.
Cartoon County: The Golden Age of Cartooning in Connecticut
Sheffer Gallery
September 7 through December 10
Reception: Tuesday, September 10, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a keynote presentation by cartoonist and comics historian Brian Walker starting at 7 pm.)
The State of Cartooning will display works by active members of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, including Greg, Brian, and Neal Walker, who carry the legacy of their father, Mort Walker, the creator of Beetle Bailey. Other featured artists include Ray Billingsley, Bob Englehart, Bill Janocha, Sean Kelly, Maria Scrivan, and more.
Founded in 1946, National Cartoonists Society (NCS) activities and events primarily took place in New York City until 1983, when the first Reuben Award Ceremony was held in Los Angeles. At that time, the NCS also began organizing a system of regional chapters for members to participate in. There are currently 23 chapters in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Brian Walker started the NCS Connecticut chapter in 1993, involving many remaining Golden Age cartoonists. Meetings were held at local restaurants, including the Silvermine Tavern, Cobbs Mill Inn, The Redding Roadhouse, and Red Barn. From 1994 to 2017, a special Legend Award was presented to 22 Connecticut Cartoonists at their annual fall dinner. Although membership has decreased as the older generation has passed on, the Connecticut chapter is still active. The State of Cartooning displays works by some of the current members of the NCS.
The State of Cartooning
Join us for "My Story Revealed", a global student art exhibit at the New Canaan Library!
“My Story Revealed" invites you on a visual journey through the heart of personal and cultural narratives. This exhibit honors the art of storytelling by showcasing the compelling and diverse experiences of some of the 8-18 year old students taking part in our international Global Voices - ArtLink exchanges over three decades.
Whether their pieces are beautifully rendered or simply drawn, delightful or thought provoking, the creation of these pieces has been a journey of self-discovery. Through their work, the young artists have expressed their identities, shared their stories, and conveyed the aspects of their lives and society they treasure - or are concerned about.
This collection brings together diverse artistic youth voices from 28 ArtLink partner countries, transcending political systems and geographical boundaries. We believe that art is a universal language, uniting us through the shared experiences and dreams of its young creators, promoting a common humanity that will lead to a more peaceful future.
As you explore the exhibit, we invite you, the viewer, to reflect on your own story, your own journey, cultivating a deeper sense of empathy and appreciation for the multi-faceted tapestry of human experiences we are all part of. We hope to see you there!
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Creative Connections is a nonprofit in Norwalk, CT, dedicated to promoting global understanding and empathy through art-based exchanges between youth worldwide. We connect students in the U.S. with peers in other countries, encouraging cultural sharing and cross-cultural learning. We focus on fostering global citizenship and creative communication through programs like Global Voices - ArtLink, which highlights diverse perspectives and cultural storytelling.
Details:
The opening reception will be on 9/30 from 5:30-7:30pm
The exhibit will remain up until Spring 2025.
Where:New Canaan Library, New Canaan, CT
Please contact scanessa@creativeconnections.org with any questions.
Join us for "My Story Revealed", a global student art exhibit at the New Canaan Library.
The Gallery at GFC is proud to announce the opening of Jason Pritchard's latest show Riverbanks to Shorelines: The Art of Water's Path. The paintings in this exhibition feature the magical interplay between light and water along the coastline and within the communities that hug the shore. Jason captures water dancing, shimmering, or frozen as ice beneath cloud-filled New England skies. These gorgeously rendered works in oil are balm for the soul.
Riverbanks to Shorelines: The Art of Water’s Path
An Exhibition Like No Other!
This groundbreaking exhibition highlights ongoing, cutting-edge dinosaur research by American Museum of Natural History paleontologists and other leading scientists from around the world.
It explores how paleontologists today are using an incredible array of new technologies — from bioengineering computer software to CT scans — along with new discoveries and new ideas to investigate and reinterpret many of the most persistent and puzzling mysteries of dinosaurs, such as what they really looked like and how they actually moved and behaved, as well as the complex and hotly debated theories of why — or even whether — they became extinct.
Exhibition organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, in collaboration with the Houston Museum of Natural Science; the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco; The Field Museum, Chicago; and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh.
Made possible with generous support from GoHealth Urgent Care.
This exhibition is free for SM&NC Members, and included in the price of daily admission for visitors.
Exhibition on View: Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas
The Flinn Gallery is honored to launch its 2024-25 season with a unique solo exhibition, The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita. Curated by Leslee Asch, the exhibition displays Kumi Yamashita’s works of unconventional vision, versatility, and variety. The Opening Reception will be September 19 from 6-8pm.
Kumi Yamashita uses simple materials to yield surprising results. In describing her shadow work and the elusive qualities of light, she says, “I sculpt using both light and shadow. I construct single or multiple objects and place them in relation to a single light source. The complete artwork is therefore comprised of both the material (the solid objects) and the immaterial (the light or shadow.)”
In addition to Yamashita’s Light & Shadow series, the exhibition includes provocative portraits created by winding a single unbroken sewing thread around thousands of small galvanized nails.
Equally enticing is a piece of denim in which the threads have been systematically removed to create an enchanting portrait. Yamashita describes her process for this piece as, “Sometimes there is something beautiful about things falling apart. Undoing one thing while simultaneously creating another. Here I’ve taken fabric and pulled out bits and pieces of the lighter color thread to create the image.”
Yamashita’s work has been widely praised both nationally and internationally. Her solo shows include the Seattle Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Esplanade - Theaters on the Bay in Singapore as well as museums in Taiwan, China and Japan. She has been in numerous museum group shows, including the Louvre’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and San Francisco’s Exploratorium.
Yamashita’s work allows viewers to expand their understanding of the possibilities of the varied media she skillfully employs, and the breadth of her vision. Curator Leslee Asch adds, “The work must be seen in person to be appreciated; expect the unexpected.”
Kumi Yamashita lives and works in Woodstock, NY. She was born in Takasaki, Japan, and received her MFA from Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, and her BFA from Cornish College of Arts in Seattle, WA. Yamashita’s work can be found in impressive public collections such as Microsoft, American Express, Le Meridien, Shenyang, China; Tokyo’s Akiru Medical Center, and permanent collections at numerous museums.
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The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita opens with a reception
from 6-8pm on September 19.
The Flinn Gallery which is located on the second floor of the Greenwich Library,
101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT.
The show will run through November 6.
The Flinn Gallery is a non-profit organization sponsored by Friends of the Greenwich Library.
Gallery hours are Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm Thursday 10am-8pm, and Sunday 1-5pm.
Events:
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 19 from 6-8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, October 26 at 2pm
The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita
A very moving art exhibition featuring three extraordinary Connecticut Artists expressing the essence and effect of shadow, light, the subliminal mind and the human spirit.
THE DARK OF LIGHT
Eight area artists will be showcased in Wilton Library’s October art exhibition, “Resilience, Reflection, and Revelations.” The exhibition features the diverse works of women artists: Pam Ackley (Killingworth), Afsaneh Djabbari-Aslani (New Canaan), Alma Faham (Danbury), Cynthia Fazekas (Shelton), Mari Gyorgyey (Stamford), Katya Lebrija (Wilton), Pam Rouleau (Old Greenwich), and Nomi Silverman (Greenwich). They will exhibit their works in an array of styles, media choices, and subject matter, all portraying vibrant and varied types of resilience found in life and nature.
The opening reception on Friday, October 4 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. is free and open to the public. Exhibition runs through November 7. A majority of the works will be available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the library.
"Resilience, Reflection, and Revelations" Art Exhibition at Wilton Library
Elisa Contemporary Art is pleased to present a Solo exhibit of the Candy and Toy Mandala Photographs by Paula Brett. It is now open at the One River School in Westport. The exhibit will run from through November 27 at 833 Post Road East, Westport CT. Gallery hours are: Monday - Friday, 10am - 6pm and Saturday/Sunday 10am - 2pm.
