Santa and his three LIVE reindeer return to Greenwich for the 16th Annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop presented by Jenny Allen at Compass Real Estate , the “North Pole on North Street,” Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, 437 North Street, Greenwich, Connecticut, from November 29 to December 24, 2024. The cherished town tradition continues for the sixteenth consecutive year at this expansive nursery where visitors can have their photo taken with Santa, meet the reindeer and also enjoy Santa’s Workshop sponsored by Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group, which provides more space for families. Guests can enjoy the “Reindeer Coloring Station" sponsored by Jenny Allen at Compass and "Letter Writing to Santa Station" sponsored by Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group," while waiting in line for their photo with Santa. A portion of all photos with Santa will be donated to Kids In Crisis, a non-profit organization based in Greenwich, but serves all of Connecticut. A Kids In Crisis Giving Tree will also be available for people to support their important mission. We’re excited to welcome the new Reindeer Stable Sponsor, Greenwich Braces. This all takes place just minutes from downtown Greenwich. Parking is free. Children, adults, and all dogs (on leashes) can have their photo taken with Santa at Santa’s Workshop. PLEASE BRING YOUR DOG FOR PHOTOS WITH SANTA ANYTIME WE'RE OPEN, but for an added incentive to visit Santa with your dog when the lines aren’t as long as Saturday, you'll receive a Doggy Gift Bag sponsored by Cornell University Veterinary Specialists every Monday - Friday throughout the event.
To recognize the 16th year, the event we will once again be “CELEBRATING FAMILY TRADITIONS.” Top of the list for hundreds of families is visiting Santa’s LIVE Reindeer and having family and pet Photos with Santa at beautiful Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses. The unique holiday attraction has become an important family tradition for thousands of families over the past 15 years.
Help celebrate sixteen years by sharing your families past Greenwich Reindeer Festival Photos with Santa. With your permission, the event will post them on their Instagram and Facebook pages. They’re excited to feature many different families and what a fun family tradition like the Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop means to your family. Please email the event at, tamara@tmk-eventmarketing.com They look forward to hearing from you and your family!
The community is invited to Sam Bridge for a “We’re Back Party Days” on Friday, November 29, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday, November 30, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., when Santa’s Workshop officially opens for photos with Santa. While waiting for the reindeer to arrive Friday afternoon, everyone can enjoy special refreshments, balloon artists, live music entertainment, Rising Starr Horse Rescue, food trucks, and many other special activities, which will also continue all-day Saturday!
Please check the website, www.GreenwichReindeerFestival.com, for all pricing for all photo packages. Hours for the Photos with Santa, are Mondays through Fridays, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Christmas Eve, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sam Bridge is closed on Sundays. The reindeer will depart on Saturday, December 23 but Santa will remain for photos Christmas Eve, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
A big thank you to our many sponsors who help to make this very special holiday event possible: Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, Jenny Allen at Compass #1 Residential Real Estate Brokerage in the US, Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group, Greenwich Braces, Mercedes-Benz of Greenwich, Avelo Airlines, Greenwich Hospital, Little Friends, Kate Stone College Consulting, MH Heaven Real Estate, The Studio Greenwich, Val’s Putnam Wines & Liquors, Bonjo Coffee Roasters, Cornell University Veterinary Specialists, Get Joy Food, Earth Animal, Spot On Veterinary Hospital & Hotel, Citarella Gourmet Market, Vineyard Vines, The Mews in Greenwich, Interstate + Lakeland Lumber, Eagle Fence & Guardrail. Premier Media Sponsor; Greenwich Magazine/Moffly Media. Additional Media Sponsors: Best of CT Moms, CT Kids & Family, Fairfield County Mom, Greenwich Moms, Greenwich Time/Hearst Media, InGreenwich, Jen Danzi, Kidsoutandabout.com, Macaroni Kid, Natural Awakenings Magazine, News 12 CT. A portion of all Photos with Santa will be donated to Kids In Crisis. For more information and to view all sponsors, please visit; www.GreenwichReindeerFestival.com
Please like us and follow us on social media;
https://www.facebook.com/GreenwichReindeerFestival/ and
https://www.instagram.com/greenwichreindeerfestival/
16th Annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop presented by Jenny Allen at Compass Real Estate
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
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Join us during Let's Celebrate! Worldwide, a joyful exploration of holiday traditions from around the globe. Experience the warmth of Thanksgiving through giving and gathering, discover the wonder of international fables and folktales and enjoy a special countdown to 2025 as we learn how other cultures ring in the new year.
Enchanting visits with Santa Claus, magical nightly tree lighting ceremonies and exciting performances round out this unforgettable seasonal celebration.
Let's Celebrate! Worldwide
Exhibition Dates: November 17, 2024 - February 16, 2025
This year’s Members Exhibition theme is Civic/Civil Engagement. Realizing that the election looms large this year, rather than trying to ignore it, we asked our artists to explore what civil civic engagement means to them and how they express their perspectives through printmaking. The work on view demonstrates their efforts to contribute to the discourse in a constructive way to bring about greater understanding.
Awards Juror: Carey Mack Weber – Executive Director, Fairfield University Art Museum
Annual Members Exhibition: Civic/Civil Engagement
Exhibition Dates: November 17, 2024 - February 16, 2025
When Shelly Ramsay’s entry was awarded Best in Show in our 2023 Annual Members’ Exhibition, she immediately started preparing for her prize: a solo exhibition in 2024. Our gallery walls are now filled with her fresh and colorful prints, which wonderfully blend both the abstract and representational, with shapes both geometric and organic. In a world besieged by dichotomies, Shelly Ramsay's work shows us how to hold two things at once.
Shelly Ramsay: Stencils and Collage
Fourteen area artists from Wilson Avenue Loft Artists will bring holiday spirit to Wilton Library's November-December art exhibition "Amazing Stories and Wondrous Visions." Wilson Avenue Loft Artists (WALA), founded in 2007, is located on the border of Norwalk and Rowayton and provides studio spaces for artists working in a variety of media, including painting, collage, printmaking, sculpture, and photography. WALA's goal is to provide a supportive environment for making artwork and connections to the arts community, especially during their annual Open Studio Weekend.
The artists from the group will be exhibiting their works in an array of styles, media choices, and subject matter. The artists are: Jay Brodsky (Scarsdale, NY), Connie Brown (New Canaan), Erin Dolan (Norwalk), Heide Follin (Norwalk), Lori Glavin (Bovina Center, NY), Ruth Ipe, Elisa Keogh (Norwalk), Nancy McTague-Stock (Norwalk), Andrea Metchick (Westport), Lily Morgan (Stamford), Claudia Renfro (Pound Ridge, NY), Missy Savard (Fairfield), Vicki French Smith (Darien), and Susan Cutler Tremaine (Darien).
Opening reception on Friday, November 15 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. is free and open to the public. Exhibition runs through December 13. A majority of the works will be available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the library.
"Amazing Stories and Wondrous Visions" Art Exhibition
The Flinn Gallery will be presenting bold and vibrant abstract works for its November 14 opening of Extra Extra, a three-person exhibition running through January 8, 2025.
Sharing a common strategy, Palma Blank, Stephen Maine and Doreen McCarthy create artworks of visual abundance and intensity, pointing to the “extra” in Extra Extra!
Dedicated to Abstraction, each artist approaches their work with distinct processes and materials to convey visual energy. Viewing these works elicits a physical experience that can be both mesmerizing and momentarily jarring.
Stephen Maine’s indirect production method employs a system of foam board printing plates, which allows him to put his high contrast paint under pressure. He juxtaposes his more deliberate color relationships with the spontaneity and chance effects of this painting method. All the while, color, scale, surface, and seriality are kept in place.
Palma Blank also uses striking color juxtapositions for maximal effects. Painting through her own digitally created pattern stencils, she applies layers of dashes and stripes of color across the canvas. Slowly shifting shapes emerge from the work, charged with energy. Grounded in real visual moments, she is influenced by the phenomenological ideas associated with Impressionism. Building on this premise, Blank’s optical illusions simulate the movement of light and form through virtual space.
While Maine and Blank use non-traditional methods to achieve greater chromatic intensity in their painting, Doreen McCarthy creates a similar visual impact in her sculptural work. McCarthy’s inflatable vinyl sculptures become giant drawings in space, pushing viewers to engage with their own comparative scale. Complex forms of tangled tubes with inverted twists bounce toward viewers in distinct hues. This physical interplay between mass and gravity creates an arresting sense of torqued energy.
All three of the artists in Extra Extra prompt an overwhelming response.
The psychology of visual perception can cast these works as playful, pushy, reflective, or electric. Regardless of interpretation, the works of Maine, Blank and McCarthy grab and hold onto the viewers’ attention.
Doreen McCarthy is a multimedia artist based in New York City. Since 1985 her work has been exhibited in the United States, Europe, China and Japan. She received a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) focused in Painting from City University of New York-Hunter College. Throughout her career she has received grants, awards and residencies at various institutions including Edward Albee Foundation, Santa Fe Art Institute and the Indiana University Institute of Art.
Stephen Maine is a painter and writer living in West Cornwall, CT. Maine earned a BFA (Painting), Indiana University, Bloomington, and an MFA (Visual Art), Vermont College of Fine Arts. From 1982 until 2017, he lived and worked in New York City and continues to show there and in Connecticut. Maine’s writing has appeared regularly in Art in America, ARTnews, Artnet magazine, Art on Paper, Artillery; and Hyperallergic.com. He has taught at numerous universities including most recently at SUNY Purchase, where he was Chair of the Bachelor of Science in Visual Arts program.
Palma Blank is based in Brooklyn, NY and was born in Norwalk, CT. She received an MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT, and a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. Her paintings have been exhibited throughout New York including most recently in Ninth Street Women: 70 Years of Women in Abstraction, at Hunter Dunbar Projects and Psychonautic Traces, at Davidson Gallery, New York, NY. Her work has been acquired by the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris and NY Presbyterian Hospital, along with many other collections. She is on the board of directors at Black Ball Projects, a non-profit arts organization supporting underexposed contemporary artists in New York City.
Events:
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 14 from 6 - 8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, December 7, 2pm
Extra Extra is curated by Flinn Gallery committee member Kirsten Pitts. The Flinn Gallery is a non-profit organization sponsored by Friends of the Greenwich Library.
The Gallery welcomes visitors daily Monday to Saturday, 10-5pm, Thursday until 8pm, and Sunday 1-5pm, and is located on the second floor of the Greenwich Library, 101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT.
New Exhibit: Extra Extra
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
The annual Holiday Gift Show at the Rowayton Arts Center (RAC) transforms the gallery into a shopping wonderland with original, handcrafted items and artwork from November 29 to December 24. Shop one-of-a-kind gifts by local artists: original cards, prints, paintings, ornaments, jewelry, ceramics, and knitted items galore by over 50 artists/artisans. Proceeds from the Holiday Gift Show are used to support RAC and its educational outreach.
Special Opening Weekend Hours: Friday, November 29 (12-5pm), Saturday, November 30 (10am-5pm) and Sunday, December 1 (12am-7pm) during LIGHT UP ROWAYTON. After that hours for the show are Tuesday through Friday from 12 pm to 5 pm, Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 12 pm to 5 pm (closed on Monday). The gallery will be open Christmas Eve December 24 from 10 am to 2 pm.
Visit rowaytonarts.org and follow @rowaytonarts.
Rowayton Arts Center Holiday Gift Show
Learn about the history of the holiday and be inspired by Kwanzaa-related poetry. All are welcome and invited to share their knowledge of Kwanzaa too! Join special guest, Reverend Ina Alisa Anderson, for this celebration. Free & open to the public; refreshments will be served.
RSVPs encouraged: https://bit.ly/hma-kwanzaa-2024-rsvp
Kwanzaa Celebration with Iyaba Ibo Mandingo
Southport Studio, 212 Center Street, Southport, CT
Semi-private, Any Medium
1PM - 3PM
Tuesdays, November 19/December 3
Thursdays, December 5/12/19
One class $55., Two classes only $100., Three for only $140.
More dates for 2025 will be announced.
Can’t make on those days? Let us know which days and times work for you.
Painting Lessons
3 Tuesdays per month:
December 3, 10, & 17
Hands-on fun in the kitchen! Little Chefs will learn to safely prepare and enjoy delicious snacks such as homemade granola, yogurt dips, muffins, and more.
This 3-part drop-off program is:
$45 per New Pond Farm member child
$60 per non-member child
Registration is required. Please register at www.newpondfarm.org
Little Chefs (Ages 3 - 5)
Heather Gaudio Fine Art is pleased to present The Space We Exist In, a ground-breaking exhibition curated by the renowned Ghanaian-American art curator Larry Ossei-Mensah. This is the first time the gallery invites a guest curator to organize an exhibition. The group show will open on November 16th and will run through January 18th, 2025. The public is invited to attend an opening reception and curator talk on Saturday, November 16, 4-6pm.
The Space We Exist In serves as a platform for rich dialogue and self-reflection for both the artists and viewers by questioning what it means to ‘Hold Space’ or ‘Exist Within a Space.’ This exhibition features a diverse ensemble of visual artists whose practices create visual poetry that invites viewers to actively engage with the artworks. The exhibition fosters a deeper connection between art and the audience by challenging viewers to redefine their perceptions of the world and their place within it.
Each artist in this exhibition employs a unique blend of techniques and media, ranging from vivid representational objects to evocative abstract paintings. Patrick Alston , based in Connecticut, creates bold abstractions with striking color palettes and dynamic forms to evoke powerful emotional responses, prompting viewers to confront their perceptions and biases. New York City artist Kim Dacres sources her materials from recycled tires and found objects to make powerful sculptures that are commentaries on strength, resilience and the human spirit, imbuing the discarded everyday material with profound significance. Deborah Dancy , also based in Connecticut, renders her paintings with intricate detail and an emotive use of color, delving into the complexities of personal and collective memory. Clara Nartey , the third artist based in Connecticut, transforms textiles and embroidery threads into expressive and tactile figurative narratives, bridging the gap between traditional craft and contemporary art. Los Angeles-based artist Shinique Smith often incorporates fabric, calligraphy, and collage to explore themes of consumption, identity and cultural history. Her dynamic compositions challenge viewers to consider the material and conceptual spaces they occupy. Patick Quarm , based in Ghana, uses mixed-media in his portraiture that challenge traditional notions of identity and culture, using vibrant patterns and textures to explore the intersection of past and present. Austin Uzor , who is based in upstate New York, explores liminal spaces and questions of identity, displacement and the quest for belonging in his paintings.
The Space We Exist In is not just a visual journey but an intellectual and emotional experience. The selected works act as mirrors and portals, reflecting personal and collective experiences while offering glimpses into diverse perspectives. This exhibition seeks to create a space where viewers can pause, reflect, and engage in meaningful conversations about the narratives articulated by the artists and those of others, ultimately fostering a sense of community and shared humanity.
By bringing together a rich tapestry of voices and visions, this exhibition underscores the power of art to transcend boundaries and connect us to our innermost selves and each other during a tumultuous time in our society. "The Space We Exist In," an exhibition that promises to challenge and transform how we perceive the world and our place within it.
Artists in the exhibition:
Patrick Alston
Kim Dacres
Deborah Dancy
Clara Nartey
Patrick Quarm
Shinique Smith
Austin Uzor
About the Curator :
Larry Ossei-Mensah is a Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic reshaping our perceptions of art and society with a dynamic blend of innovation and inclusivity. Ossei-Mensah has leveraged his curatorial practice as a platform to establish a global footprint, having curated exhibitions from Manila to London to Athens and, most recently, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ossei-Mensah employs contemporary art and culture as a powerful medium for challenging norms and fostering a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world.
Formerly the Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAD), Detroit, and Curator-at-Large at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Ossei-Mensah catalyzes change. Co-founding the nonprofit ARTNOIR, he pioneers racial equity in the art world, amplifying the voices of creatives, curators, and communities of color. Ossei-Mensah's influence spans the globe, curating exhibitions in renowned spaces like MOAD in San Francisco, MASS MoCA, The Metropolitan Museum in Manila, The Seattle Art Museum, Ben Brown Fine Arts in Hong Kong and London, as co-curated of the 7th Athen Biennale in Athens, and most recently the Denver Art Museum where organized a multivenue solo museum debut for Amoako Boafo - Soul of Black Folks.
Recently, Ossei-Mensah curated with ARTNOIR and UBS Bank the groundbreaking multimedia presentation, "The Poetics of Dimensions," at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2023, hailed by Harper’s Bazaar Magazine as a standout exhibition. The presentation featured artists Nari Ward, Sonia Gomes, Melissa Joseph, Anthony Akinbola, and Julianknxx. Ossei-Mensah consistently pushes the boundaries of contemporary expression by collaborating with trailblazing artists such as Steve McQueen, Sanford Biggers, February James, Chase Hall, Catherine Opie, Firelei Baez, and Judy Chicago.
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. For more information and/or high-res images, please contact Rachael Palacios rachael@heathergaudiofineart.com
"The Space We Exist In" curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah
Open Arts Alliance is proud to announce auditions for its upcoming spring MainStage, the regional premiere of Beetlejuice jr.. Auditions will be held December 3, 4, and 5 at Greenwich Arts Council, 299 Greenwich Avenue, Greenwich CT, 06830. Callbacks will be held on December 6 at 6pm.
Based on Tim Burton’s classic comedy film, Beetlejuice was an audience favorite during its Broadway run and nominated for eight Tony awards, including Best Musical. Lydia Deetz is not your typical teenager. She is enchanted by all things haunted and supernatural. So when her father moves her into a brand new home, Lydia is delighted to discover her new house is haunted by a quirky couple of ghosts named the Maitlands, and one notorious demon named… Beetlejuice! Tim Burton’s masterpiece is brought “back from the dead” to hilarious results. This zany, madcap musical is “frightfully” hilarious and fun for the whole family, guaranteed to make you want to dance till “daylight come”.
All youth in grades 2-12 are encouraged to audition. Required audition registration can be completed at www.OpenArtsAlliance.com. Auditions slots are limited, and will likely fill up quickly. Auditioners need only attend one of the scheduled audition dates. Children auditioning should be prepared to sing 16 bars of a song of their choosing, a cappella, and be ready for a possible dance audition.
For more information, please visit www.OpenArtsAlliance.com
Auditions- "Beetlejuice JR."
Please join us on Tuesday, December 3, at 7 p.m. for an enlightening and festive Author Talk with local beekeeper and honey expert C. Marina Marchese as she introduces our selection for Gift Book of 2024 - The World Atlas of Honey. After Marina demystifies the magical world of nature's liquid gold, there will be an informal buffet of various honeys and paired nibbles along with time for conversation with Marina.
If you thought that all honey was the same, you'll think again after listening to Marina. Did you know that a honeybee produces only 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey and that the flavors change depending upon the type of flower from which they gather nectar? Every drop of honey has its own unique sensory characteristics determined by its terroir (a French term first used in winemaking) - the botanical source, soil, climate and terrain. There are thousands of flowers from which bees collect nectar to make honey, no two of which will ever look, smell or taste the same. Honey also has unique health benefits to which no other food can come close. The world of bees and honey is complex and delicious beyond the familiar honey bear.
Carla Marina Marchese is an author, beekeeper and the first U.S. citizen to be accepted as a member, and now instructor for the Italian National Register of Experts in the Sensory Analysis of Honey, where she received her formal training as a honey sensory expert, better known as a honey sommelier. Her fourth book, The World Atlas of Honey is a fully illustrated global survey of honey and its botanical sources, including history, culture, medicine and an essential tasting guide. Her previous books are Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper, The Honey Connoisseur, and Honey for Dummies. Marina is the founder of the brand Red Bee Honey and resides in Connecticut.
Elm Street Books will be selling copies of The World Atlas of Honey and Marina will be signing books after her talk. A portion of the proceeds goes to Wilton Library.
The media sponsor of our author talk is GOOD Morning Wilton.
Registration is required.
Author Talk and Honey Tasting with C. Marina Marchese
Experience the world’s most in-demand ballet, “Swan Lake,” presented by Classical Arts Entertainment and performed by the State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine. A full-scale production features Tchaikovsky’s legendary score and the exquisite Artistic Direction by Andrei Litvinov, bringing the masterpiece choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov to life. Be spellbound by the iconic variation of Little Swans, Odile’s 32 fouettés, and the graceful movements of the talented Ukrainian dancers. With over 200 custom scenery pieces adding grandeur and beauty, this production promises to be a spectacular visual treat.
Swan Lake
Featuring 2024-2025 Korry Fellow Lauren Clayton, and Regional Artists Holly Danger and Brian Kaspr, STACKED: MERGING LAYERS promises to be a kaleidoscope of colors and deeply meaningful messages.The three artists cross paths in their journey of creation, experimentation , stacks of sketchbooks, journals, and ephemera works that transcend their given mediums.
STACKED: MERGING LAYERS
Santa and his three LIVE reindeer return to Greenwich for the 16th Annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop presented by Jenny Allen at Compass Real Estate , the “North Pole on North Street,” Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, 437 North Street, Greenwich, Connecticut, from November 29 to December 24, 2024. The cherished town tradition continues for the sixteenth consecutive year at this expansive nursery where visitors can have their photo taken with Santa, meet the reindeer and also enjoy Santa’s Workshop sponsored by Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group, which provides more space for families. Guests can enjoy the “Reindeer Coloring Station" sponsored by Jenny Allen at Compass and "Letter Writing to Santa Station" sponsored by Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group," while waiting in line for their photo with Santa. A portion of all photos with Santa will be donated to Kids In Crisis, a non-profit organization based in Greenwich, but serves all of Connecticut. A Kids In Crisis Giving Tree will also be available for people to support their important mission. We’re excited to welcome the new Reindeer Stable Sponsor, Greenwich Braces. This all takes place just minutes from downtown Greenwich. Parking is free. Children, adults, and all dogs (on leashes) can have their photo taken with Santa at Santa’s Workshop. PLEASE BRING YOUR DOG FOR PHOTOS WITH SANTA ANYTIME WE'RE OPEN, but for an added incentive to visit Santa with your dog when the lines aren’t as long as Saturday, you'll receive a Doggy Gift Bag sponsored by Cornell University Veterinary Specialists every Monday - Friday throughout the event.
To recognize the 16th year, the event we will once again be “CELEBRATING FAMILY TRADITIONS.” Top of the list for hundreds of families is visiting Santa’s LIVE Reindeer and having family and pet Photos with Santa at beautiful Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses. The unique holiday attraction has become an important family tradition for thousands of families over the past 15 years.
Help celebrate sixteen years by sharing your families past Greenwich Reindeer Festival Photos with Santa. With your permission, the event will post them on their Instagram and Facebook pages. They’re excited to feature many different families and what a fun family tradition like the Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop means to your family. Please email the event at, tamara@tmk-eventmarketing.com They look forward to hearing from you and your family!
The community is invited to Sam Bridge for a “We’re Back Party Days” on Friday, November 29, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday, November 30, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., when Santa’s Workshop officially opens for photos with Santa. While waiting for the reindeer to arrive Friday afternoon, everyone can enjoy special refreshments, balloon artists, live music entertainment, Rising Starr Horse Rescue, food trucks, and many other special activities, which will also continue all-day Saturday!
Please check the website, www.GreenwichReindeerFestival.com, for all pricing for all photo packages. Hours for the Photos with Santa, are Mondays through Fridays, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Christmas Eve, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sam Bridge is closed on Sundays. The reindeer will depart on Saturday, December 23 but Santa will remain for photos Christmas Eve, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
A big thank you to our many sponsors who help to make this very special holiday event possible: Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, Jenny Allen at Compass #1 Residential Real Estate Brokerage in the US, Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group, Greenwich Braces, Mercedes-Benz of Greenwich, Avelo Airlines, Greenwich Hospital, Little Friends, Kate Stone College Consulting, MH Heaven Real Estate, The Studio Greenwich, Val’s Putnam Wines & Liquors, Bonjo Coffee Roasters, Cornell University Veterinary Specialists, Get Joy Food, Earth Animal, Spot On Veterinary Hospital & Hotel, Citarella Gourmet Market, Vineyard Vines, The Mews in Greenwich, Interstate + Lakeland Lumber, Eagle Fence & Guardrail. Premier Media Sponsor; Greenwich Magazine/Moffly Media. Additional Media Sponsors: Best of CT Moms, CT Kids & Family, Fairfield County Mom, Greenwich Moms, Greenwich Time/Hearst Media, InGreenwich, Jen Danzi, Kidsoutandabout.com, Macaroni Kid, Natural Awakenings Magazine, News 12 CT. A portion of all Photos with Santa will be donated to Kids In Crisis. For more information and to view all sponsors, please visit; www.GreenwichReindeerFestival.com
Please like us and follow us on social media;
https://www.facebook.com/GreenwichReindeerFestival/ and
https://www.instagram.com/greenwichreindeerfestival/
16th Annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop presented by Jenny Allen at Compass Real Estate
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
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Join us during Let's Celebrate! Worldwide, a joyful exploration of holiday traditions from around the globe. Experience the warmth of Thanksgiving through giving and gathering, discover the wonder of international fables and folktales and enjoy a special countdown to 2025 as we learn how other cultures ring in the new year.
Enchanting visits with Santa Claus, magical nightly tree lighting ceremonies and exciting performances round out this unforgettable seasonal celebration.
Let's Celebrate! Worldwide
Exhibition Dates: November 17, 2024 - February 16, 2025
This year’s Members Exhibition theme is Civic/Civil Engagement. Realizing that the election looms large this year, rather than trying to ignore it, we asked our artists to explore what civil civic engagement means to them and how they express their perspectives through printmaking. The work on view demonstrates their efforts to contribute to the discourse in a constructive way to bring about greater understanding.
Awards Juror: Carey Mack Weber – Executive Director, Fairfield University Art Museum
Annual Members Exhibition: Civic/Civil Engagement
Exhibition Dates: November 17, 2024 - February 16, 2025
When Shelly Ramsay’s entry was awarded Best in Show in our 2023 Annual Members’ Exhibition, she immediately started preparing for her prize: a solo exhibition in 2024. Our gallery walls are now filled with her fresh and colorful prints, which wonderfully blend both the abstract and representational, with shapes both geometric and organic. In a world besieged by dichotomies, Shelly Ramsay's work shows us how to hold two things at once.
Shelly Ramsay: Stencils and Collage
This December, Geary Gallery proudly presents "Journey's Expressions" featuring the vibrant abstract paintings of Rye, NY artist, Cécile Roberfroid. Her exhibit runs December 4-24. All are welcome and admission is free. The Geary Gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and is located at 576 Boston Post Road, Darien, CT 06820. For more details, call (203) 655-6633 or visit our website: www.gearygallery.com.
Cécile Roberfroid: Journey’s Expressions at the Geary Gallery in Darien, CT
Fourteen area artists from Wilson Avenue Loft Artists will bring holiday spirit to Wilton Library's November-December art exhibition "Amazing Stories and Wondrous Visions." Wilson Avenue Loft Artists (WALA), founded in 2007, is located on the border of Norwalk and Rowayton and provides studio spaces for artists working in a variety of media, including painting, collage, printmaking, sculpture, and photography. WALA's goal is to provide a supportive environment for making artwork and connections to the arts community, especially during their annual Open Studio Weekend.
The artists from the group will be exhibiting their works in an array of styles, media choices, and subject matter. The artists are: Jay Brodsky (Scarsdale, NY), Connie Brown (New Canaan), Erin Dolan (Norwalk), Heide Follin (Norwalk), Lori Glavin (Bovina Center, NY), Ruth Ipe, Elisa Keogh (Norwalk), Nancy McTague-Stock (Norwalk), Andrea Metchick (Westport), Lily Morgan (Stamford), Claudia Renfro (Pound Ridge, NY), Missy Savard (Fairfield), Vicki French Smith (Darien), and Susan Cutler Tremaine (Darien).