Join us for a Reception on Saturday, November 23 from 2-4pm
From color-infused paintings to video self-portraits, Paula Brett’s body of work incorporates various combinations of media dealing with ideas such as created identity, coincidence, ritual, and transitory spaces.
The limited edition photographs are Mandalas made from pieces of Candy, Jewels, Toys, Cars and other favorites. According to Paula, “The mandala symbolizes the law of the universe and since man is also a microcosm of the universe, many cultures believe that the mandala also symbolizes the human soul. Mandalas serve as collection point for universal forces…My intention with these mandalas is to arrange everyday sweets and favorite objects into a pattern which becomes sacred, where delicious turns divine, the enticing now exquisite.”
Brett has exhibited work in New York, CT, Chicago, San Francisco, Budapest and Romania.
About One River School:
Founded in 2012 in Englewood, NJ, “one river” west of New York City, One River School has embarked on a mission to "transform art education"® in America. Today, their innovative program teaches thousands of students in fifteen locations across six states. We are thrilled to be working with One River Westport.
About Elisa Contemporary Art
Elisa Contemporary Art represents a portfolio of emerging through mid-career contemporary artists. Founded in 2007 by
Lisa Cooper, Elisa Contemporary Art is dedicated to promoting the appreciation and collection of art as a way to enrich
and heal our lives, our communities, and the world. The Riverdale NY Gallery opened in 2008. The Art Salon in Fairfield
CT opened in May 2017 (by appointment only). Elisa Contemporary Art has participated in international art fairs in New
York, Miami and the Hamptons and curated 40+ art exhibits in public/private spaces in the Tri-State.
For additional information, visit us at www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com or Instagram: @ElisaContemporary Art
Solo Exhibit of Candy and Toy Mandala Photographs by Paula Brett
The Carriage Barn Arts Center presents Edward Keating: A Fearless Legacy Photography Exhibition of the Pulitzer prize-winning photographer from New Canaan October 12 - November 13, 2024
This new exhibition highlights the late Pulitzer-prize winning photographer’s 40-year career, as well as his connection to New Canaan, CT. Curated with members of the photographer’s family, this first-ever retrospective features 80 photographs and additional archival materials that offer insight into Keating’s career and life as a photographer. The exhibition spans decades of his work and features editioned estate prints as well as rare and unique vintage silver gelatins printed by Keating that are available for sale.
Born in 1956 and raised in New Canaan, CT, Edward Keating moved to New York City in 1981 to become a photographer. He taught himself how to photograph by chronicling the street life of everyday New Yorkers.
Hired as a Staff Photographer at The New York Times in 1991, he covered national and international news. He was also a regular contributor to the Sunday New York Times Magazine. In addition, he co-founded the "Vows" wedding column. In 2002, Keating won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage on the attacks of 9/11. He additionally shared the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting with New York Times staff for the series, "How Race is Lived in America.” After leaving the Times in 2002, he became a regular contributor to New York Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine, Vanity Fair and Time.
From Kosovo to Crown Heights, Keating often put himself in the center of highly charged conflicts - ignoring the dangers -- to best capture the emotion, devastation and humanity with his camera. Keating’s camera stayed around his neck until the very end. At just 65 years of age, he passed away in September 2021, as a result of many months of long exposure to toxic material while covering 9/11 at Ground Zero.
The Carriage Barn Arts Center is located in New Canaan's Waveny Park, hours are Wednesday-Saturday 10am-3pm and Sunday 1-5pm. Visit carriagebarn.org for more information.
Edward Keating: A Fearless Legacy, Photography Exhibition at the Carriage Barn Arts Center
The Downtown Bridgeport Farmers Market will begin its 2024 season on Thursday, July 11, at McLevy Green and will be open every Thursday from 10:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. through October 31, 2024.
VENDORS
Shoppers can expect to find the following vendors every week, along with special appearances by others who will drop in on occasion.
Farmers + Food
Blissful Awakening’s Urban Regenerative Farm, Bridgeport, CT
Killam & Bassette Farmstead, South Glastonbury, CT
Smith’s Acres Farm, Niantic, CT
Betzy’s Latin Cuisine, Bridgeport, CT
Natural Juices, Bridgeport, CT
Artisan Crafts
Love Is Beauty, Bridgeport, CT
Parker’s Pampering, Bridgeport, CT
Rico Suave Accessories, Bridgeport, CT
Skeletons In My Closet Vintage, Bridgeport, CT
Information Providers
American Jobs Center, Bridgeport, CT
Bridgeport Public Library, Bridgeport, CT
CTRides and Greater Bridgeport Transit
Liberation Programs, Bridgeport, CT
Travelers on a Mission, Bridgeport, CT
WEBE 108 FM, Milford, CT
Special guests depending on the week will include Access Independence, Boys and Girls Village, cARTie, Food Rescue US, Preserve Remington Woods, and Recovery Network of Programs.
BRIDGEPORT BUCKS PROGRAM
In an effort to make healthy food more accessible to Bridgeport residents, the DSSD has partnered with the Bridgeport Farmers Market Collaborative to offer the Bridgeport Bucks Program. Bridgeport Bucks is a coupon that can be used to purchase fruit and vegetables at any one of the Bridgeport farmers markets. Businesses, community-based organizations, and nonprofit organizations purchase Bridgeport Bucks as incentives or rewards to provide to clients, employees, or community groups. For more information, visit the Bridgeport Farmers Market Collaborative website: https://bridgeportfarmersmarkets.org/.
SNAP MATCHING PROGRAM
The Bridgeport DSSD has also partnered with the Bridgeport Farmers Market Collaborative to accept SNAP/EBT, WIC, Farmers Market Nutrition Program checks (for WIC and Senior recipients), and Bridgeport Bucks along with cash, credit, and debit at the Downtown Bridgeport Farmers Market. The market operates an incentive matching program so that for every $1 in SNAP, WIC, or Senior FMNP funds spent at the market, the customer can purchase $2 in fresh fruits and vegetables.
For more information about vendors, visit: colorfulbridgeport.com/downtown-market. Follow the market on Instagram and Facebook at @colorfulbridgeport.
Downtown Bridgeport Farmers Market
Heather Gaudio Fine Art is pleased to present Betsy Eby: Of This Natural World, her first solo exhibition at the gallery. The public is invited to attend an opening reception for the artist on September 26, 5-7pm, and the show will run through November 2nd.
Betsy Eby’s encaustic paintings are infused with a unique sensibility informed by the artist’s Pacific Northwest heritage, her concerns for nature and a lifelong classical piano practice. Using trowels, knives, brushes and heat, Eby pours and spreads hot and cold natural wax-based paint onto a wooden panel, layering gestures to create nuanced marks across the surface. The paintings in this exhibition are inspired by the wilderness of nature and the way in which the natural world serves as a tonic for the human spirit. Created in her Maine summer retreat, Eby’s new body of work captures the music and rhythms portrayed in nature: the lulling of waves, the fragrance of the sea air, resinous bay berries, blueberries, honey suckle in the breeze…. all have their own sound and melodies that speak to the artist. “There is musical accompaniment in nature,” the artist states.
Eby savors nature holistically, poetically depicting the essence of the verdant and granite landscape against the backdrop of a shimmering coastline, using abstraction to fuse that which animates her senses. Like notes shimmering on a page, the paintings are soft gestures akin to ascending scales, glissandos or arpeggiations within ambient-like sound beds. The marks on Ravel, glyphs fleeting across the surface within and through atmospheric grounds, came from listening to the composer in the background as she worked in the studio. Eby’s work synthesizes and distills all that surrounds her, intuitively harnessing and conveying her environment on the panel. Setting Eby’s new paintings apart from previous series are the grounds, which at first glance appear more neutral but are informed with a shifting color nuance. The artist finds herself with a more atuned sensory input of late, and this is evident in her most recent work.
“I make nature based, abstract paintings that convey the musical frequencies of an ecologically balanced, natural world unspoiled by human encroachment. They are meditations on undisrupted skies, habitats and oceans, calling attention to the natural rhythms of our environment and the elements and our interconnectedness within them.”