Opening reception on Friday, November 15 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. is free and open to the public. Exhibition runs through December 13. A majority of the works will be available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the library.
"Amazing Stories and Wondrous Visions" Art Exhibition
The Flinn Gallery will be presenting bold and vibrant abstract works for its November 14 opening of Extra Extra, a three-person exhibition running through January 8, 2025.
Sharing a common strategy, Palma Blank, Stephen Maine and Doreen McCarthy create artworks of visual abundance and intensity, pointing to the “extra” in Extra Extra!
Dedicated to Abstraction, each artist approaches their work with distinct processes and materials to convey visual energy. Viewing these works elicits a physical experience that can be both mesmerizing and momentarily jarring.
Stephen Maine’s indirect production method employs a system of foam board printing plates, which allows him to put his high contrast paint under pressure. He juxtaposes his more deliberate color relationships with the spontaneity and chance effects of this painting method. All the while, color, scale, surface, and seriality are kept in place.
Palma Blank also uses striking color juxtapositions for maximal effects. Painting through her own digitally created pattern stencils, she applies layers of dashes and stripes of color across the canvas. Slowly shifting shapes emerge from the work, charged with energy. Grounded in real visual moments, she is influenced by the phenomenological ideas associated with Impressionism. Building on this premise, Blank’s optical illusions simulate the movement of light and form through virtual space.
While Maine and Blank use non-traditional methods to achieve greater chromatic intensity in their painting, Doreen McCarthy creates a similar visual impact in her sculptural work. McCarthy’s inflatable vinyl sculptures become giant drawings in space, pushing viewers to engage with their own comparative scale. Complex forms of tangled tubes with inverted twists bounce toward viewers in distinct hues. This physical interplay between mass and gravity creates an arresting sense of torqued energy.
All three of the artists in Extra Extra prompt an overwhelming response.
The psychology of visual perception can cast these works as playful, pushy, reflective, or electric. Regardless of interpretation, the works of Maine, Blank and McCarthy grab and hold onto the viewers’ attention.
Doreen McCarthy is a multimedia artist based in New York City. Since 1985 her work has been exhibited in the United States, Europe, China and Japan. She received a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) focused in Painting from City University of New York-Hunter College. Throughout her career she has received grants, awards and residencies at various institutions including Edward Albee Foundation, Santa Fe Art Institute and the Indiana University Institute of Art.
Stephen Maine is a painter and writer living in West Cornwall, CT. Maine earned a BFA (Painting), Indiana University, Bloomington, and an MFA (Visual Art), Vermont College of Fine Arts. From 1982 until 2017, he lived and worked in New York City and continues to show there and in Connecticut. Maine’s writing has appeared regularly in Art in America, ARTnews, Artnet magazine, Art on Paper, Artillery; and Hyperallergic.com. He has taught at numerous universities including most recently at SUNY Purchase, where he was Chair of the Bachelor of Science in Visual Arts program.
Palma Blank is based in Brooklyn, NY and was born in Norwalk, CT. She received an MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT, and a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. Her paintings have been exhibited throughout New York including most recently in Ninth Street Women: 70 Years of Women in Abstraction, at Hunter Dunbar Projects and Psychonautic Traces, at Davidson Gallery, New York, NY. Her work has been acquired by the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris and NY Presbyterian Hospital, along with many other collections. She is on the board of directors at Black Ball Projects, a non-profit arts organization supporting underexposed contemporary artists in New York City.
Events:
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 14 from 6 - 8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, December 7, 2pm
Extra Extra is curated by Flinn Gallery committee member Kirsten Pitts. The Flinn Gallery is a non-profit organization sponsored by Friends of the Greenwich Library.
The Gallery welcomes visitors daily Monday to Saturday, 10-5pm, Thursday until 8pm, and Sunday 1-5pm, and is located on the second floor of the Greenwich Library, 101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT.
New Exhibit: Extra Extra
Come shop among a curated selection of small, original artwork (up to 18″ x 18″, $300 or less) in a variety of media. Limited-edition prints and other handcrafted items such as ornaments, greeting cards, candles, jewelry, textiles and ceramics are also available in a wide range of price points.
Don’t miss our annual showcase of spectacular, one-of-a-kind WREATHS created by artisans, artists, designers and other creatives for our annual auction! Bidding runs from Sunday, Dec. 1 – Thursday, Dec. 5 (auction closes at 8:30pm). Wreaths can be taken home at our Deck The Walls Holiday Party Dec. 5, or picked up Dec. 6/7 from the Carriage Barn.
Annual Deck the Walls Holiday Exhibit at the Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan
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
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
The annual Holiday Gift Show at the Rowayton Arts Center (RAC) transforms the gallery into a shopping wonderland with original, handcrafted items and artwork from November 29 to December 24. Shop one-of-a-kind gifts by local artists: original cards, prints, paintings, ornaments, jewelry, ceramics, and knitted items galore by over 50 artists/artisans. Proceeds from the Holiday Gift Show are used to support RAC and its educational outreach.
Special Opening Weekend Hours: Friday, November 29 (12-5pm), Saturday, November 30 (10am-5pm) and Sunday, December 1 (12am-7pm) during LIGHT UP ROWAYTON. After that hours for the show are Tuesday through Friday from 12 pm to 5 pm, Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 12 pm to 5 pm (closed on Monday). The gallery will be open Christmas Eve December 24 from 10 am to 2 pm.
Visit rowaytonarts.org and follow @rowaytonarts.
Rowayton Arts Center Holiday Gift Show
Heather Gaudio Fine Art is pleased to present The Space We Exist In, a ground-breaking exhibition curated by the renowned Ghanaian-American art curator Larry Ossei-Mensah. This is the first time the gallery invites a guest curator to organize an exhibition. The group show will open on November 16th and will run through January 18th, 2025. The public is invited to attend an opening reception and curator talk on Saturday, November 16, 4-6pm.
The Space We Exist In serves as a platform for rich dialogue and self-reflection for both the artists and viewers by questioning what it means to ‘Hold Space’ or ‘Exist Within a Space.’ This exhibition features a diverse ensemble of visual artists whose practices create visual poetry that invites viewers to actively engage with the artworks. The exhibition fosters a deeper connection between art and the audience by challenging viewers to redefine their perceptions of the world and their place within it.
Each artist in this exhibition employs a unique blend of techniques and media, ranging from vivid representational objects to evocative abstract paintings. Patrick Alston , based in Connecticut, creates bold abstractions with striking color palettes and dynamic forms to evoke powerful emotional responses, prompting viewers to confront their perceptions and biases. New York City artist Kim Dacres sources her materials from recycled tires and found objects to make powerful sculptures that are commentaries on strength, resilience and the human spirit, imbuing the discarded everyday material with profound significance. Deborah Dancy , also based in Connecticut, renders her paintings with intricate detail and an emotive use of color, delving into the complexities of personal and collective memory. Clara Nartey , the third artist based in Connecticut, transforms textiles and embroidery threads into expressive and tactile figurative narratives, bridging the gap between traditional craft and contemporary art. Los Angeles-based artist Shinique Smith often incorporates fabric, calligraphy, and collage to explore themes of consumption, identity and cultural history. Her dynamic compositions challenge viewers to consider the material and conceptual spaces they occupy. Patick Quarm , based in Ghana, uses mixed-media in his portraiture that challenge traditional notions of identity and culture, using vibrant patterns and textures to explore the intersection of past and present. Austin Uzor , who is based in upstate New York, explores liminal spaces and questions of identity, displacement and the quest for belonging in his paintings.
The Space We Exist In is not just a visual journey but an intellectual and emotional experience. The selected works act as mirrors and portals, reflecting personal and collective experiences while offering glimpses into diverse perspectives. This exhibition seeks to create a space where viewers can pause, reflect, and engage in meaningful conversations about the narratives articulated by the artists and those of others, ultimately fostering a sense of community and shared humanity.
By bringing together a rich tapestry of voices and visions, this exhibition underscores the power of art to transcend boundaries and connect us to our innermost selves and each other during a tumultuous time in our society. "The Space We Exist In," an exhibition that promises to challenge and transform how we perceive the world and our place within it.
Artists in the exhibition:
Patrick Alston
Kim Dacres
Deborah Dancy
Clara Nartey
Patrick Quarm
Shinique Smith
Austin Uzor
About the Curator :
Larry Ossei-Mensah is a Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic reshaping our perceptions of art and society with a dynamic blend of innovation and inclusivity. Ossei-Mensah has leveraged his curatorial practice as a platform to establish a global footprint, having curated exhibitions from Manila to London to Athens and, most recently, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ossei-Mensah employs contemporary art and culture as a powerful medium for challenging norms and fostering a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world.
Formerly the Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAD), Detroit, and Curator-at-Large at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Ossei-Mensah catalyzes change. Co-founding the nonprofit ARTNOIR, he pioneers racial equity in the art world, amplifying the voices of creatives, curators, and communities of color. Ossei-Mensah's influence spans the globe, curating exhibitions in renowned spaces like MOAD in San Francisco, MASS MoCA, The Metropolitan Museum in Manila, The Seattle Art Museum, Ben Brown Fine Arts in Hong Kong and London, as co-curated of the 7th Athen Biennale in Athens, and most recently the Denver Art Museum where organized a multivenue solo museum debut for Amoako Boafo - Soul of Black Folks.
Recently, Ossei-Mensah curated with ARTNOIR and UBS Bank the groundbreaking multimedia presentation, "The Poetics of Dimensions," at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2023, hailed by Harper’s Bazaar Magazine as a standout exhibition. The presentation featured artists Nari Ward, Sonia Gomes, Melissa Joseph, Anthony Akinbola, and Julianknxx. Ossei-Mensah consistently pushes the boundaries of contemporary expression by collaborating with trailblazing artists such as Steve McQueen, Sanford Biggers, February James, Chase Hall, Catherine Opie, Firelei Baez, and Judy Chicago.
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. For more information and/or high-res images, please contact Rachael Palacios rachael@heathergaudiofineart.com
"The Space We Exist In" curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah
Open Arts Alliance is proud to announce auditions for its upcoming spring MainStage, the regional premiere of Beetlejuice jr.. Auditions will be held December 3, 4, and 5 at Greenwich Arts Council, 299 Greenwich Avenue, Greenwich CT, 06830. Callbacks will be held on December 6 at 6pm.
Based on Tim Burton’s classic comedy film, Beetlejuice was an audience favorite during its Broadway run and nominated for eight Tony awards, including Best Musical. Lydia Deetz is not your typical teenager. She is enchanted by all things haunted and supernatural. So when her father moves her into a brand new home, Lydia is delighted to discover her new house is haunted by a quirky couple of ghosts named the Maitlands, and one notorious demon named… Beetlejuice! Tim Burton’s masterpiece is brought “back from the dead” to hilarious results. This zany, madcap musical is “frightfully” hilarious and fun for the whole family, guaranteed to make you want to dance till “daylight come”.
All youth in grades 2-12 are encouraged to audition. Required audition registration can be completed at www.OpenArtsAlliance.com. Auditions slots are limited, and will likely fill up quickly. Auditioners need only attend one of the scheduled audition dates. Children auditioning should be prepared to sing 16 bars of a song of their choosing, a cappella, and be ready for a possible dance audition.
For more information, please visit www.OpenArtsAlliance.com
Auditions- "Beetlejuice JR."
Featuring 2024-2025 Korry Fellow Lauren Clayton, and Regional Artists Holly Danger and Brian Kaspr, STACKED: MERGING LAYERS promises to be a kaleidoscope of colors and deeply meaningful messages.The three artists cross paths in their journey of creation, experimentation , stacks of sketchbooks, journals, and ephemera works that transcend their given mediums.
STACKED: MERGING LAYERS
Santa and his three LIVE reindeer return to Greenwich for the 16th Annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop presented by Jenny Allen at Compass Real Estate , the “North Pole on North Street,” Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, 437 North Street, Greenwich, Connecticut, from November 29 to December 24, 2024. The cherished town tradition continues for the sixteenth consecutive year at this expansive nursery where visitors can have their photo taken with Santa, meet the reindeer and also enjoy Santa’s Workshop sponsored by Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group, which provides more space for families. Guests can enjoy the “Reindeer Coloring Station" sponsored by Jenny Allen at Compass and "Letter Writing to Santa Station" sponsored by Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group," while waiting in line for their photo with Santa. A portion of all photos with Santa will be donated to Kids In Crisis, a non-profit organization based in Greenwich, but serves all of Connecticut. A Kids In Crisis Giving Tree will also be available for people to support their important mission. We’re excited to welcome the new Reindeer Stable Sponsor, Greenwich Braces. This all takes place just minutes from downtown Greenwich. Parking is free. Children, adults, and all dogs (on leashes) can have their photo taken with Santa at Santa’s Workshop. PLEASE BRING YOUR DOG FOR PHOTOS WITH SANTA ANYTIME WE'RE OPEN, but for an added incentive to visit Santa with your dog when the lines aren’t as long as Saturday, you'll receive a Doggy Gift Bag sponsored by Cornell University Veterinary Specialists every Monday - Friday throughout the event.
To recognize the 16th year, the event we will once again be “CELEBRATING FAMILY TRADITIONS.” Top of the list for hundreds of families is visiting Santa’s LIVE Reindeer and having family and pet Photos with Santa at beautiful Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses. The unique holiday attraction has become an important family tradition for thousands of families over the past 15 years.
Help celebrate sixteen years by sharing your families past Greenwich Reindeer Festival Photos with Santa. With your permission, the event will post them on their Instagram and Facebook pages. They’re excited to feature many different families and what a fun family tradition like the Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop means to your family. Please email the event at, tamara@tmk-eventmarketing.com They look forward to hearing from you and your family!
The community is invited to Sam Bridge for a “We’re Back Party Days” on Friday, November 29, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday, November 30, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., when Santa’s Workshop officially opens for photos with Santa. While waiting for the reindeer to arrive Friday afternoon, everyone can enjoy special refreshments, balloon artists, live music entertainment, Rising Starr Horse Rescue, food trucks, and many other special activities, which will also continue all-day Saturday!
Please check the website, www.GreenwichReindeerFestival.com, for all pricing for all photo packages. Hours for the Photos with Santa, are Mondays through Fridays, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Christmas Eve, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sam Bridge is closed on Sundays. The reindeer will depart on Saturday, December 23 but Santa will remain for photos Christmas Eve, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
A big thank you to our many sponsors who help to make this very special holiday event possible: Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, Jenny Allen at Compass #1 Residential Real Estate Brokerage in the US, Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group, Greenwich Braces, Mercedes-Benz of Greenwich, Avelo Airlines, Greenwich Hospital, Little Friends, Kate Stone College Consulting, MH Heaven Real Estate, The Studio Greenwich, Val’s Putnam Wines & Liquors, Bonjo Coffee Roasters, Cornell University Veterinary Specialists, Get Joy Food, Earth Animal, Spot On Veterinary Hospital & Hotel, Citarella Gourmet Market, Vineyard Vines, The Mews in Greenwich, Interstate + Lakeland Lumber, Eagle Fence & Guardrail. Premier Media Sponsor; Greenwich Magazine/Moffly Media. Additional Media Sponsors: Best of CT Moms, CT Kids & Family, Fairfield County Mom, Greenwich Moms, Greenwich Time/Hearst Media, InGreenwich, Jen Danzi, Kidsoutandabout.com, Macaroni Kid, Natural Awakenings Magazine, News 12 CT. A portion of all Photos with Santa will be donated to Kids In Crisis. For more information and to view all sponsors, please visit; www.GreenwichReindeerFestival.com
Please like us and follow us on social media;
https://www.facebook.com/GreenwichReindeerFestival/ and
https://www.instagram.com/greenwichreindeerfestival/
16th Annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop presented by Jenny Allen at Compass Real Estate
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
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Join us during Let's Celebrate! Worldwide, a joyful exploration of holiday traditions from around the globe. Experience the warmth of Thanksgiving through giving and gathering, discover the wonder of international fables and folktales and enjoy a special countdown to 2025 as we learn how other cultures ring in the new year.
Enchanting visits with Santa Claus, magical nightly tree lighting ceremonies and exciting performances round out this unforgettable seasonal celebration.
Let's Celebrate! Worldwide
Exhibition Dates: November 17, 2024 - February 16, 2025
When Shelly Ramsay’s entry was awarded Best in Show in our 2023 Annual Members’ Exhibition, she immediately started preparing for her prize: a solo exhibition in 2024. Our gallery walls are now filled with her fresh and colorful prints, which wonderfully blend both the abstract and representational, with shapes both geometric and organic. In a world besieged by dichotomies, Shelly Ramsay's work shows us how to hold two things at once.
Shelly Ramsay: Stencils and Collage
Exhibition Dates: November 17, 2024 - February 16, 2025
This year’s Members Exhibition theme is Civic/Civil Engagement. Realizing that the election looms large this year, rather than trying to ignore it, we asked our artists to explore what civil civic engagement means to them and how they express their perspectives through printmaking. The work on view demonstrates their efforts to contribute to the discourse in a constructive way to bring about greater understanding.
Awards Juror: Carey Mack Weber – Executive Director, Fairfield University Art Museum
Annual Members Exhibition: Civic/Civil Engagement
This December, Geary Gallery proudly presents "Journey's Expressions" featuring the vibrant abstract paintings of Rye, NY artist, Cécile Roberfroid. Her exhibit runs December 4-24. All are welcome and admission is free. The Geary Gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and is located at 576 Boston Post Road, Darien, CT 06820. For more details, call (203) 655-6633 or visit our website: www.gearygallery.com.
Cécile Roberfroid: Journey’s Expressions at the Geary Gallery in Darien, CT
Fourteen area artists from Wilson Avenue Loft Artists will bring holiday spirit to Wilton Library's November-December art exhibition "Amazing Stories and Wondrous Visions." Wilson Avenue Loft Artists (WALA), founded in 2007, is located on the border of Norwalk and Rowayton and provides studio spaces for artists working in a variety of media, including painting, collage, printmaking, sculpture, and photography. WALA's goal is to provide a supportive environment for making artwork and connections to the arts community, especially during their annual Open Studio Weekend.
The artists from the group will be exhibiting their works in an array of styles, media choices, and subject matter. The artists are: Jay Brodsky (Scarsdale, NY), Connie Brown (New Canaan), Erin Dolan (Norwalk), Heide Follin (Norwalk), Lori Glavin (Bovina Center, NY), Ruth Ipe, Elisa Keogh (Norwalk), Nancy McTague-Stock (Norwalk), Andrea Metchick (Westport), Lily Morgan (Stamford), Claudia Renfro (Pound Ridge, NY), Missy Savard (Fairfield), Vicki French Smith (Darien), and Susan Cutler Tremaine (Darien).
Opening reception on Friday, November 15 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. is free and open to the public. Exhibition runs through December 13. A majority of the works will be available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the library.
"Amazing Stories and Wondrous Visions" Art Exhibition
The Flinn Gallery will be presenting bold and vibrant abstract works for its November 14 opening of Extra Extra, a three-person exhibition running through January 8, 2025.
Sharing a common strategy, Palma Blank, Stephen Maine and Doreen McCarthy create artworks of visual abundance and intensity, pointing to the “extra” in Extra Extra!
Dedicated to Abstraction, each artist approaches their work with distinct processes and materials to convey visual energy. Viewing these works elicits a physical experience that can be both mesmerizing and momentarily jarring.
Stephen Maine’s indirect production method employs a system of foam board printing plates, which allows him to put his high contrast paint under pressure. He juxtaposes his more deliberate color relationships with the spontaneity and chance effects of this painting method. All the while, color, scale, surface, and seriality are kept in place.
Palma Blank also uses striking color juxtapositions for maximal effects. Painting through her own digitally created pattern stencils, she applies layers of dashes and stripes of color across the canvas. Slowly shifting shapes emerge from the work, charged with energy. Grounded in real visual moments, she is influenced by the phenomenological ideas associated with Impressionism. Building on this premise, Blank’s optical illusions simulate the movement of light and form through virtual space.
While Maine and Blank use non-traditional methods to achieve greater chromatic intensity in their painting, Doreen McCarthy creates a similar visual impact in her sculptural work. McCarthy’s inflatable vinyl sculptures become giant drawings in space, pushing viewers to engage with their own comparative scale. Complex forms of tangled tubes with inverted twists bounce toward viewers in distinct hues. This physical interplay between mass and gravity creates an arresting sense of torqued energy.
All three of the artists in Extra Extra prompt an overwhelming response.
The psychology of visual perception can cast these works as playful, pushy, reflective, or electric. Regardless of interpretation, the works of Maine, Blank and McCarthy grab and hold onto the viewers’ attention.
Doreen McCarthy is a multimedia artist based in New York City. Since 1985 her work has been exhibited in the United States, Europe, China and Japan. She received a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) focused in Painting from City University of New York-Hunter College. Throughout her career she has received grants, awards and residencies at various institutions including Edward Albee Foundation, Santa Fe Art Institute and the Indiana University Institute of Art.
Stephen Maine is a painter and writer living in West Cornwall, CT. Maine earned a BFA (Painting), Indiana University, Bloomington, and an MFA (Visual Art), Vermont College of Fine Arts. From 1982 until 2017, he lived and worked in New York City and continues to show there and in Connecticut. Maine’s writing has appeared regularly in Art in America, ARTnews, Artnet magazine, Art on Paper, Artillery; and Hyperallergic.com. He has taught at numerous universities including most recently at SUNY Purchase, where he was Chair of the Bachelor of Science in Visual Arts program.
Palma Blank is based in Brooklyn, NY and was born in Norwalk, CT. She received an MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT, and a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. Her paintings have been exhibited throughout New York including most recently in Ninth Street Women: 70 Years of Women in Abstraction, at Hunter Dunbar Projects and Psychonautic Traces, at Davidson Gallery, New York, NY. Her work has been acquired by the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris and NY Presbyterian Hospital, along with many other collections. She is on the board of directors at Black Ball Projects, a non-profit arts organization supporting underexposed contemporary artists in New York City.
Events:
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 14 from 6 - 8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, December 7, 2pm
Extra Extra is curated by Flinn Gallery committee member Kirsten Pitts. The Flinn Gallery is a non-profit organization sponsored by Friends of the Greenwich Library.
The Gallery welcomes visitors daily Monday to Saturday, 10-5pm, Thursday until 8pm, and Sunday 1-5pm, and is located on the second floor of the Greenwich Library, 101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT.
New Exhibit: Extra Extra
Come shop among a curated selection of small, original artwork (up to 18″ x 18″, $300 or less) in a variety of media. Limited-edition prints and other handcrafted items such as ornaments, greeting cards, candles, jewelry, textiles and ceramics are also available in a wide range of price points.
Don’t miss our annual showcase of spectacular, one-of-a-kind WREATHS created by artisans, artists, designers and other creatives for our annual auction! Bidding runs from Sunday, Dec. 1 – Thursday, Dec. 5 (auction closes at 8:30pm). Wreaths can be taken home at our Deck The Walls Holiday Party Dec. 5, or picked up Dec. 6/7 from the Carriage Barn.
Annual Deck the Walls Holiday Exhibit at the Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan
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
The annual Holiday Gift Show at the Rowayton Arts Center (RAC) transforms the gallery into a shopping wonderland with original, handcrafted items and artwork from November 29 to December 24. Shop one-of-a-kind gifts by local artists: original cards, prints, paintings, ornaments, jewelry, ceramics, and knitted items galore by over 50 artists/artisans. Proceeds from the Holiday Gift Show are used to support RAC and its educational outreach.
Special Opening Weekend Hours: Friday, November 29 (12-5pm), Saturday, November 30 (10am-5pm) and Sunday, December 1 (12am-7pm) during LIGHT UP ROWAYTON. After that hours for the show are Tuesday through Friday from 12 pm to 5 pm, Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 12 pm to 5 pm (closed on Monday). The gallery will be open Christmas Eve December 24 from 10 am to 2 pm.
Visit rowaytonarts.org and follow @rowaytonarts.
Rowayton Arts Center Holiday Gift Show
Southport Studio, 212 Center Street, Southport, CT
Semi-private, Any Medium
1PM - 3PM
Tuesdays, November 19/December 3
Thursdays, December 5/12/19
One class $55., Two classes only $100., Three for only $140.
More dates for 2025 will be announced.
Can’t make on those days? Let us know which days and times work for you.
Painting Lessons
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
Heather Gaudio Fine Art is pleased to present The Space We Exist In, a ground-breaking exhibition curated by the renowned Ghanaian-American art curator Larry Ossei-Mensah. This is the first time the gallery invites a guest curator to organize an exhibition. The group show will open on November 16th and will run through January 18th, 2025. The public is invited to attend an opening reception and curator talk on Saturday, November 16, 4-6pm.
The Space We Exist In serves as a platform for rich dialogue and self-reflection for both the artists and viewers by questioning what it means to ‘Hold Space’ or ‘Exist Within a Space.’ This exhibition features a diverse ensemble of visual artists whose practices create visual poetry that invites viewers to actively engage with the artworks. The exhibition fosters a deeper connection between art and the audience by challenging viewers to redefine their perceptions of the world and their place within it.
Each artist in this exhibition employs a unique blend of techniques and media, ranging from vivid representational objects to evocative abstract paintings. Patrick Alston , based in Connecticut, creates bold abstractions with striking color palettes and dynamic forms to evoke powerful emotional responses, prompting viewers to confront their perceptions and biases. New York City artist Kim Dacres sources her materials from recycled tires and found objects to make powerful sculptures that are commentaries on strength, resilience and the human spirit, imbuing the discarded everyday material with profound significance. Deborah Dancy , also based in Connecticut, renders her paintings with intricate detail and an emotive use of color, delving into the complexities of personal and collective memory. Clara Nartey , the third artist based in Connecticut, transforms textiles and embroidery threads into expressive and tactile figurative narratives, bridging the gap between traditional craft and contemporary art. Los Angeles-based artist Shinique Smith often incorporates fabric, calligraphy, and collage to explore themes of consumption, identity and cultural history. Her dynamic compositions challenge viewers to consider the material and conceptual spaces they occupy. Patick Quarm , based in Ghana, uses mixed-media in his portraiture that challenge traditional notions of identity and culture, using vibrant patterns and textures to explore the intersection of past and present. Austin Uzor , who is based in upstate New York, explores liminal spaces and questions of identity, displacement and the quest for belonging in his paintings.
The Space We Exist In is not just a visual journey but an intellectual and emotional experience. The selected works act as mirrors and portals, reflecting personal and collective experiences while offering glimpses into diverse perspectives. This exhibition seeks to create a space where viewers can pause, reflect, and engage in meaningful conversations about the narratives articulated by the artists and those of others, ultimately fostering a sense of community and shared humanity.
By bringing together a rich tapestry of voices and visions, this exhibition underscores the power of art to transcend boundaries and connect us to our innermost selves and each other during a tumultuous time in our society. "The Space We Exist In," an exhibition that promises to challenge and transform how we perceive the world and our place within it.
Artists in the exhibition:
Patrick Alston
Kim Dacres
Deborah Dancy
Clara Nartey
Patrick Quarm
Shinique Smith
Austin Uzor
About the Curator :
Larry Ossei-Mensah is a Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic reshaping our perceptions of art and society with a dynamic blend of innovation and inclusivity. Ossei-Mensah has leveraged his curatorial practice as a platform to establish a global footprint, having curated exhibitions from Manila to London to Athens and, most recently, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ossei-Mensah employs contemporary art and culture as a powerful medium for challenging norms and fostering a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world.