Eby received her B.A. from the University of Oregon and splits her time between her studios in Columbus, Georgia and Wheaton Island in Maine. She has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions and her work forms part of many important private, corporate and public collections including the Columbus Museum and the Georgia Museum of Art in Georgia; the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington; and the Art in Embassies in Gambia, Brunei, Dubai and Papua New Guinea.
Heather Gaudio Fine Art specializes in emerging and established artists, offering painting, works on paper, photography, and sculpture. The gallery provides a full range of art advisory services, from forming and maintaining a collection, to securing secondary market material, to assisting with framing and installation. The focus is on each individual client, selecting art that best serves his or her vision, space, and resources. The six exhibitions offered every year are designed to present important talent and provide artwork appealing to a broad range of interests. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday; 10:30am to 5:30pm; and by appointment.
Betsy Eby: Of This Natural World
Sacred Space, organized by guest curator Juanita Sunday, draws on the rich history of the Brandywine Workshop and Archives, founded in Philadelphia in 1972 by artist Allan Edmunds. As of 2023, FUAM is home to a Brandywine “satellite collection,” joining other institutions including Harvard Art Museums, RISD Museum, and the University of Delaware Museums. This exhibition features works from FUAM’s own collection as well as loans from Brandywine itself.
Sacred Space encourages a deep exploration of spiritual connection, inviting viewers to reflect on the ancestral wisdom and memory passed down through generations. The exhibition serves as a portal into the interconnected realms of spirituality, time, space, memory, and culture. The artists pay homage to their forebears, drawing upon cultural traditions, rituals, and sacred practices to honor and preserve, as well as question, the invaluable heritage that shapes our identities.
“My belief is that art is best as the articulation of spiritual ideas or transformative intention. It can be an agent of spiritual inspiration or personal and social transformation.” - Michael D. Harris
Image: Martin Payton, Portal, 1990, offset lithograph. Partial gift of the Brandywine Workshop and Archives and Museum Purchase with funds from the Black Art Fund, 2024 (2024.0601) © Martin Payton
Sacred Space: A Brandywine Workshop and Archives Print Exhibition
This exhibition presents a group of woodcuts, engravings, and etchings from the late 15th through late 18th centuries drawn from the Wetmore Collection at Connecticut College. The collection was assembled in the early 20th century by Fanny S. Wetmore, and bequeathed to the College in 1930. From familiar favorites like Dürer’s Adam and Eve and Rembrandt’s Three Trees to hidden gems like the gold-sprinkled surface of Maria Katharina Prestel’s Virtue Overcoming Vice, the show explores more than three centuries of artistic innovation on paper.
Although little is known of Wetmore herself, her collecting activities place her within a tradition dating back to the rise of printmaking in early modern Europe. The surging production of prints by the beginning of the 16th century represented a sea change for both artists and consumers. For artists, prints provided additional revenue, increased their personal fame, and offered greater latitude for experimentation outside the traditional patronage structure. For consumers, prints represented access to visual art on an unprecedented scale; even those who would never have been able to commission an independent work from a great artist could now readily obtain an engraving or an etching. Prints were easily transported, could be pasted up on walls or into albums, and even large collections of them took up relatively little room. And, with the rise of reproductive printmaking, even geographically distant or physically inaccessible artworks could be added to the collector’s “paper museum.”
This exhibition is the second in the Museum’s history to have been co-curated with Fairfield University students, and has been supported by generous funding from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Image: Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve, 1504, engraving
Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection
On View October 16, 2024 – March 9, 2025
In preparation for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026, the Greenwich Historical Society presents a timely and dynamic exhibition that takes a fresh look at the impact of the Revolutionary War on our community.
The Revolution may have started in Massachusetts, but it soon spread to Connecticut, particularly Fairfield County and Greenwich, the gateway to Patriotic New England. With their safety and livelihood at risk, residents had to choose whether to support American Independence, to remain loyal to King George III or claim neutrality. This is the story of the people of Greenwich and their neighbors in Fairfield County, living, working, fighting, fleeing or dying on the front line of the Revolutionary War.
Original materials from the Revolution belonging to the Greenwich Historical Society, as well as other museums and archives, will be used to illustrate the impact of the War on our community.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of related programs and events
Greenwich During the Revolutionary War: A Frontier Town on the Front Line
Please join us for the opening reception of the Weston Library Photography Club photography exhibition opening reception.
Sunday, October 6th 1-3pm
Weston Public Library
56 Norfield Road, Weston, CT
If you cannot make the opening, please visit the exhibit during the Library open hours. Call to ensure the Community Room is open for visitors: 203-222-2665
Opening Reception- Photography Exhibition "A Closer Look"
Stamford History Center takes you on a time traveling adventure back to the Gilded Age to learn about Stamford's entrepreneurs, movers, shakers, and industrialists. You will recognize some well-known Stamford landmarks including Yale & Towne Factory and the Blickensderfer Typewriter Factory. On September 22nd, Executive Director Dr. Zoubek kicks off the afternoon with opening remarks on a glorious time in history. Experience the lives of the elegant and fashionable people of the Gilded Age through our exciting collection of art, clothing, photographs, documents, home furnishings and other artifacts.
Admission $10 for non-members
SHC Members Free Admission
How the Upper Crust Lived: The Gilded Age in Stamford 1865-1905
Stand Together Against Racism (S.T.A.R), in partnership with The Glass House and the Carriage Barn Arts Center, is hosting its third annual "Through Your Looking Glass" student art showcase. This event celebrates how art, design, and architecture can promote social justice, inclusion, equity, and diversity.
Students of all ages from Fairfield County, CT, including college students, are invited to submit art that reflects a social justice topic that's important to them. (Check out the S.T.A.R website to see what other students have submitted.) We welcome all forms of art, such as paintings, drawings, photography, mixed media, sculpture, videos (including TikTok-style), or architectural designs.Art is due by November 9.
This showcase is not a competition—all student artwork will be displayed at the Carriage Barn Arts Center in New Canaan starting with an opening reception on Saturday, November 16. All artists, with their families and friends should plan to attend. The showcase will remain up for approximately two weeks.
Fill out the pre-registration form linked iin this post so we know you intend to submit! When your art is ready, you'll complete a separate release form.
Fairfield County Student Social Justice Art Showcase - Call for Submissions NOW - Opening Reception 11/16
Free for all MoCA members; $10 admission for non-members; $8 admission for seniors and students
MoCA CT is excited to introduce ColleCTomania, an exhilarating exhibition displaying over 140 Swiss posters from the renowned collector Tom Strong. Strong is a New Haven, Connecticut-based graphic designer, photographer and collector who has spent sixty years amassing, displaying, sharing, and living amongst his archive. The exhibition, curated by Pamela Hovland and Karen Salsgiver, includes a widely diverse range of posters from the 1930s to the present.
Switzerland’s design culture has had a significant influence on the discipline of graphic design. Swiss posters in particular, especially those designed during the 1950s and 60s, have attained iconic status and are part of design education in schools across the globe. Created at uniform scale to be displayed in the streets of Zurich, Lucerne and Basel, these posters are now highly collectible, preserved in the archives of major museums and reproduced in art and design books.
Yale University’s graphic design program, the first in this country, was critical in disseminating the work and ideas of Swiss designers. Several influential practitioners were invited to New Haven to teach courses and workshops to students, including Tom Strong, eager to experiment with typography, form and craft. When Yale’s design graduates scattered around Connecticut and the country as both practicing and teaching designers, the visual language and ideology of the ‘Swiss International Style’ spread far and wide.
The poster as a large, public, graphic form has held its prominent place throughout the history of design. Tom Strong’s vast collection of Swiss posters, accumulated over six decades, spans the mid-century to today. His archive includes diverse and boundary-breaking visual strategies employed through inventive uses of type and typography, image-making, layering and collage. The posters illustrate myriad expressions in style, subject matter and ever-evolving technologies. Strong’s posters showcase both the outsized influence of Swiss design as well as the contemporary experimentation that builds on that legacy. Seeing the posters fill the gallery walls is pure visual delight.