Formerly the Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAD), Detroit, and Curator-at-Large at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Ossei-Mensah catalyzes change. Co-founding the nonprofit ARTNOIR, he pioneers racial equity in the art world, amplifying the voices of creatives, curators, and communities of color. Ossei-Mensah's influence spans the globe, curating exhibitions in renowned spaces like MOAD in San Francisco, MASS MoCA, The Metropolitan Museum in Manila, The Seattle Art Museum, Ben Brown Fine Arts in Hong Kong and London, as co-curated of the 7th Athen Biennale in Athens, and most recently the Denver Art Museum where organized a multivenue solo museum debut for Amoako Boafo - Soul of Black Folks.
Recently, Ossei-Mensah curated with ARTNOIR and UBS Bank the groundbreaking multimedia presentation, "The Poetics of Dimensions," at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2023, hailed by Harper’s Bazaar Magazine as a standout exhibition. The presentation featured artists Nari Ward, Sonia Gomes, Melissa Joseph, Anthony Akinbola, and Julianknxx. Ossei-Mensah consistently pushes the boundaries of contemporary expression by collaborating with trailblazing artists such as Steve McQueen, Sanford Biggers, February James, Chase Hall, Catherine Opie, Firelei Baez, and Judy Chicago.
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. For more information and/or high-res images, please contact Rachael Palacios rachael@heathergaudiofineart.com
"The Space We Exist In" curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah
On Thurs., Dec. 5 , 4 to 5 p.m. , The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum will join Santa Claus and his loyal elves for a special holiday celebration at City Hall, at 125 East Avenue, Norwalk, CT. The visit with Santa will be free but reservations online are required. Santa will greet all children, naughty or nice, and hear their Christmas wishes before heading back to the North Pole to prepare for his big night.
Holiday treats, such as warm apple cider, hot chocolate, and cookies will be served while families shop for gifts at the Mansion’s pop-up Gift Shop Corner featuring Christmas ornaments, museum-centric accessories, and an eclectic mix of gift items including logo embroidered totes, vintage and designer jewelry, scarves and books for people of all ages.
Although the legend of Santa Claus is steeped in ancient traditions dating back to the third century, and later re-interpreted by the Dutch with the story of Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus and the gift-giving Christmas tradition was popularized in America by renowned author Washington Irving in the early nineteenth century.
“Irving advanced Christmas as the festive pageant of presents and feasting that now dominates the American winter calendar.” (The National Endowment for the Humanities). Thomas Nast, a renowned Victorian cartoonist is credited with creating the modern image of Santa Claus.
This event is sponsored in part by L LMMM’s 2024 Season Distinguished Benefactors: The City of Norwalk, The Maurice Goodman Foundation , and Lockwood-Mathews Foundation, Inc. L MMM’s Founding Patrons: The Estate of Mrs. Cynthia Clark Brown and LMMM’s Leadership Patrons: The Sealark Foundation.
For more information on tours and programs, please visit www.lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, email info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, or call 203-838-9799.
A visit with Santa Claus and his Loyal Elves
Drop in to Sip & Shop Local for the Holidays!
Peruse gifts and products from 20+ vendors, including hand knits, geodes & minerals, clothing, jewelry, candles, paper & stationery, home décor, crafted wooden goods, wellness items, and more. Enjoy complimentary champagne and gingerbread cookies while you shop — we’ll even have toasty hot adult beverages available to purchase in support of the SM&NC!
Thursday, December 5
5 – 8 pm
FREE for all!
No registration required, but click here for more information.
SM&NC Holiday Market Sip & Shop
We’re bringing design to the big screen with a double feature that dives deep into typography.
First up is “Helvetica,” the documentary that shows how a simple typeface became a global force, shaping design and culture in ways you’ve probably never even realized. Then stick around for “Font Men,” the story of two former competitors who came together to change the world of font design. Grab a seat, open your mind, and let’s explore how the smallest design choices ripple across the world.
Doors open at 4:30 PM. Tickets available at the front door.
ColleCTomania Film Screening of ‘Helvetica’ + ‘Font Men’
History is often best explored through the beverages and cuisine of a particular era. To help get into the mind of Charles Dickens, author of the holiday classic A Christmas Carol, join renowned writer, historian, and bartender Al Culliton as they take participants through the process of making authentic eggnog, punches, and more.
Culliton is a transmasculine writer, historian, and bartender based in the hilltowns of western Massachusetts. Their work currently focuses on the intersection of American cocktails, food, and culture from the age of punch through the 1960s and, sometimes, the 21st century.
Maximum of 40 people, RSVP required
$50 for non-members of Pequot Library
$40 for members of Pequot Library
Drinks with Dickens | A Victorian England Cocktail Class
On Thurs., Dec. 5 , at 6 p.m. , the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum will present Kenneth Turino for an illustrated talk titled, “The Spirit of Christmas Past: Four Centuries of Christmas in America.” Mr. Turino, a renowned expert on holiday traditions, will take questions from lecture-goers after his presentation. The talk will be held in the Community Room at City Hall in Norwalk, CT. To reserve tickets, attendees can visit the Events page on the Museum’s website at www.lockwoodmathewsmansion.com. Admission is $15 for members, $20 for non-members. Light refreshments will be offered following the presentation.
This well-illustrated lecture traces the development of the celebration of Christmas from when it was outlawed in 17th Century New England through the mid-21st Century when all the trappings of a traditional Christmas were in place. For many, the celebration of Christmas today is the most important holiday of the year. However, many of the customs, which we take for granted as part of the current holiday festivities and religious celebrations, are actually a product of more recent history. The presentation will look at how Christmas transformed from a rowdy celebration to a family centered event. Among the topics discussed are how Christmas trees were raised, halls were decked, and Santa Claus came to town.
Kenneth Turino is currently a Senior Consultant for Museum Search and Reference, an executive search firm. Previously, he was Manager of Community Partnerships and Resource Development at Historic New England. There he oversaw community engagement projects throughout New England for 24 years and was responsible for exhibition partnerships at Historic New England’s museums. Prior to this, he was Executive Director of the Lynn Museum in Lynn, Massachusetts for 14 years. Ken frequently consults on interpretive planning and community engagement projects at historic sites including Madam John’s Legacy, New Orleans, LA, on best practices of community engagement, James Madison’s Montpellier, Orange, VA, where he was part of a charrette to rethink the visitor experience and more recently with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater on interpreting LGBTQ history. Ken holds a MA in Teaching, Museum Education, from The George Washington University and is an adjunct professor in the Tufts University Museum Studies Program where he teaches courses on the future of historic houses and exhibition planning. Mr. Turino currently serves on the Board of the American Association for State and Local History and is former President of the Board of Trustees of the House of Seven Gables in Salem, MA. Along with Max van Balgooy he is an instructor for AASLH‘s Reinventing the Historic House workshop and the two have edited, “Reimaging Historic House Museums, New Approaches and Proven Solutions.” Ken frequently speaks on the history of Christmas and his book “Interpreting Christmas at Museums and Historic Sites” was published in September 2024.
LMMM’s 2024 Lecture Series is made possible in part by: The DiNardo & The Aiello Family Fund , John R & Dorothy D Caples Fund , and Elliott Tuckel. LMMM’s 2024 programs are made possible in part by LMMM’s Founding Patrons: The Estate of Mrs. Cynthia Clark Brown ; LMMM’s Leadership Patrons: The Sealark Foundation ; and LMMM’s 2024 Season Distinguished Benefactors: The City of Norwalk, The Maurice Goodman Foundation , and Lockwood-Mathews Foundation, Inc. For more information on tours and programs, please visit www.lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, email info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, or call 203-838-9799.
The Spirit of Christmas Past: Four Centuries of Christmas in America
Open Arts Alliance is proud to announce auditions for its upcoming spring MainStage, the regional premiere of Beetlejuice jr.. Auditions will be held December 3, 4, and 5 at Greenwich Arts Council, 299 Greenwich Avenue, Greenwich CT, 06830. Callbacks will be held on December 6 at 6pm.
Based on Tim Burton’s classic comedy film, Beetlejuice was an audience favorite during its Broadway run and nominated for eight Tony awards, including Best Musical. Lydia Deetz is not your typical teenager. She is enchanted by all things haunted and supernatural. So when her father moves her into a brand new home, Lydia is delighted to discover her new house is haunted by a quirky couple of ghosts named the Maitlands, and one notorious demon named… Beetlejuice! Tim Burton’s masterpiece is brought “back from the dead” to hilarious results. This zany, madcap musical is “frightfully” hilarious and fun for the whole family, guaranteed to make you want to dance till “daylight come”.
All youth in grades 2-12 are encouraged to audition. Required audition registration can be completed at www.OpenArtsAlliance.com. Auditions slots are limited, and will likely fill up quickly. Auditioners need only attend one of the scheduled audition dates. Children auditioning should be prepared to sing 16 bars of a song of their choosing, a cappella, and be ready for a possible dance audition.
For more information, please visit www.OpenArtsAlliance.com
Auditions- "Beetlejuice JR."
Enjoy music, light bites & merriment in the most festive atmosphere. Mingle at the cocktail bar, shop for artist-made holiday gifts and small works, and bid on the holiday wreaths while supporting the Carriage Barn Arts Center!
** Wreath Auction bidding ends at 8:30pm **
Tickets $40 each
Deck the Walls Annual Holiday Party & Wreath Auction at the Carriage Barn
Please join us as we welcome author Ethan Joella to the Fairfield Public Library. Joella will be discussing his latest book, The Same Bright Stars, with us. He is also the author of A Little Hope , which was a "Read with Jenna" Bonus Selection, and A Quiet Life.
Refreshments will be served at 6, and the author will speak at 6:30.
Registration encouraged.
Author Talk with Ethan Joella
David is a real master, the most recorded contemporary jazz pianist of our time, having recorded thirty five CDs as a leader and hundreds more as a sideman, on various major labels globally!
"David Hazeltine is one of a handful of contemporary pianists who has mastered all of the major musical skills, from improvisation and technique, to accompaniment, arranging, and composition. Even more impressive, David is the rare artist able to innovate in each category. Thus it’s no surprise that he’s the most recorded contemporary jazz pianist of our time, having recorded thirty five cd’s as a leader and hundreds more as a sideman, on various major labels globally. A Milwaukee native, David was playing the clubs as a preteen, and before he’d even come of age he was already grabbing the attention and respect of jazz legends like Sonny Stitt, and Chet Baker."
David Hazeltine - piano
Josh Brunei - trumpet
Greg Wall - saxes
Boots Maleson - bass
Tim Horner - drums
David Hazeltine, lauded jazz pianist, at Jazz at the Post
**THIS EVENT IS HELD AT BE WELL COMMUNITY YOGA N. CANAAN CT**
JOIN US FOR AN EVENING OF DEEP CONVERSATION VIA TAROT & ASTROLOGY!
EACH PARTICIPANT WILL RECEIVE HELPFUL INSIGHTS FROM THE GROUP AND THE INSTRUCTORS.
NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY
DECKS PROVIDED
SPACE IS LIMITED TO 8
12/5 Group Tarot & Astrology Reading@Be Well Community Yoga N. Canaan, CT
Featuring 2024-2025 Korry Fellow Lauren Clayton, and Regional Artists Holly Danger and Brian Kaspr, STACKED: MERGING LAYERS promises to be a kaleidoscope of colors and deeply meaningful messages.The three artists cross paths in their journey of creation, experimentation , stacks of sketchbooks, journals, and ephemera works that transcend their given mediums.
STACKED: MERGING LAYERS
Santa and his three LIVE reindeer return to Greenwich for the 16th Annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop presented by Jenny Allen at Compass Real Estate , the “North Pole on North Street,” Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, 437 North Street, Greenwich, Connecticut, from November 29 to December 24, 2024. The cherished town tradition continues for the sixteenth consecutive year at this expansive nursery where visitors can have their photo taken with Santa, meet the reindeer and also enjoy Santa’s Workshop sponsored by Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group, which provides more space for families. Guests can enjoy the “Reindeer Coloring Station" sponsored by Jenny Allen at Compass and "Letter Writing to Santa Station" sponsored by Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group," while waiting in line for their photo with Santa. A portion of all photos with Santa will be donated to Kids In Crisis, a non-profit organization based in Greenwich, but serves all of Connecticut. A Kids In Crisis Giving Tree will also be available for people to support their important mission. We’re excited to welcome the new Reindeer Stable Sponsor, Greenwich Braces. This all takes place just minutes from downtown Greenwich. Parking is free. Children, adults, and all dogs (on leashes) can have their photo taken with Santa at Santa’s Workshop. PLEASE BRING YOUR DOG FOR PHOTOS WITH SANTA ANYTIME WE'RE OPEN, but for an added incentive to visit Santa with your dog when the lines aren’t as long as Saturday, you'll receive a Doggy Gift Bag sponsored by Cornell University Veterinary Specialists every Monday - Friday throughout the event.
To recognize the 16th year, the event we will once again be “CELEBRATING FAMILY TRADITIONS.” Top of the list for hundreds of families is visiting Santa’s LIVE Reindeer and having family and pet Photos with Santa at beautiful Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses. The unique holiday attraction has become an important family tradition for thousands of families over the past 15 years.
Help celebrate sixteen years by sharing your families past Greenwich Reindeer Festival Photos with Santa. With your permission, the event will post them on their Instagram and Facebook pages. They’re excited to feature many different families and what a fun family tradition like the Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop means to your family. Please email the event at, tamara@tmk-eventmarketing.com They look forward to hearing from you and your family!
The community is invited to Sam Bridge for a “We’re Back Party Days” on Friday, November 29, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday, November 30, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., when Santa’s Workshop officially opens for photos with Santa. While waiting for the reindeer to arrive Friday afternoon, everyone can enjoy special refreshments, balloon artists, live music entertainment, Rising Starr Horse Rescue, food trucks, and many other special activities, which will also continue all-day Saturday!
Please check the website, www.GreenwichReindeerFestival.com, for all pricing for all photo packages. Hours for the Photos with Santa, are Mondays through Fridays, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Christmas Eve, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sam Bridge is closed on Sundays. The reindeer will depart on Saturday, December 23 but Santa will remain for photos Christmas Eve, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
A big thank you to our many sponsors who help to make this very special holiday event possible: Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, Jenny Allen at Compass #1 Residential Real Estate Brokerage in the US, Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group, Greenwich Braces, Mercedes-Benz of Greenwich, Avelo Airlines, Greenwich Hospital, Little Friends, Kate Stone College Consulting, MH Heaven Real Estate, The Studio Greenwich, Val’s Putnam Wines & Liquors, Bonjo Coffee Roasters, Cornell University Veterinary Specialists, Get Joy Food, Earth Animal, Spot On Veterinary Hospital & Hotel, Citarella Gourmet Market, Vineyard Vines, The Mews in Greenwich, Interstate + Lakeland Lumber, Eagle Fence & Guardrail. Premier Media Sponsor; Greenwich Magazine/Moffly Media. Additional Media Sponsors: Best of CT Moms, CT Kids & Family, Fairfield County Mom, Greenwich Moms, Greenwich Time/Hearst Media, InGreenwich, Jen Danzi, Kidsoutandabout.com, Macaroni Kid, Natural Awakenings Magazine, News 12 CT. A portion of all Photos with Santa will be donated to Kids In Crisis. For more information and to view all sponsors, please visit; www.GreenwichReindeerFestival.com
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16th Annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop presented by Jenny Allen at Compass Real Estate
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
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Join us during Let's Celebrate! Worldwide, a joyful exploration of holiday traditions from around the globe. Experience the warmth of Thanksgiving through giving and gathering, discover the wonder of international fables and folktales and enjoy a special countdown to 2025 as we learn how other cultures ring in the new year.
Enchanting visits with Santa Claus, magical nightly tree lighting ceremonies and exciting performances round out this unforgettable seasonal celebration.
Let's Celebrate! Worldwide
Exhibition Dates: November 17, 2024 - February 16, 2025
This year’s Members Exhibition theme is Civic/Civil Engagement. Realizing that the election looms large this year, rather than trying to ignore it, we asked our artists to explore what civil civic engagement means to them and how they express their perspectives through printmaking. The work on view demonstrates their efforts to contribute to the discourse in a constructive way to bring about greater understanding.
Awards Juror: Carey Mack Weber – Executive Director, Fairfield University Art Museum
Annual Members Exhibition: Civic/Civil Engagement
Exhibition Dates: November 17, 2024 - February 16, 2025
When Shelly Ramsay’s entry was awarded Best in Show in our 2023 Annual Members’ Exhibition, she immediately started preparing for her prize: a solo exhibition in 2024. Our gallery walls are now filled with her fresh and colorful prints, which wonderfully blend both the abstract and representational, with shapes both geometric and organic. In a world besieged by dichotomies, Shelly Ramsay's work shows us how to hold two things at once.
Shelly Ramsay: Stencils and Collage
This December, Geary Gallery proudly presents "Journey's Expressions" featuring the vibrant abstract paintings of Rye, NY artist, Cécile Roberfroid. Her exhibit runs December 4-24. All are welcome and admission is free. The Geary Gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and is located at 576 Boston Post Road, Darien, CT 06820. For more details, call (203) 655-6633 or visit our website: www.gearygallery.com.
Cécile Roberfroid: Journey’s Expressions at the Geary Gallery in Darien, CT
Fourteen area artists from Wilson Avenue Loft Artists will bring holiday spirit to Wilton Library's November-December art exhibition "Amazing Stories and Wondrous Visions." Wilson Avenue Loft Artists (WALA), founded in 2007, is located on the border of Norwalk and Rowayton and provides studio spaces for artists working in a variety of media, including painting, collage, printmaking, sculpture, and photography. WALA's goal is to provide a supportive environment for making artwork and connections to the arts community, especially during their annual Open Studio Weekend.
The artists from the group will be exhibiting their works in an array of styles, media choices, and subject matter. The artists are: Jay Brodsky (Scarsdale, NY), Connie Brown (New Canaan), Erin Dolan (Norwalk), Heide Follin (Norwalk), Lori Glavin (Bovina Center, NY), Ruth Ipe, Elisa Keogh (Norwalk), Nancy McTague-Stock (Norwalk), Andrea Metchick (Westport), Lily Morgan (Stamford), Claudia Renfro (Pound Ridge, NY), Missy Savard (Fairfield), Vicki French Smith (Darien), and Susan Cutler Tremaine (Darien).
Opening reception on Friday, November 15 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. is free and open to the public. Exhibition runs through December 13. A majority of the works will be available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the library.
"Amazing Stories and Wondrous Visions" Art Exhibition
The Flinn Gallery will be presenting bold and vibrant abstract works for its November 14 opening of Extra Extra, a three-person exhibition running through January 8, 2025.
Sharing a common strategy, Palma Blank, Stephen Maine and Doreen McCarthy create artworks of visual abundance and intensity, pointing to the “extra” in Extra Extra!
Dedicated to Abstraction, each artist approaches their work with distinct processes and materials to convey visual energy. Viewing these works elicits a physical experience that can be both mesmerizing and momentarily jarring.
Stephen Maine’s indirect production method employs a system of foam board printing plates, which allows him to put his high contrast paint under pressure. He juxtaposes his more deliberate color relationships with the spontaneity and chance effects of this painting method. All the while, color, scale, surface, and seriality are kept in place.
Palma Blank also uses striking color juxtapositions for maximal effects. Painting through her own digitally created pattern stencils, she applies layers of dashes and stripes of color across the canvas. Slowly shifting shapes emerge from the work, charged with energy. Grounded in real visual moments, she is influenced by the phenomenological ideas associated with Impressionism. Building on this premise, Blank’s optical illusions simulate the movement of light and form through virtual space.
While Maine and Blank use non-traditional methods to achieve greater chromatic intensity in their painting, Doreen McCarthy creates a similar visual impact in her sculptural work. McCarthy’s inflatable vinyl sculptures become giant drawings in space, pushing viewers to engage with their own comparative scale. Complex forms of tangled tubes with inverted twists bounce toward viewers in distinct hues. This physical interplay between mass and gravity creates an arresting sense of torqued energy.
All three of the artists in Extra Extra prompt an overwhelming response.
The psychology of visual perception can cast these works as playful, pushy, reflective, or electric. Regardless of interpretation, the works of Maine, Blank and McCarthy grab and hold onto the viewers’ attention.
Doreen McCarthy is a multimedia artist based in New York City. Since 1985 her work has been exhibited in the United States, Europe, China and Japan. She received a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) focused in Painting from City University of New York-Hunter College. Throughout her career she has received grants, awards and residencies at various institutions including Edward Albee Foundation, Santa Fe Art Institute and the Indiana University Institute of Art.
Stephen Maine is a painter and writer living in West Cornwall, CT. Maine earned a BFA (Painting), Indiana University, Bloomington, and an MFA (Visual Art), Vermont College of Fine Arts. From 1982 until 2017, he lived and worked in New York City and continues to show there and in Connecticut. Maine’s writing has appeared regularly in Art in America, ARTnews, Artnet magazine, Art on Paper, Artillery; and Hyperallergic.com. He has taught at numerous universities including most recently at SUNY Purchase, where he was Chair of the Bachelor of Science in Visual Arts program.
Palma Blank is based in Brooklyn, NY and was born in Norwalk, CT. She received an MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT, and a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. Her paintings have been exhibited throughout New York including most recently in Ninth Street Women: 70 Years of Women in Abstraction, at Hunter Dunbar Projects and Psychonautic Traces, at Davidson Gallery, New York, NY. Her work has been acquired by the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris and NY Presbyterian Hospital, along with many other collections. She is on the board of directors at Black Ball Projects, a non-profit arts organization supporting underexposed contemporary artists in New York City.
Events:
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 14 from 6 - 8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, December 7, 2pm
Extra Extra is curated by Flinn Gallery committee member Kirsten Pitts. The Flinn Gallery is a non-profit organization sponsored by Friends of the Greenwich Library.
The Gallery welcomes visitors daily Monday to Saturday, 10-5pm, Thursday until 8pm, and Sunday 1-5pm, and is located on the second floor of the Greenwich Library, 101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT.
New Exhibit: Extra Extra
Come shop among a curated selection of small, original artwork (up to 18″ x 18″, $300 or less) in a variety of media. Limited-edition prints and other handcrafted items such as ornaments, greeting cards, candles, jewelry, textiles and ceramics are also available in a wide range of price points.
Don’t miss our annual showcase of spectacular, one-of-a-kind WREATHS created by artisans, artists, designers and other creatives for our annual auction! Bidding runs from Sunday, Dec. 1 – Thursday, Dec. 5 (auction closes at 8:30pm). Wreaths can be taken home at our Deck The Walls Holiday Party Dec. 5, or picked up Dec. 6/7 from the Carriage Barn.
Annual Deck the Walls Holiday Exhibit at the Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan
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
The annual Holiday Gift Show at the Rowayton Arts Center (RAC) transforms the gallery into a shopping wonderland with original, handcrafted items and artwork from November 29 to December 24. Shop one-of-a-kind gifts by local artists: original cards, prints, paintings, ornaments, jewelry, ceramics, and knitted items galore by over 50 artists/artisans. Proceeds from the Holiday Gift Show are used to support RAC and its educational outreach.
Special Opening Weekend Hours: Friday, November 29 (12-5pm), Saturday, November 30 (10am-5pm) and Sunday, December 1 (12am-7pm) during LIGHT UP ROWAYTON. After that hours for the show are Tuesday through Friday from 12 pm to 5 pm, Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 12 pm to 5 pm (closed on Monday). The gallery will be open Christmas Eve December 24 from 10 am to 2 pm.
Visit rowaytonarts.org and follow @rowaytonarts.
Rowayton Arts Center Holiday Gift Show
Heather Gaudio Fine Art is pleased to present The Space We Exist In, a ground-breaking exhibition curated by the renowned Ghanaian-American art curator Larry Ossei-Mensah. This is the first time the gallery invites a guest curator to organize an exhibition. The group show will open on November 16th and will run through January 18th, 2025. The public is invited to attend an opening reception and curator talk on Saturday, November 16, 4-6pm.
The Space We Exist In serves as a platform for rich dialogue and self-reflection for both the artists and viewers by questioning what it means to ‘Hold Space’ or ‘Exist Within a Space.’ This exhibition features a diverse ensemble of visual artists whose practices create visual poetry that invites viewers to actively engage with the artworks. The exhibition fosters a deeper connection between art and the audience by challenging viewers to redefine their perceptions of the world and their place within it.
Each artist in this exhibition employs a unique blend of techniques and media, ranging from vivid representational objects to evocative abstract paintings. Patrick Alston , based in Connecticut, creates bold abstractions with striking color palettes and dynamic forms to evoke powerful emotional responses, prompting viewers to confront their perceptions and biases. New York City artist Kim Dacres sources her materials from recycled tires and found objects to make powerful sculptures that are commentaries on strength, resilience and the human spirit, imbuing the discarded everyday material with profound significance. Deborah Dancy , also based in Connecticut, renders her paintings with intricate detail and an emotive use of color, delving into the complexities of personal and collective memory. Clara Nartey , the third artist based in Connecticut, transforms textiles and embroidery threads into expressive and tactile figurative narratives, bridging the gap between traditional craft and contemporary art. Los Angeles-based artist Shinique Smith often incorporates fabric, calligraphy, and collage to explore themes of consumption, identity and cultural history. Her dynamic compositions challenge viewers to consider the material and conceptual spaces they occupy. Patick Quarm , based in Ghana, uses mixed-media in his portraiture that challenge traditional notions of identity and culture, using vibrant patterns and textures to explore the intersection of past and present. Austin Uzor , who is based in upstate New York, explores liminal spaces and questions of identity, displacement and the quest for belonging in his paintings.
The Space We Exist In is not just a visual journey but an intellectual and emotional experience. The selected works act as mirrors and portals, reflecting personal and collective experiences while offering glimpses into diverse perspectives. This exhibition seeks to create a space where viewers can pause, reflect, and engage in meaningful conversations about the narratives articulated by the artists and those of others, ultimately fostering a sense of community and shared humanity.
By bringing together a rich tapestry of voices and visions, this exhibition underscores the power of art to transcend boundaries and connect us to our innermost selves and each other during a tumultuous time in our society. "The Space We Exist In," an exhibition that promises to challenge and transform how we perceive the world and our place within it.
Artists in the exhibition:
Patrick Alston
Kim Dacres
Deborah Dancy
Clara Nartey
Patrick Quarm
Shinique Smith
Austin Uzor
About the Curator :
Larry Ossei-Mensah is a Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic reshaping our perceptions of art and society with a dynamic blend of innovation and inclusivity. Ossei-Mensah has leveraged his curatorial practice as a platform to establish a global footprint, having curated exhibitions from Manila to London to Athens and, most recently, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ossei-Mensah employs contemporary art and culture as a powerful medium for challenging norms and fostering a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world.
Formerly the Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAD), Detroit, and Curator-at-Large at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Ossei-Mensah catalyzes change. Co-founding the nonprofit ARTNOIR, he pioneers racial equity in the art world, amplifying the voices of creatives, curators, and communities of color. Ossei-Mensah's influence spans the globe, curating exhibitions in renowned spaces like MOAD in San Francisco, MASS MoCA, The Metropolitan Museum in Manila, The Seattle Art Museum, Ben Brown Fine Arts in Hong Kong and London, as co-curated of the 7th Athen Biennale in Athens, and most recently the Denver Art Museum where organized a multivenue solo museum debut for Amoako Boafo - Soul of Black Folks.