“Why do I continue to collect Swiss posters? I guess you like Beethoven and then Stravinsky comes along with different principles, blows your head off. And then you go further, and you find more composers who you never knew anything about. The body and the brain and the ear are accustomed to surprise and difference and beauty. Other than that, I can’t defend it or describe it. These posters have power. You can’t deny it.”- Tom Strong
About the Collector, Tom Strong:
Thomas Strong was born in 1938 in Hanover, New Hampshire. He graduated from Dartmouth College and served with the U.S. Army Security Agency in Germany and Turkey. In 1967, Tom received an MFA from the Yale School of Art and Architecture and later started the graphic design firm Strong Cohen with his co-founder, Marjorie Cohen. The firm focuses on the design of signage for architectural applications, primarily for colleges and universities. When Tom isn’t busy designing or installing signs across New Haven, he dedicates his time to revitalizing the neighborhood where he works, a commitment he’s upheld for the past two decades. As a board member of the Chapel West district, he plays a key role in its development. Beyond his civic involvement, Tom has cultivated a diverse collection, including Swiss posters, HO scale model trains, Braun products, National Park Service folders, and iconic posters from Yale and Otl Aicher’s 1972 Olympics.
About the Curators:
Pamela Hovland is a Wilton-based designer, educator, writer and visual activist. She has worked extensively in the areas of identity, print communications, signage and screen-based design for corporations, nonprofit organizations, cultural institutions and individuals. Her work has been recognized by multiple organizations and publications and included in regional, national and international exhibitions. Pamela received an MFA from Yale University where she is a Senior Critic in graphic design. She is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and a founding member of Class Action Collective, the art collective that uses design to effect social change.
Karen Salsgiver is the principal strategist and designer of the Westport-based graphic design firm Salsgiver Coveney Associates. For over four decades the studio has created design programs and communication solutions that tell the authentic story of a diverse range of corporate, educational and cultural institutions. The firm’s award-winning work has been published in multiple design books and publications. Karen earned a BS in Design and Environmental Analysis from Cornell University and an MFA from Yale University.
ColleCTomania : MoCA CT
The Greenwich Art Society is offering:
FIGURE DRAWING IN THE STUDIO
8 THURSDAYS
Sept. 19 – Nov. 14 (Except Oct. 24)
5:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Life Drawing in the Studio with Nomi Silverman
Learn the human figure’s structure while drawing a figure from observation. Working from the model, emphasis on gesture, balance and proportion will be stressed in order to develop believable form. Students should leave this class with a better understanding of the figure’s key anatomical landmarks while forming a sense of expressive gesture.
Nomi Silverman attended the High School of Art and Design and Barnard College. She also studied with Daniel Greene, David Leffel, Gustav Rheiberger, Harvey Dinnerstein, Ron Sherr, George Nama, Bob Blackburn, Burt Silverman, and Michael Mazur. She has had solo shows at The Fairfield Arts Center, A-Space Gallery in New Haven, CT, The Housatonic Museum in Bridgeport, CT, The Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk CT, A Shenere Velt Gallery in Los Angeles, CA, the Silvermine Guild of Art in New Canaan, CT, and the Greenwich Arts Center Gallery in Greenwich, CT, amongst others. She has also shown in many group shows including the Print Triennial, Politically Speaking, Contemporary American Printmaking at the William Patterson University, and National Drawing, at the College of NJ. She has won many awards and received a grant from the Puffin Foundation and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and received a fellowship to Duke University. Selected articles, reviews and books include The New York Times, The Stamford Advocate, the LA Times, The Philadelphia Weekly, Venu Magazine and “Strokes of Genus 3” by North Light Books. Her work is in the collection of the New York Public Library, The Slater Memorial Museum, The William Benton Museum of Art, The Library of Congress, The Mattatuck Museum, the Boston Public Library, The Housatonic Museum of Art, The Hunterdon Museum of Art and numerous national and international collections.
Greenwich Art Society, 299 Greenwich Ave, Greenwich CT
203.629.1533
For more information, supply list or online registration visit
The Greenwich Art Society is offering FIGURE DRAWING IN THE STUDIO with NOMI SILVERMAN
Westport Country Playhouse will open its 2024-25 Season with “The 39 Steps,” a fast-paced frenzy of espionage and murderous mayhem based on Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film, running from October 22 through November 9. Performance schedule is Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 and 7 p.m., Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. (No Wed. or Sat. matinees during preview week). Tickets start at $40.
The 39 Steps
David Sneider is a jazz trumpet player, composer and teacher who is a graduate of the Juilliard School. He is the First place winner of both the 2021 Carmine Caruso Competition and the 2019 National Trumpet Competition. The son of a jazz trumpet player and an opera singer, Sneider has been immersed in the New York music scene his whole life. He is a frequent sideman for Dom Salvador, Ulysses Owens and Larry Goldings. Other notable musicians he has shared the stage with include Jerry Weldon, Grant Stewart and Evan Sherman. In 2023, David and his father, John Sneider, co-released an album on Cellar Live entitled "Sneid Remarks", which features their original compositions.
David Sneider, trumpet with:
David Zaks, piano
Dan Finn, bass
Mike Camacho, drums
Greg Wall, saxes
Dave Sneider Headlines Jazz at the Post
Sheffer Gallery
September 7 through December 10
Reception: Tuesday, September 10, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a keynote presentation by cartoonist and comics historian Brian Walker starting at 7 pm.)
Curated by Walker with help from the Library’s Exhibit Curator Carole Erger-Fass, Cartoon County: The Golden Age of Cartooning in Connecticut derives from Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection and aims to explore an important piece of local history. It will feature 40+ original cartoons by some of the area’s greats, including Dik Browne, Mel Casson, Stan Drake, John Cullen Murphy, Leonard Starr, Jack Tippit, Mort Walker, and more.
Proximity to major syndicates and publishers in New York City drew cartoonists to Fairfield County. Many worked at home in their studios, frequenting Max’s Art Supplies on the Post Road and seeking companionship with their professional peers at local spots: over a game of golf at Longshore, or at local restaurants like Mario’s Place, across from Westport’s train station.
Cullen Murphy, author and son of the cartoonist behind Prince Valiant and Big Ben Bolt, refers to the history of cartooning in Connecticut with fondness.
“For a period of about 50 years, right in the middle of the American Century, many of the nation’s top comic strip cartoonists, gag cartoonists, and magazine illustrators lived within a stone’s throw of one another in the southwestern corner of Connecticut,” he wrote in Cartoon County, “a bit of bohemia amid those men in their gray flannel suits.”
The Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection (Westpac) was conceived by local art teacher Bert Chernow, who began acquiring a diverse collection of artworks in 1964. Featuring many notable local artists, Westpac comprises more than 1,800 works in a broad range of media including paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, illustrations, cartoons, photographs, sculptures, and murals.
Westport cartoonist Mel Casson was instrumental in building Westpac’s Cartoon Collection, which includes more than 120 original comic strips, gag cartoons, editorial cartoons, and illustrations. Over the years, the Westpac collection has been displayed in schools and public buildings around town to educate and entertain residents.
This exhibit features many highlights from the collection, representing the major cartoon genres. The graphics on the walls are from Mort Walker’s 1980 book, The Lexicon of Comicana, which will be reissued by New York Review Books in 2025.
Special thanks to Westpac co-chairs Ive Covaci and Anne Boberski, and to the Drew Friedman Community Arts Center for their continued support.
Cartoon County: The Golden Age of Cartooning in Connecticut
Sheffer Gallery
September 7 through December 10
Reception: Tuesday, September 10, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a keynote presentation by cartoonist and comics historian Brian Walker starting at 7 pm.)
The State of Cartooning will display works by active members of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, including Greg, Brian, and Neal Walker, who carry the legacy of their father, Mort Walker, the creator of Beetle Bailey. Other featured artists include Ray Billingsley, Bob Englehart, Bill Janocha, Sean Kelly, Maria Scrivan, and more.
Founded in 1946, National Cartoonists Society (NCS) activities and events primarily took place in New York City until 1983, when the first Reuben Award Ceremony was held in Los Angeles. At that time, the NCS also began organizing a system of regional chapters for members to participate in. There are currently 23 chapters in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Brian Walker started the NCS Connecticut chapter in 1993, involving many remaining Golden Age cartoonists. Meetings were held at local restaurants, including the Silvermine Tavern, Cobbs Mill Inn, The Redding Roadhouse, and Red Barn. From 1994 to 2017, a special Legend Award was presented to 22 Connecticut Cartoonists at their annual fall dinner. Although membership has decreased as the older generation has passed on, the Connecticut chapter is still active. The State of Cartooning displays works by some of the current members of the NCS.
The State of Cartooning
The Gallery at GFC is proud to announce the opening of Jason Pritchard's latest show Riverbanks to Shorelines: The Art of Water's Path. The paintings in this exhibition feature the magical interplay between light and water along the coastline and within the communities that hug the shore. Jason captures water dancing, shimmering, or frozen as ice beneath cloud-filled New England skies. These gorgeously rendered works in oil are balm for the soul.
Riverbanks to Shorelines: The Art of Water’s Path
Join us for "My Story Revealed", a global student art exhibit at the New Canaan Library!
“My Story Revealed" invites you on a visual journey through the heart of personal and cultural narratives. This exhibit honors the art of storytelling by showcasing the compelling and diverse experiences of some of the 8-18 year old students taking part in our international Global Voices - ArtLink exchanges over three decades.
Whether their pieces are beautifully rendered or simply drawn, delightful or thought provoking, the creation of these pieces has been a journey of self-discovery. Through their work, the young artists have expressed their identities, shared their stories, and conveyed the aspects of their lives and society they treasure - or are concerned about.
This collection brings together diverse artistic youth voices from 28 ArtLink partner countries, transcending political systems and geographical boundaries. We believe that art is a universal language, uniting us through the shared experiences and dreams of its young creators, promoting a common humanity that will lead to a more peaceful future.
As you explore the exhibit, we invite you, the viewer, to reflect on your own story, your own journey, cultivating a deeper sense of empathy and appreciation for the multi-faceted tapestry of human experiences we are all part of. We hope to see you there!
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Creative Connections is a nonprofit in Norwalk, CT, dedicated to promoting global understanding and empathy through art-based exchanges between youth worldwide. We connect students in the U.S. with peers in other countries, encouraging cultural sharing and cross-cultural learning. We focus on fostering global citizenship and creative communication through programs like Global Voices - ArtLink, which highlights diverse perspectives and cultural storytelling.
Details:
The opening reception will be on 9/30 from 5:30-7:30pm
The exhibit will remain up until Spring 2025.
Where:New Canaan Library, New Canaan, CT
Please contact scanessa@creativeconnections.org with any questions.
Join us for "My Story Revealed", a global student art exhibit at the New Canaan Library.
An Exhibition Like No Other!
This groundbreaking exhibition highlights ongoing, cutting-edge dinosaur research by American Museum of Natural History paleontologists and other leading scientists from around the world.
It explores how paleontologists today are using an incredible array of new technologies — from bioengineering computer software to CT scans — along with new discoveries and new ideas to investigate and reinterpret many of the most persistent and puzzling mysteries of dinosaurs, such as what they really looked like and how they actually moved and behaved, as well as the complex and hotly debated theories of why — or even whether — they became extinct.
Exhibition organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, in collaboration with the Houston Museum of Natural Science; the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco; The Field Museum, Chicago; and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh.
Made possible with generous support from GoHealth Urgent Care.
This exhibition is free for SM&NC Members, and included in the price of daily admission for visitors.
Exhibition on View: Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas
The Flinn Gallery is honored to launch its 2024-25 season with a unique solo exhibition, The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita. Curated by Leslee Asch, the exhibition displays Kumi Yamashita’s works of unconventional vision, versatility, and variety. The Opening Reception will be September 19 from 6-8pm.
Kumi Yamashita uses simple materials to yield surprising results. In describing her shadow work and the elusive qualities of light, she says, “I sculpt using both light and shadow. I construct single or multiple objects and place them in relation to a single light source. The complete artwork is therefore comprised of both the material (the solid objects) and the immaterial (the light or shadow.)”
In addition to Yamashita’s Light & Shadow series, the exhibition includes provocative portraits created by winding a single unbroken sewing thread around thousands of small galvanized nails.
Equally enticing is a piece of denim in which the threads have been systematically removed to create an enchanting portrait. Yamashita describes her process for this piece as, “Sometimes there is something beautiful about things falling apart. Undoing one thing while simultaneously creating another. Here I’ve taken fabric and pulled out bits and pieces of the lighter color thread to create the image.”
Yamashita’s work has been widely praised both nationally and internationally. Her solo shows include the Seattle Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Esplanade - Theaters on the Bay in Singapore as well as museums in Taiwan, China and Japan. She has been in numerous museum group shows, including the Louvre’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and San Francisco’s Exploratorium.
Yamashita’s work allows viewers to expand their understanding of the possibilities of the varied media she skillfully employs, and the breadth of her vision. Curator Leslee Asch adds, “The work must be seen in person to be appreciated; expect the unexpected.”
Kumi Yamashita lives and works in Woodstock, NY. She was born in Takasaki, Japan, and received her MFA from Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, and her BFA from Cornish College of Arts in Seattle, WA. Yamashita’s work can be found in impressive public collections such as Microsoft, American Express, Le Meridien, Shenyang, China; Tokyo’s Akiru Medical Center, and permanent collections at numerous museums.
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The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita opens with a reception
from 6-8pm on September 19.
The Flinn Gallery which is located on the second floor of the Greenwich Library,
101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT.
The show will run through November 6.
The Flinn Gallery is a non-profit organization sponsored by Friends of the Greenwich Library.
Gallery hours are Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm Thursday 10am-8pm, and Sunday 1-5pm.
Events:
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 19 from 6-8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, October 26 at 2pm
The Elusive Art of Kumi Yamashita
Eight area artists will be showcased in Wilton Library’s October art exhibition, “Resilience, Reflection, and Revelations.” The exhibition features the diverse works of women artists: Pam Ackley (Killingworth), Afsaneh Djabbari-Aslani (New Canaan), Alma Faham (Danbury), Cynthia Fazekas (Shelton), Mari Gyorgyey (Stamford), Katya Lebrija (Wilton), Pam Rouleau (Old Greenwich), and Nomi Silverman (Greenwich). They will exhibit their works in an array of styles, media choices, and subject matter, all portraying vibrant and varied types of resilience found in life and nature.
The opening reception on Friday, October 4 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. is free and open to the public. Exhibition runs through November 7. A majority of the works will be available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the library.
"Resilience, Reflection, and Revelations" Art Exhibition at Wilton Library
A very moving art exhibition featuring three extraordinary Connecticut Artists expressing the essence and effect of shadow, light, the subliminal mind and the human spirit.
THE DARK OF LIGHT
Elisa Contemporary Art is pleased to present a Solo exhibit of the Candy and Toy Mandala Photographs by Paula Brett. It is now open at the One River School in Westport. The exhibit will run from through November 27 at 833 Post Road East, Westport CT. Gallery hours are: Monday - Friday, 10am - 6pm and Saturday/Sunday 10am - 2pm.
Join us for a Reception on Saturday, November 23 from 2-4pm
From color-infused paintings to video self-portraits, Paula Brett’s body of work incorporates various combinations of media dealing with ideas such as created identity, coincidence, ritual, and transitory spaces.
The limited edition photographs are Mandalas made from pieces of Candy, Jewels, Toys, Cars and other favorites. According to Paula, “The mandala symbolizes the law of the universe and since man is also a microcosm of the universe, many cultures believe that the mandala also symbolizes the human soul. Mandalas serve as collection point for universal forces…My intention with these mandalas is to arrange everyday sweets and favorite objects into a pattern which becomes sacred, where delicious turns divine, the enticing now exquisite.”
Brett has exhibited work in New York, CT, Chicago, San Francisco, Budapest and Romania.
About One River School:
Founded in 2012 in Englewood, NJ, “one river” west of New York City, One River School has embarked on a mission to "transform art education"® in America. Today, their innovative program teaches thousands of students in fifteen locations across six states. We are thrilled to be working with One River Westport.
About Elisa Contemporary Art
Elisa Contemporary Art represents a portfolio of emerging through mid-career contemporary artists. Founded in 2007 by
Lisa Cooper, Elisa Contemporary Art is dedicated to promoting the appreciation and collection of art as a way to enrich
and heal our lives, our communities, and the world. The Riverdale NY Gallery opened in 2008. The Art Salon in Fairfield
CT opened in May 2017 (by appointment only). Elisa Contemporary Art has participated in international art fairs in New
York, Miami and the Hamptons and curated 40+ art exhibits in public/private spaces in the Tri-State.
For additional information, visit us at www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com or Instagram: @ElisaContemporary Art
Solo Exhibit of Candy and Toy Mandala Photographs by Paula Brett
The Carriage Barn Arts Center presents Edward Keating: A Fearless Legacy Photography Exhibition of the Pulitzer prize-winning photographer from New Canaan October 12 - November 13, 2024
This new exhibition highlights the late Pulitzer-prize winning photographer’s 40-year career, as well as his connection to New Canaan, CT. Curated with members of the photographer’s family, this first-ever retrospective features 80 photographs and additional archival materials that offer insight into Keating’s career and life as a photographer. The exhibition spans decades of his work and features editioned estate prints as well as rare and unique vintage silver gelatins printed by Keating that are available for sale.
Born in 1956 and raised in New Canaan, CT, Edward Keating moved to New York City in 1981 to become a photographer. He taught himself how to photograph by chronicling the street life of everyday New Yorkers.
Hired as a Staff Photographer at The New York Times in 1991, he covered national and international news. He was also a regular contributor to the Sunday New York Times Magazine. In addition, he co-founded the "Vows" wedding column. In 2002, Keating won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage on the attacks of 9/11. He additionally shared the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting with New York Times staff for the series, "How Race is Lived in America.” After leaving the Times in 2002, he became a regular contributor to New York Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine, Vanity Fair and Time.
From Kosovo to Crown Heights, Keating often put himself in the center of highly charged conflicts - ignoring the dangers -- to best capture the emotion, devastation and humanity with his camera. Keating’s camera stayed around his neck until the very end. At just 65 years of age, he passed away in September 2021, as a result of many months of long exposure to toxic material while covering 9/11 at Ground Zero.
The Carriage Barn Arts Center is located in New Canaan's Waveny Park, hours are Wednesday-Saturday 10am-3pm and Sunday 1-5pm. Visit carriagebarn.org for more information.
Edward Keating: A Fearless Legacy, Photography Exhibition at the Carriage Barn Arts Center
Heather Gaudio Fine Art is pleased to present Betsy Eby: Of This Natural World, her first solo exhibition at the gallery. The public is invited to attend an opening reception for the artist on September 26, 5-7pm, and the show will run through November 2nd.
Betsy Eby’s encaustic paintings are infused with a unique sensibility informed by the artist’s Pacific Northwest heritage, her concerns for nature and a lifelong classical piano practice. Using trowels, knives, brushes and heat, Eby pours and spreads hot and cold natural wax-based paint onto a wooden panel, layering gestures to create nuanced marks across the surface. The paintings in this exhibition are inspired by the wilderness of nature and the way in which the natural world serves as a tonic for the human spirit. Created in her Maine summer retreat, Eby’s new body of work captures the music and rhythms portrayed in nature: the lulling of waves, the fragrance of the sea air, resinous bay berries, blueberries, honey suckle in the breeze…. all have their own sound and melodies that speak to the artist. “There is musical accompaniment in nature,” the artist states.
Eby savors nature holistically, poetically depicting the essence of the verdant and granite landscape against the backdrop of a shimmering coastline, using abstraction to fuse that which animates her senses. Like notes shimmering on a page, the paintings are soft gestures akin to ascending scales, glissandos or arpeggiations within ambient-like sound beds. The marks on Ravel, glyphs fleeting across the surface within and through atmospheric grounds, came from listening to the composer in the background as she worked in the studio. Eby’s work synthesizes and distills all that surrounds her, intuitively harnessing and conveying her environment on the panel. Setting Eby’s new paintings apart from previous series are the grounds, which at first glance appear more neutral but are informed with a shifting color nuance. The artist finds herself with a more atuned sensory input of late, and this is evident in her most recent work.
“I make nature based, abstract paintings that convey the musical frequencies of an ecologically balanced, natural world unspoiled by human encroachment. They are meditations on undisrupted skies, habitats and oceans, calling attention to the natural rhythms of our environment and the elements and our interconnectedness within them.”
Eby received her B.A. from the University of Oregon and splits her time between her studios in Columbus, Georgia and Wheaton Island in Maine. She has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions and her work forms part of many important private, corporate and public collections including the Columbus Museum and the Georgia Museum of Art in Georgia; the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington; and the Art in Embassies in Gambia, Brunei, Dubai and Papua New Guinea.
Heather Gaudio Fine Art specializes in emerging and established artists, offering painting, works on paper, photography, and sculpture. The gallery provides a full range of art advisory services, from forming and maintaining a collection, to securing secondary market material, to assisting with framing and installation. The focus is on each individual client, selecting art that best serves his or her vision, space, and resources. The six exhibitions offered every year are designed to present important talent and provide artwork appealing to a broad range of interests. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday; 10:30am to 5:30pm; and by appointment.
Betsy Eby: Of This Natural World
This exhibition presents a group of woodcuts, engravings, and etchings from the late 15th through late 18th centuries drawn from the Wetmore Collection at Connecticut College. The collection was assembled in the early 20th century by Fanny S. Wetmore, and bequeathed to the College in 1930. From familiar favorites like Dürer’s Adam and Eve and Rembrandt’s Three Trees to hidden gems like the gold-sprinkled surface of Maria Katharina Prestel’s Virtue Overcoming Vice, the show explores more than three centuries of artistic innovation on paper.
Although little is known of Wetmore herself, her collecting activities place her within a tradition dating back to the rise of printmaking in early modern Europe. The surging production of prints by the beginning of the 16th century represented a sea change for both artists and consumers. For artists, prints provided additional revenue, increased their personal fame, and offered greater latitude for experimentation outside the traditional patronage structure. For consumers, prints represented access to visual art on an unprecedented scale; even those who would never have been able to commission an independent work from a great artist could now readily obtain an engraving or an etching. Prints were easily transported, could be pasted up on walls or into albums, and even large collections of them took up relatively little room. And, with the rise of reproductive printmaking, even geographically distant or physically inaccessible artworks could be added to the collector’s “paper museum.”
This exhibition is the second in the Museum’s history to have been co-curated with Fairfield University students, and has been supported by generous funding from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Image: Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve, 1504, engraving
Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection
Sacred Space, organized by guest curator Juanita Sunday, draws on the rich history of the Brandywine Workshop and Archives, founded in Philadelphia in 1972 by artist Allan Edmunds. As of 2023, FUAM is home to a Brandywine “satellite collection,” joining other institutions including Harvard Art Museums, RISD Museum, and the University of Delaware Museums. This exhibition features works from FUAM’s own collection as well as loans from Brandywine itself.
Sacred Space encourages a deep exploration of spiritual connection, inviting viewers to reflect on the ancestral wisdom and memory passed down through generations. The exhibition serves as a portal into the interconnected realms of spirituality, time, space, memory, and culture. The artists pay homage to their forebears, drawing upon cultural traditions, rituals, and sacred practices to honor and preserve, as well as question, the invaluable heritage that shapes our identities.
“My belief is that art is best as the articulation of spiritual ideas or transformative intention. It can be an agent of spiritual inspiration or personal and social transformation.” - Michael D. Harris
Image: Martin Payton, Portal, 1990, offset lithograph. Partial gift of the Brandywine Workshop and Archives and Museum Purchase with funds from the Black Art Fund, 2024 (2024.0601) © Martin Payton
Sacred Space: A Brandywine Workshop and Archives Print Exhibition
Free for all MoCA members; $10 admission for non-members; $8 admission for seniors and students
MoCA CT is excited to introduce ColleCTomania, an exhilarating exhibition displaying over 140 Swiss posters from the renowned collector Tom Strong. Strong is a New Haven, Connecticut-based graphic designer, photographer and collector who has spent sixty years amassing, displaying, sharing, and living amongst his archive. The exhibition, curated by Pamela Hovland and Karen Salsgiver, includes a widely diverse range of posters from the 1930s to the present.
Switzerland’s design culture has had a significant influence on the discipline of graphic design. Swiss posters in particular, especially those designed during the 1950s and 60s, have attained iconic status and are part of design education in schools across the globe. Created at uniform scale to be displayed in the streets of Zurich, Lucerne and Basel, these posters are now highly collectible, preserved in the archives of major museums and reproduced in art and design books.
Yale University’s graphic design program, the first in this country, was critical in disseminating the work and ideas of Swiss designers. Several influential practitioners were invited to New Haven to teach courses and workshops to students, including Tom Strong, eager to experiment with typography, form and craft. When Yale’s design graduates scattered around Connecticut and the country as both practicing and teaching designers, the visual language and ideology of the ‘Swiss International Style’ spread far and wide.
The poster as a large, public, graphic form has held its prominent place throughout the history of design. Tom Strong’s vast collection of Swiss posters, accumulated over six decades, spans the mid-century to today. His archive includes diverse and boundary-breaking visual strategies employed through inventive uses of type and typography, image-making, layering and collage. The posters illustrate myriad expressions in style, subject matter and ever-evolving technologies. Strong’s posters showcase both the outsized influence of Swiss design as well as the contemporary experimentation that builds on that legacy. Seeing the posters fill the gallery walls is pure visual delight.
“Why do I continue to collect Swiss posters? I guess you like Beethoven and then Stravinsky comes along with different principles, blows your head off. And then you go further, and you find more composers who you never knew anything about. The body and the brain and the ear are accustomed to surprise and difference and beauty. Other than that, I can’t defend it or describe it. These posters have power. You can’t deny it.”- Tom Strong
About the Collector, Tom Strong:
Thomas Strong was born in 1938 in Hanover, New Hampshire. He graduated from Dartmouth College and served with the U.S. Army Security Agency in Germany and Turkey. In 1967, Tom received an MFA from the Yale School of Art and Architecture and later started the graphic design firm Strong Cohen with his co-founder, Marjorie Cohen. The firm focuses on the design of signage for architectural applications, primarily for colleges and universities. When Tom isn’t busy designing or installing signs across New Haven, he dedicates his time to revitalizing the neighborhood where he works, a commitment he’s upheld for the past two decades. As a board member of the Chapel West district, he plays a key role in its development. Beyond his civic involvement, Tom has cultivated a diverse collection, including Swiss posters, HO scale model trains, Braun products, National Park Service folders, and iconic posters from Yale and Otl Aicher’s 1972 Olympics.
About the Curators:
Pamela Hovland is a Wilton-based designer, educator, writer and visual activist. She has worked extensively in the areas of identity, print communications, signage and screen-based design for corporations, nonprofit organizations, cultural institutions and individuals. Her work has been recognized by multiple organizations and publications and included in regional, national and international exhibitions. Pamela received an MFA from Yale University where she is a Senior Critic in graphic design. She is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and a founding member of Class Action Collective, the art collective that uses design to effect social change.
Karen Salsgiver is the principal strategist and designer of the Westport-based graphic design firm Salsgiver Coveney Associates. For over four decades the studio has created design programs and communication solutions that tell the authentic story of a diverse range of corporate, educational and cultural institutions. The firm’s award-winning work has been published in multiple design books and publications. Karen earned a BS in Design and Environmental Analysis from Cornell University and an MFA from Yale University.
ColleCTomania: MoCA CT
On View October 16, 2024 – March 9, 2025
In preparation for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026, the Greenwich Historical Society presents a timely and dynamic exhibition that takes a fresh look at the impact of the Revolutionary War on our community.
The Revolution may have started in Massachusetts, but it soon spread to Connecticut, particularly Fairfield County and Greenwich, the gateway to Patriotic New England. With their safety and livelihood at risk, residents had to choose whether to support American Independence, to remain loyal to King George III or claim neutrality. This is the story of the people of Greenwich and their neighbors in Fairfield County, living, working, fighting, fleeing or dying on the front line of the Revolutionary War.
Original materials from the Revolution belonging to the Greenwich Historical Society, as well as other museums and archives, will be used to illustrate the impact of the War on our community.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of related programs and events
Greenwich During the Revolutionary War: A Frontier Town on the Front Line
Please join us for the opening reception of the Weston Library Photography Club photography exhibition opening reception.
Sunday, October 6th 1-3pm
Weston Public Library
56 Norfield Road, Weston, CT
If you cannot make the opening, please visit the exhibit during the Library open hours. Call to ensure the Community Room is open for visitors: 203-222-2665
Opening Reception- Photography Exhibition "A Closer Look"
Stamford History Center takes you on a time traveling adventure back to the Gilded Age to learn about Stamford's entrepreneurs, movers, shakers, and industrialists. You will recognize some well-known Stamford landmarks including Yale & Towne Factory and the Blickensderfer Typewriter Factory. On September 22nd, Executive Director Dr. Zoubek kicks off the afternoon with opening remarks on a glorious time in history. Experience the lives of the elegant and fashionable people of the Gilded Age through our exciting collection of art, clothing, photographs, documents, home furnishings and other artifacts.
Admission $10 for non-members
SHC Members Free Admission
How the Upper Crust Lived: The Gilded Age in Stamford 1865-1905
Open VISIONS Forum | History Department Annual Lecture
"Highs and Lows of the American Presidency: Past, Present, Future"
Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, presidential historian for the New-York Historical Society, trustee of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and a frequent commentator on CBS News, MSNBC and CNN. The Chicago Tribune dubbed him “America’s New Past Master.” Six of his nonfiction books have been chosen as New York Times’s “Notable Book of the Year”. He is also the recipient of such environmental leadership prizes as the Frances K. Hutchison Medal (Garden Club of America), Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks (National Parks Conservation Association), and the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Lifetime Heritage Award. His book The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. As a music producer he earned two Grammy Awards for Presidential Suite (Large Jazz Ensemble) and Fandango on the Wall for (Latin Jazz). He is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates in American studies. His two-volume, annotated Nixon Tapes recently won the Arthur S. Link–Warren F. Kuehl Prize. His most recent book is Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening.
Open VISIONS Forum: Douglas Brinkley
Stand Together Against Racism (S.T.A.R), in partnership with The Glass House and the Carriage Barn Arts Center, is hosting its third annual "Through Your Looking Glass" student art showcase. This event celebrates how art, design, and architecture can promote social justice, inclusion, equity, and diversity.
Students of all ages from Fairfield County, CT, including college students, are invited to submit art that reflects a social justice topic that's important to them. (Check out the S.T.A.R website to see what other students have submitted.) We welcome all forms of art, such as paintings, drawings, photography, mixed media, sculpture, videos (including TikTok-style), or architectural designs.Art is due by November 9.
This showcase is not a competition—all student artwork will be displayed at the Carriage Barn Arts Center in New Canaan starting with an opening reception on Saturday, November 16. All artists, with their families and friends should plan to attend. The showcase will remain up for approximately two weeks.
Fill out the pre-registration form linked iin this post so we know you intend to submit! When your art is ready, you'll complete a separate release form.
Fairfield County Student Social Justice Art Showcase - Call for Submissions NOW - Opening Reception 11/16
Westport Country Playhouse will open its 2024-25 Season with “The 39 Steps,” a fast-paced frenzy of espionage and murderous mayhem based on Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film, running from October 22 through November 9. Performance schedule is Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 and 7 p.m., Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. (No Wed. or Sat. matinees during preview week). Tickets start at $40.
The 39 Steps
Saad Mohseni, author of Radio Free Afghanistan: A Twenty-Year Odyssey for an Independent Voice in Kabul and the Chairman and CEO of Moby Group, Afghanistan’s largest media company, is guest lecturer for New Canaan Library’s William Attwood Lecture. The event takes place on Friday, November 1 at 7 PM in the Library’s Jim & Dede Bartlett Auditorium. Please register to attend: newcanaanlibrary.org. Elm Street Books will be on site with copies available for purchase.
Saad Mohseni will speak about his book Radio Free Afghanistan, a deeply moving and surprising story of the attempt to build a truly independent media company in contemporary Afghanistan. He will be interviewed by Tom Freston, former CEO of Viacom and a founding member of MTV Networks.
Saad Mohseni, Time 100 Honoree and Author Presents New Canaan Library’s William Attwood Lecture
Your young artist will enjoy a fun night out while painting their very own masterpiece. We will explore different and unconventional ways of painting while creating a scene inspired by the residents of New Pond Farm. Popcorn and other snacks will be provided.
This drop-off program is:
$25 per member,
$30 per non-member
Registration is required. Please register at www.newpondfarm.org
Painting and Popcorn (Grades 2 - 4)
Over the course of the Tony award-winning musical, In the Heights, we encounter the many colorful residents of Washington Heights — a New York City neighborhood on the brink of change. Usnavi, a first generation Dominican-American corner bodega owner, and his friends and family are dealing with the pressures of rising rents and closing neighborhood businesses. As one family struggles to figure out how to pay for an Ivy League tuition for their brilliant and hard-working daughter, a young woman is trying to put a down payment on a new apartment, and Usnavi himself is trying to get back to the Dominican Republic to reconnect with his roots after the death of his parents. In Washington Heights, community is everything, and we see how each of these individuals struggles to survive and how these same individuals come together as a community to mourn their losses and rejoice in their triumphs. Over the course of the show, we see the hard-working residents of Washington Heights grapple with love and lust, identity and racism, all while the prospect of a winning lottery ticket hangs in the air, potentially changing the livelihoods of the people and the community forever. This revolutionary new musical combines Latin rhythms and dance with hip-hop lyrics to tell a captivating story about what it means to chase your dreams as you cling to your roots, and to celebrate the community from which you grew.
In The Heights
Warren Miller is going big for 75 years! Stacked with unbelievable action and unexpected stories, Warren Miller’s 75 will bring fans to powder stashes and chutes around the world, from Canada, Colorado, California, and Utah to Finland, Japan, Austria, and New Jersey. Catch a diverse lineup of snowsports legends, Olympic hopefuls, world champions, X Games stars, and emerging talents on the big screen this fall, including snowboarders Shaun White, Jeremy Jones, Danny Davis, and Toby Miller, plus skiers Max Hitzig, Lexi duPont, Caite Zeliff, Mark Abma, and Aaron Blunck.
Warren Miller's 75
Musicians and actors and partners, Oh My!
The Norwalk Symphony has established a partnership with the Music Theater of Connecticut to bring you six performances during the 2024-2025 season in the intimate theater space at 509 Westport Avenue, Norwalk, CT.
November 1 & 2, 2024 - Stravinsky's "A Soldier's Tale"
March 7 & 8, 2025 - Gordon's "Orpheus & Euridice"
April 25 & 26, 2025 - DeFalla's "El Amor Brujo"
Tickets are available through the MTC website: Buy Tickets (musictheatreofct.com)
Norwalk Symphony Partners with the Music Theater of Connecticut
A wonderful new partnership has been created with the Music Theater of Connecticut to present Chamber works in an intimate and copy setting.
On November 1 & 2, 2024, this partnership will present Stravinsky's "A Soldier's Tale" at the MTC venue. Tickets are available through the MTC website: Music Theatre of Connecticut | Norwalk, CT | Professional Theatre and Conservatory (musictheatreofct.com)
Norwalk Symphony & Music Theater of Connecticut - November 1 & 2, 2024
Set in the vibrant, bohemian world of New York City's East Village, Rent follows a group of friends navigating life, love, and artistic dreams while grappling with the realities of poverty and illness. With a dynamic rock score and unforgettable characters, this Tony Award-winning musical by Jonathan Larson delivers a powerful message about living life to the fullest, no matter the obstacles. With its iconic songs, including "Seasons of Love," "La Vie Bohème," and "Take Me or Leave Me," Rent is a thrilling, emotional ride that will leave you inspired and moved.
**This production contains mature themes, scenes of intimacy, death, drug use and coarse language. Not recommended for children.​
Photo Credit: Seth Barkan Photography
The Wilton Playshop Presents the Musical RENT
Curtain Call’s Theatre Arts Workshops: Back to School Means Back in Action!
For over 30 years, Stamford’s longest-running and only nonprofit, theatre-producing company has offered opportunities for kids grades K+, teens, and adults to ACT OUT with classes after school, evenings and weekends throughout the school year, AND full-day summer workshops! Our Fall 2024 Session of exciting lineup of classes for kids (grades K+), teens, and adults in acting, improv, musical theatre, dance, AND MORE begin September 16, 2024 and run for eight weeks. (See our website for details.) Scholarships, payment plans and sibling discounts. For questions, contact our Education Director, Brian Bianco at brian@curtaincallinc.com.
Curtain Call's Fall Drama Arts Classes for Kids, Teens & Adults
Sheffer Gallery
September 7 through December 10
Reception: Tuesday, September 10, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a keynote presentation by cartoonist and comics historian Brian Walker starting at 7 pm.)
Curated by Walker with help from the Library’s Exhibit Curator Carole Erger-Fass, Cartoon County: The Golden Age of Cartooning in Connecticut derives from Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection and aims to explore an important piece of local history. It will feature 40+ original cartoons by some of the area’s greats, including Dik Browne, Mel Casson, Stan Drake, John Cullen Murphy, Leonard Starr, Jack Tippit, Mort Walker, and more.
Proximity to major syndicates and publishers in New York City drew cartoonists to Fairfield County. Many worked at home in their studios, frequenting Max’s Art Supplies on the Post Road and seeking companionship with their professional peers at local spots: over a game of golf at Longshore, or at local restaurants like Mario’s Place, across from Westport’s train station.
Cullen Murphy, author and son of the cartoonist behind Prince Valiant and Big Ben Bolt, refers to the history of cartooning in Connecticut with fondness.
“For a period of about 50 years, right in the middle of the American Century, many of the nation’s top comic strip cartoonists, gag cartoonists, and magazine illustrators lived within a stone’s throw of one another in the southwestern corner of Connecticut,” he wrote in Cartoon County, “a bit of bohemia amid those men in their gray flannel suits.”
The Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection (Westpac) was conceived by local art teacher Bert Chernow, who began acquiring a diverse collection of artworks in 1964. Featuring many notable local artists, Westpac comprises more than 1,800 works in a broad range of media including paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, illustrations, cartoons, photographs, sculptures, and murals.
Westport cartoonist Mel Casson was instrumental in building Westpac’s Cartoon Collection, which includes more than 120 original comic strips, gag cartoons, editorial cartoons, and illustrations. Over the years, the Westpac collection has been displayed in schools and public buildings around town to educate and entertain residents.
This exhibit features many highlights from the collection, representing the major cartoon genres. The graphics on the walls are from Mort Walker’s 1980 book, The Lexicon of Comicana, which will be reissued by New York Review Books in 2025.
Special thanks to Westpac co-chairs Ive Covaci and Anne Boberski, and to the Drew Friedman Community Arts Center for their continued support.