Recently, Ossei-Mensah curated with ARTNOIR and UBS Bank the groundbreaking multimedia presentation, "The Poetics of Dimensions," at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2023, hailed by Harper’s Bazaar Magazine as a standout exhibition. The presentation featured artists Nari Ward, Sonia Gomes, Melissa Joseph, Anthony Akinbola, and Julianknxx. Ossei-Mensah consistently pushes the boundaries of contemporary expression by collaborating with trailblazing artists such as Steve McQueen, Sanford Biggers, February James, Chase Hall, Catherine Opie, Firelei Baez, and Judy Chicago.
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. For more information and/or high-res images, please contact Rachael Palacios rachael@heathergaudiofineart.com
"The Space We Exist In" curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah
Come down to the Cabaret and get ready to ROFL!
Marion Grodin as seen on TV’s The View and The Late Show. Author of the hilarious and heartbreaking book “Standing Up-A Memoir of a Funny (Not Always) Life”. Marion has toured with Linda Ronstadt and opened for Lewis Black. She a shared the stage with Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle and Roseanne Barr
Brad Lowery as seen on HBO’s Inside The NFL, HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, Comedy Central’s Stand Up StandUp, BET’s ComicView, Showtime At The Apollo, Lifetime and A&E
Billy Garan as seen on Showtime, A&E, NBC and ABC and opening act for Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno and Michael Buble’
Cabaret Comedy Series
Music Theatre of Connecticut (MTC) MainStage, Fairfield County’s award-winning professional theatre company, continues its 38th season with Irving Berlin’s White Christmas The Musical. Based on the timeless and beloved film, this heartwarming musical adaptation promises to delight audiences of all ages with its uplifting story and classic songs. The production runs from December 6th through the 22nd with performances on Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm & 8pm, Sundays at 2pm. White Christmas will also have two Thursday performances on December 12th and 19th at 7pm.
White Christmas follows WWII veterans Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, a successful song-and-dance duo who meet the talented Haynes sisters, Betty and Judy. The men follow the sisters to their holiday show at a Vermont inn, only to discover it's owned by their former commander, General Waverley, who’s struggling to keep it afloat. To help, they plan a spectacular show with the sisters and the inn’s staff, sparking romance and holiday cheer along the way. Featuring Irving Berlin classics like “Blue Skies,” “I Love a Piano,” and the beloved “White Christmas,” this heartwarming musical is a festive celebration of love and friendship for all ages.
Irving Berlin's White Christmas The Musical
Santa and his three LIVE reindeer return to Greenwich for the 16th Annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop presented by Jenny Allen at Compass Real Estate , the “North Pole on North Street,” Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, 437 North Street, Greenwich, Connecticut, from November 29 to December 24, 2024. The cherished town tradition continues for the sixteenth consecutive year at this expansive nursery where visitors can have their photo taken with Santa, meet the reindeer and also enjoy Santa’s Workshop sponsored by Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group, which provides more space for families. Guests can enjoy the “Reindeer Coloring Station" sponsored by Jenny Allen at Compass and "Letter Writing to Santa Station" sponsored by Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group," while waiting in line for their photo with Santa. A portion of all photos with Santa will be donated to Kids In Crisis, a non-profit organization based in Greenwich, but serves all of Connecticut. A Kids In Crisis Giving Tree will also be available for people to support their important mission. We’re excited to welcome the new Reindeer Stable Sponsor, Greenwich Braces. This all takes place just minutes from downtown Greenwich. Parking is free. Children, adults, and all dogs (on leashes) can have their photo taken with Santa at Santa’s Workshop. PLEASE BRING YOUR DOG FOR PHOTOS WITH SANTA ANYTIME WE'RE OPEN, but for an added incentive to visit Santa with your dog when the lines aren’t as long as Saturday, you'll receive a Doggy Gift Bag sponsored by Cornell University Veterinary Specialists every Monday - Friday throughout the event.
To recognize the 16th year, the event we will once again be “CELEBRATING FAMILY TRADITIONS.” Top of the list for hundreds of families is visiting Santa’s LIVE Reindeer and having family and pet Photos with Santa at beautiful Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses. The unique holiday attraction has become an important family tradition for thousands of families over the past 15 years.
Help celebrate sixteen years by sharing your families past Greenwich Reindeer Festival Photos with Santa. With your permission, the event will post them on their Instagram and Facebook pages. They’re excited to feature many different families and what a fun family tradition like the Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop means to your family. Please email the event at, tamara@tmk-eventmarketing.com They look forward to hearing from you and your family!
The community is invited to Sam Bridge for a “We’re Back Party Days” on Friday, November 29, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday, November 30, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., when Santa’s Workshop officially opens for photos with Santa. While waiting for the reindeer to arrive Friday afternoon, everyone can enjoy special refreshments, balloon artists, live music entertainment, Rising Starr Horse Rescue, food trucks, and many other special activities, which will also continue all-day Saturday!
Please check the website, www.GreenwichReindeerFestival.com, for all pricing for all photo packages. Hours for the Photos with Santa, are Mondays through Fridays, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Christmas Eve, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sam Bridge is closed on Sundays. The reindeer will depart on Saturday, December 23 but Santa will remain for photos Christmas Eve, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
A big thank you to our many sponsors who help to make this very special holiday event possible: Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, Jenny Allen at Compass #1 Residential Real Estate Brokerage in the US, Greenwich Pediatric Dental Group, Greenwich Braces, Mercedes-Benz of Greenwich, Avelo Airlines, Greenwich Hospital, Little Friends, Kate Stone College Consulting, MH Heaven Real Estate, The Studio Greenwich, Val’s Putnam Wines & Liquors, Bonjo Coffee Roasters, Cornell University Veterinary Specialists, Get Joy Food, Earth Animal, Spot On Veterinary Hospital & Hotel, Citarella Gourmet Market, Vineyard Vines, The Mews in Greenwich, Interstate + Lakeland Lumber, Eagle Fence & Guardrail. Premier Media Sponsor; Greenwich Magazine/Moffly Media. Additional Media Sponsors: Best of CT Moms, CT Kids & Family, Fairfield County Mom, Greenwich Moms, Greenwich Time/Hearst Media, InGreenwich, Jen Danzi, Kidsoutandabout.com, Macaroni Kid, Natural Awakenings Magazine, News 12 CT. A portion of all Photos with Santa will be donated to Kids In Crisis. For more information and to view all sponsors, please visit; www.GreenwichReindeerFestival.com
Please like us and follow us on social media;
https://www.facebook.com/GreenwichReindeerFestival/ and
https://www.instagram.com/greenwichreindeerfestival/
16th Annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa’s Workshop presented by Jenny Allen at Compass Real Estate
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
Featuring 2024-2025 Korry Fellow Lauren Clayton, and Regional Artists Holly Danger and Brian Kaspr, STACKED: MERGING LAYERS promises to be a kaleidoscope of colors and deeply meaningful messages.The three artists cross paths in their journey of creation, experimentation , stacks of sketchbooks, journals, and ephemera works that transcend their given mediums.
STACKED: MERGING LAYERS
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Join us during Let's Celebrate! Worldwide, a joyful exploration of holiday traditions from around the globe. Experience the warmth of Thanksgiving through giving and gathering, discover the wonder of international fables and folktales and enjoy a special countdown to 2025 as we learn how other cultures ring in the new year.
Enchanting visits with Santa Claus, magical nightly tree lighting ceremonies and exciting performances round out this unforgettable seasonal celebration.
Let's Celebrate! Worldwide
Exhibition Dates: November 17, 2024 - February 16, 2025
When Shelly Ramsay’s entry was awarded Best in Show in our 2023 Annual Members’ Exhibition, she immediately started preparing for her prize: a solo exhibition in 2024. Our gallery walls are now filled with her fresh and colorful prints, which wonderfully blend both the abstract and representational, with shapes both geometric and organic. In a world besieged by dichotomies, Shelly Ramsay's work shows us how to hold two things at once.
Shelly Ramsay: Stencils and Collage
Exhibition Dates: November 17, 2024 - February 16, 2025
This year’s Members Exhibition theme is Civic/Civil Engagement. Realizing that the election looms large this year, rather than trying to ignore it, we asked our artists to explore what civil civic engagement means to them and how they express their perspectives through printmaking. The work on view demonstrates their efforts to contribute to the discourse in a constructive way to bring about greater understanding.
Awards Juror: Carey Mack Weber – Executive Director, Fairfield University Art Museum
Annual Members Exhibition: Civic/Civil Engagement
This December, Geary Gallery proudly presents "Journey's Expressions" featuring the vibrant abstract paintings of Rye, NY artist, Cécile Roberfroid. Her exhibit runs December 4-24. All are welcome and admission is free. The Geary Gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and is located at 576 Boston Post Road, Darien, CT 06820. For more details, call (203) 655-6633 or visit our website: www.gearygallery.com.
Cécile Roberfroid: Journey’s Expressions at the Geary Gallery in Darien, CT
The Greenwich Art Society is offering Saturday Children's Art Classes:
YOUNG ARTISTS IN THE STUDIO, AGES 6-8
12 Saturdays
Sept. 14 – Dec. 7 (Except Nov. 30)
10:30 am to 12:00 pm
Program Description
This class will explore new approaches to creativity with children. Using drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, and sculpture children will learn new skills and improve on old ones as they experiment with new media and different techniques. To reinforce their understanding, children will learn about important artists who are either historically significant or are forerunners in contemporary art. Come join in and stretch your imagination in a relaxed, fun environment. Materials supplied.
DRAWING AND PAINTING FOR THE JUNIOR ARTIST – AGES 9-12
12 Saturdays
Sept. 14 – Dec. 7 (Except Nov. 30)
12:30 to 2:00 pm
Program Description
Students will learn through drawing and painting the rules of perspective, proportion, shadowing, color mixing and anatomy.
They will use acrylic paint, charcoal, watercolors and colored pencils on both paper and canvas. Various brush techniques and a variety of paint applications will be covered. Students will discover important artists who are historically significant, as this exposure can lead them to explore and discover their own style.
For more information or to register visit www.greenwichartsociety.org
Saturday Children's Art Classes at the Greenwich Art Society
Fourteen area artists from Wilson Avenue Loft Artists will bring holiday spirit to Wilton Library's November-December art exhibition "Amazing Stories and Wondrous Visions." Wilson Avenue Loft Artists (WALA), founded in 2007, is located on the border of Norwalk and Rowayton and provides studio spaces for artists working in a variety of media, including painting, collage, printmaking, sculpture, and photography. WALA's goal is to provide a supportive environment for making artwork and connections to the arts community, especially during their annual Open Studio Weekend.
The artists from the group will be exhibiting their works in an array of styles, media choices, and subject matter. The artists are: Jay Brodsky (Scarsdale, NY), Connie Brown (New Canaan), Erin Dolan (Norwalk), Heide Follin (Norwalk), Lori Glavin (Bovina Center, NY), Ruth Ipe, Elisa Keogh (Norwalk), Nancy McTague-Stock (Norwalk), Andrea Metchick (Westport), Lily Morgan (Stamford), Claudia Renfro (Pound Ridge, NY), Missy Savard (Fairfield), Vicki French Smith (Darien), and Susan Cutler Tremaine (Darien).
Opening reception on Friday, November 15 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. is free and open to the public. Exhibition runs through December 13. A majority of the works will be available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the library.
"Amazing Stories and Wondrous Visions" Art Exhibition
The Flinn Gallery will be presenting bold and vibrant abstract works for its November 14 opening of Extra Extra, a three-person exhibition running through January 8, 2025.
Sharing a common strategy, Palma Blank, Stephen Maine and Doreen McCarthy create artworks of visual abundance and intensity, pointing to the “extra” in Extra Extra!
Dedicated to Abstraction, each artist approaches their work with distinct processes and materials to convey visual energy. Viewing these works elicits a physical experience that can be both mesmerizing and momentarily jarring.
Stephen Maine’s indirect production method employs a system of foam board printing plates, which allows him to put his high contrast paint under pressure. He juxtaposes his more deliberate color relationships with the spontaneity and chance effects of this painting method. All the while, color, scale, surface, and seriality are kept in place.
Palma Blank also uses striking color juxtapositions for maximal effects. Painting through her own digitally created pattern stencils, she applies layers of dashes and stripes of color across the canvas. Slowly shifting shapes emerge from the work, charged with energy. Grounded in real visual moments, she is influenced by the phenomenological ideas associated with Impressionism. Building on this premise, Blank’s optical illusions simulate the movement of light and form through virtual space.
While Maine and Blank use non-traditional methods to achieve greater chromatic intensity in their painting, Doreen McCarthy creates a similar visual impact in her sculptural work. McCarthy’s inflatable vinyl sculptures become giant drawings in space, pushing viewers to engage with their own comparative scale. Complex forms of tangled tubes with inverted twists bounce toward viewers in distinct hues. This physical interplay between mass and gravity creates an arresting sense of torqued energy.
All three of the artists in Extra Extra prompt an overwhelming response.
The psychology of visual perception can cast these works as playful, pushy, reflective, or electric. Regardless of interpretation, the works of Maine, Blank and McCarthy grab and hold onto the viewers’ attention.
Doreen McCarthy is a multimedia artist based in New York City. Since 1985 her work has been exhibited in the United States, Europe, China and Japan. She received a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) focused in Painting from City University of New York-Hunter College. Throughout her career she has received grants, awards and residencies at various institutions including Edward Albee Foundation, Santa Fe Art Institute and the Indiana University Institute of Art.
Stephen Maine is a painter and writer living in West Cornwall, CT. Maine earned a BFA (Painting), Indiana University, Bloomington, and an MFA (Visual Art), Vermont College of Fine Arts. From 1982 until 2017, he lived and worked in New York City and continues to show there and in Connecticut. Maine’s writing has appeared regularly in Art in America, ARTnews, Artnet magazine, Art on Paper, Artillery; and Hyperallergic.com. He has taught at numerous universities including most recently at SUNY Purchase, where he was Chair of the Bachelor of Science in Visual Arts program.
Palma Blank is based in Brooklyn, NY and was born in Norwalk, CT. She received an MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT, and a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. Her paintings have been exhibited throughout New York including most recently in Ninth Street Women: 70 Years of Women in Abstraction, at Hunter Dunbar Projects and Psychonautic Traces, at Davidson Gallery, New York, NY. Her work has been acquired by the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris and NY Presbyterian Hospital, along with many other collections. She is on the board of directors at Black Ball Projects, a non-profit arts organization supporting underexposed contemporary artists in New York City.
Events:
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 14 from 6 - 8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, December 7, 2pm
Extra Extra is curated by Flinn Gallery committee member Kirsten Pitts. The Flinn Gallery is a non-profit organization sponsored by Friends of the Greenwich Library.
The Gallery welcomes visitors daily Monday to Saturday, 10-5pm, Thursday until 8pm, and Sunday 1-5pm, and is located on the second floor of the Greenwich Library, 101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT.
New Exhibit: Extra Extra
The annual Holiday Gift Show at the Rowayton Arts Center (RAC) transforms the gallery into a shopping wonderland with original, handcrafted items and artwork from November 29 to December 24. Shop one-of-a-kind gifts by local artists: original cards, prints, paintings, ornaments, jewelry, ceramics, and knitted items galore by over 50 artists/artisans. Proceeds from the Holiday Gift Show are used to support RAC and its educational outreach.
Special Opening Weekend Hours: Friday, November 29 (12-5pm), Saturday, November 30 (10am-5pm) and Sunday, December 1 (12am-7pm) during LIGHT UP ROWAYTON. After that hours for the show are Tuesday through Friday from 12 pm to 5 pm, Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 12 pm to 5 pm (closed on Monday). The gallery will be open Christmas Eve December 24 from 10 am to 2 pm.
Visit rowaytonarts.org and follow @rowaytonarts.
Rowayton Arts Center Holiday Gift Show
Come shop among a curated selection of small, original artwork (up to 18″ x 18″, $300 or less) in a variety of media. Limited-edition prints and other handcrafted items such as ornaments, greeting cards, candles, jewelry, textiles and ceramics are also available in a wide range of price points.
Don’t miss our annual showcase of spectacular, one-of-a-kind WREATHS created by artisans, artists, designers and other creatives for our annual auction! Bidding runs from Sunday, Dec. 1 – Thursday, Dec. 5 (auction closes at 8:30pm). Wreaths can be taken home at our Deck The Walls Holiday Party Dec. 5, or picked up Dec. 6/7 from the Carriage Barn.
Annual Deck the Walls Holiday Exhibit at the Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan
A workshop about self-promotion and personal branding for artists of all ages. Hosted by Lauren Clayton.
Personal branding as an artist can be overwhelming. Artists’ statements, photographing your work, and managing a social media presence are just a few responsibilities outside of making good art. Learn thoughtful ways to market your work better and boost your self-promotion with helpful tips and resources for artists.
A STACKED Workshop: Paint To Promo
At the North Pole, Jolly and Joy, two enthusiastic elves, are left in charge while Santa and Mrs. Kringle are away. Everything seems under control until disaster strikes—the workshop falls into chaos, when an evil gingerbread man launches a plot to destroy Christmas and ruin Santa’s reputation!
With the clock ticking, Jolly and Joy save the workshop and set off on a mad dash rescue mission, racing against time to outwit the cunning gingerbread foe. Can they restore order to the workshop and save Christmas before it’s too late?
This fast-paced adventure is full of mishaps, mayhem, and holiday magic, bringing plenty of laughs, heartwarming moments, and surprises along the way! Will Jolly and Joy save the day and keep Christmas on track? Buckle up for a festive ride like no other!
The recommended ages for our Theatre for Young Audiences shows is 3 to 10 years old, although all ages are welcome.
Santa Story 2
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
Learn more about the current exhibition, ColleCTomania, from an expert docent. No advance registration required; all tours included in Museum admission. Remember, gallery admission is FREE for MoCA Members.
Docent Led Tour: ColleCTomania
Come meet this artists of this thrilling exhibit which pushes the possibilities with materials, color and scale.
Creating a kind of psychology of visual experience, Palma Blank, Stephen Maine and Doreen McCarthy employ a variety of juxtapositions in their work. By questioning notions of both depth and flatness, illusion and objecthood, or gravitational force and weight, the viewer can connect imaginatively and physically with the artworks presented in Extra Extra.
Artist Talk: Extra Extra
At the North Pole, Jolly and Joy, two enthusiastic elves, are left in charge while Santa and Mrs. Kringle are away. Everything seems under control until disaster strikes—the workshop falls into chaos, when an evil gingerbread man launches a plot to destroy Christmas and ruin Santa’s reputation!
With the clock ticking, Jolly and Joy save the workshop and set off on a mad dash rescue mission, racing against time to outwit the cunning gingerbread foe. Can they restore order to the workshop and save Christmas before it’s too late?
This fast-paced adventure is full of mishaps, mayhem, and holiday magic, bringing plenty of laughs, heartwarming moments, and surprises along the way! Will Jolly and Joy save the day and keep Christmas on track? Buckle up for a festive ride like no other!
The recommended ages for our Theatre for Young Audiences shows is 3 to 10 years old, although all ages are welcome.
Santa Story 2
The Bridgeport Public Library is excited to host Abiodun Oyewole to read his poetry and discuss his life and career.
Mr. Oyewole is a founding member of the American musical spieling group, The Last Poets – originally formed a poetry reading in honor of Malcom X. The group’s message, deeply rooted in Black Nationalism, became well recognized in African American society and part of the Black Arts Movement. The Last Poets along with the artist Gil Scott-Heron are credited as having had a profound effect on the development of hip-hop music. Their spoken word albums preceded politically laced Rhythm and Blues projects, such as Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, and foreshadowed the work of hard-hitting rap groups like Public Enemy and Dead Prez.
Oyewole earned his doctorate and taught at Columbia University. He rejoined The Last Poets during its 1990s resurgence and the group released a new album entitled Holy Terror in 1995 and a book called On a Mission: Selected Poetry and a History of the Last Poets in 1996.
Abiodun Oyewole – Founder of The Last Poets
The Bridgeport Public Library is excited to host Abiodun Oyewole to read his poetry and discuss his life and career.
Mr. Oyewole is a founding member of the American musical spieling group, The Last Poets – originally formed a poetry reading in honor of Malcom X. The group’s message, deeply rooted in Black Nationalism, became well recognized in African American society and part of the Black Arts Movement. The Last Poets along with the artist Gil Scott-Heron are credited as having had a profound effect on the development of hip-hop music. Their spoken word albums preceded politically laced Rhythm and Blues projects, such as Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, and foreshadowed the work of hard-hitting rap groups like Public Enemy and Dead Prez.
Oyewole earned his doctorate and taught at Columbia University. He rejoined The Last Poets during its 1990s resurgence and the group released a new album entitled Holy Terror in 1995 and a book called On a Mission: Selected Poetry and a History of the Last Poets in 1996.
Abiodun Oyewole – Founder of The Last Poets
Heather Gaudio Fine Art is pleased to present The Space We Exist In, a ground-breaking exhibition curated by the renowned Ghanaian-American art curator Larry Ossei-Mensah. This is the first time the gallery invites a guest curator to organize an exhibition. The group show will open on November 16th and will run through January 18th, 2025. The public is invited to attend an opening reception and curator talk on Saturday, November 16, 4-6pm.
The Space We Exist In serves as a platform for rich dialogue and self-reflection for both the artists and viewers by questioning what it means to ‘Hold Space’ or ‘Exist Within a Space.’ This exhibition features a diverse ensemble of visual artists whose practices create visual poetry that invites viewers to actively engage with the artworks. The exhibition fosters a deeper connection between art and the audience by challenging viewers to redefine their perceptions of the world and their place within it.
Each artist in this exhibition employs a unique blend of techniques and media, ranging from vivid representational objects to evocative abstract paintings. Patrick Alston , based in Connecticut, creates bold abstractions with striking color palettes and dynamic forms to evoke powerful emotional responses, prompting viewers to confront their perceptions and biases. New York City artist Kim Dacres sources her materials from recycled tires and found objects to make powerful sculptures that are commentaries on strength, resilience and the human spirit, imbuing the discarded everyday material with profound significance. Deborah Dancy , also based in Connecticut, renders her paintings with intricate detail and an emotive use of color, delving into the complexities of personal and collective memory. Clara Nartey , the third artist based in Connecticut, transforms textiles and embroidery threads into expressive and tactile figurative narratives, bridging the gap between traditional craft and contemporary art. Los Angeles-based artist Shinique Smith often incorporates fabric, calligraphy, and collage to explore themes of consumption, identity and cultural history. Her dynamic compositions challenge viewers to consider the material and conceptual spaces they occupy. Patick Quarm , based in Ghana, uses mixed-media in his portraiture that challenge traditional notions of identity and culture, using vibrant patterns and textures to explore the intersection of past and present. Austin Uzor , who is based in upstate New York, explores liminal spaces and questions of identity, displacement and the quest for belonging in his paintings.
The Space We Exist In is not just a visual journey but an intellectual and emotional experience. The selected works act as mirrors and portals, reflecting personal and collective experiences while offering glimpses into diverse perspectives. This exhibition seeks to create a space where viewers can pause, reflect, and engage in meaningful conversations about the narratives articulated by the artists and those of others, ultimately fostering a sense of community and shared humanity.
By bringing together a rich tapestry of voices and visions, this exhibition underscores the power of art to transcend boundaries and connect us to our innermost selves and each other during a tumultuous time in our society. "The Space We Exist In," an exhibition that promises to challenge and transform how we perceive the world and our place within it.
Artists in the exhibition:
Patrick Alston
Kim Dacres
Deborah Dancy
Clara Nartey
Patrick Quarm
Shinique Smith
Austin Uzor
About the Curator :
Larry Ossei-Mensah is a Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic reshaping our perceptions of art and society with a dynamic blend of innovation and inclusivity. Ossei-Mensah has leveraged his curatorial practice as a platform to establish a global footprint, having curated exhibitions from Manila to London to Athens and, most recently, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ossei-Mensah employs contemporary art and culture as a powerful medium for challenging norms and fostering a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world.
Formerly the Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAD), Detroit, and Curator-at-Large at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Ossei-Mensah catalyzes change. Co-founding the nonprofit ARTNOIR, he pioneers racial equity in the art world, amplifying the voices of creatives, curators, and communities of color. Ossei-Mensah's influence spans the globe, curating exhibitions in renowned spaces like MOAD in San Francisco, MASS MoCA, The Metropolitan Museum in Manila, The Seattle Art Museum, Ben Brown Fine Arts in Hong Kong and London, as co-curated of the 7th Athen Biennale in Athens, and most recently the Denver Art Museum where organized a multivenue solo museum debut for Amoako Boafo - Soul of Black Folks.
Recently, Ossei-Mensah curated with ARTNOIR and UBS Bank the groundbreaking multimedia presentation, "The Poetics of Dimensions," at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2023, hailed by Harper’s Bazaar Magazine as a standout exhibition. The presentation featured artists Nari Ward, Sonia Gomes, Melissa Joseph, Anthony Akinbola, and Julianknxx. Ossei-Mensah consistently pushes the boundaries of contemporary expression by collaborating with trailblazing artists such as Steve McQueen, Sanford Biggers, February James, Chase Hall, Catherine Opie, Firelei Baez, and Judy Chicago.
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. For more information and/or high-res images, please contact Rachael Palacios rachael@heathergaudiofineart.com
"The Space We Exist In" curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah
Join Kristen Young, violin and Joe Bush, piano for a festive holiday concert that beautifully blends classical masterpieces with your favorite holiday pop tunes! They will perform innovative arrangements that challenge traditional boundaries, creating a refreshing take on seasonal favorites. From the intricate harmonies of classical pieces to the lively rhythms of contemporary hits, this concert promises a captivating blend of sound that will resonate with all.
Holiday Special with Kristen Young, violin and Joe Bush, piano
*Waiting List Spots Only
Wilton Library is proud to present the Jerry Bergonzi / Alan Bartus Duo with Jerry Bergonzi on sax and Alan Bartus on piano. This duo will present their original music along with American Songbook jazz standards. The collaboration between the artists began in Europe, where they performed several tours across different countries. Their unique sound creates a shapable musical process with a message whose goal is to deliver it to the listener. Each artist is given space both as a composer and as an interpreter in this duo format.
Jerry Bergonzi is a tenor saxophonist, composer, author and educator who was introduced to the world of jazz by one of its legends Dave Brubeck. In the 1970s, he toured with the Two Generations of Brubeck band that featured Dave and the three Brubeck sons: Darius, Chris, and Dan. Later in that decade, he also held the sax chair in the Dave Brubeck Quartet. On the faculty of the New England Conservatory for the last 20 years, Jerry teaches improvisation in ensemble settings as well as one-on-one. He still plays two weekly gigs in the Boston area and tours 130 days a year playing his own music.
Alan Bartus is among the top 10 jazz pianists of his generation, having been a 2023 finalist in the world's most prestigious competition: the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Jazz Competition. Born in 2001 in Slovakia, Alan comes from a family of musicians (his father, Stefan, is a renowned jazz artist). Studying the piano from the age of 4, he progressed rapidly and participated in several significant music festivals and competitions before the age of 16. He has recorded as a leader and a sideman and most recently has been touring with the Lukas Oravec Quartet featuring Jerry Bergonzi. Among his many awards, Alan received the 2024 Dave Brubeck Composer and Pianist Award.
Hot & Cool Jazz is brought to you by the generosity of the Estate of James (Tom) and Alice Brown. Special thanks to Chris & Tish Brubeck.
Advance registration strongly recommended. Register online at www.wiltonlibrary.org or call 203-762-6334. Reception following the concert. Suggested donation: $10:
