Fall fun at the New Canaan Historical Society

The New Canaan Historical Society located on 13 Oenoke Ridge in New Canaan has planned several exciting events to enjoy this fall. A new art show, "Commitment to Excellence in Art & Sport: A Fine Art Competition" and Exhibit is taking place through November 3 has been organized cooperatively with the National Art Museum of Sport. This is the Museum of Sport's 4th annual international show. The National Art Museum of Sport was founded in 1959 by Germain Glidden, a Silvermine painter and athlete.

Pictured is Richard Stravitz's V Seat which was inspired by the flexibility, strength, and balance that helped Kurt Thomas excel in the world of gymnastics during the late 1970s.

The Little Red Schoolhouse built in 1868 located on Carter Street is the site of the Rotary Club's annual Lobsterfest on September 26 & 27 that will take place on the Society's great lawn. Tickets for this event are available in the Historical Society's office. A special treat on September 27 is the open house at the Little Red School House from 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. The school closed in 1957.

To celebrate 125 years, the New Canaan Historical Society is hosting a special "Colonial Day" on Saturday, October 11 (rain date Oct. 12) from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. This colonial themed premiere event will start off with a fife and drum performance and will be followed by militia drills and games. Take time to explore the general store and watch demonstrations of weaving, spinning, printing, and early learning. Make sure to pay a visit to the herb garden and follow it with a visit to the Cody Drug Store where many medicinal herbs will be on display.

About the New Canaan Historical Society
Founded in 1889, the New Canaan Historical Society has carried out its mission "to bring together and arrange the historical events of the town of New Canaan, the genealogies of the families who have lived in the town, to form a library and to collect relics and curiosities, to form a museum.
At the Society's headquarters, in the 1825 Town House, the Society maintains a research library of more than 3,500 volumes, along with scores of manuscripts, deeds, newspapers, photographs and other documents dating to the colonial era.
The Society owns or operates eight museums and buildings, including the 1764 Hanford-Silliman House, the 1960 Gores Pavilion, and the Rogers Studio and Museum, which, with Philip Johnson's Glass House, is one of only two National Historic Landmarks in New Canaan. For more information http://www.nchistory.org.

Bob Gregson: Archi/Abstracts at New Canaan's Gores Pavilion

This summer and fall, the New Canaan Historical Society is presenting the photography of Bob Gregson entitled Archi/Abstracts at the Gores Pavilion in Irwin Park located on 848 Weed Street in New Canaan Connecticut.

Bob is an artist who has a passion for architecture and modern design. The photographs in this exhibit are details of familiar buildings by well-known architects. Originally taken to document his trips to architectural icons, these photos are shot on the run and thus have a fresh and immediate look to them. As Gregson explains, "It was not necessary to document the buildings as much as to capture a spontaneous moment that expressed, in a simple detail, the heart and spirit of my experience." Since these are done on the fly the essence of the building needs to be sized up quickly.

When viewing the exhibition it is clear that there is a focus on the details and characteristics that embody the personality of each building. The  translation from a  three dimensional experience to a flat image is not easy to achieve but these photographs show great skill in doing this.

Bob Gregson received a B.F.A. from the Hartford Art School and an M.F.A. from the Art Institute of Chicago. His work ranges from large-scale participatory pieces to drawing and photography. He has exhibited nationally as well as his home state of Connecticut. He is a Silvermine Guild Artist in New Canaan, Connecticut and is the creative director of the Connecticut Office of Culture & Tourism.

The Gores Pavilion is located in Irwin Park, New Canaan. The exhibit runs through November 7, 2014. The Gores Pavilion is open from Friday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., or by appointment; call 203-966-1776. Admission is free to Society members and $5 for non-members.

The Glass House presents Fujiko Nakaya: Veil May 1 to November 30, 2014

Coinciding with the 65th anniversary of the Glass House and its 2014 tour season, the Glass House will present Fujiko Nakaya: Veil, the first site-specific artist project to engage the iconic Glass House itself, designed by Philip Johnson and completed in 1949.

Nakaya, a Japanese artist who has produced fog sculptures and environments internationally, will wrap the Glass House in a veil of dense mist that comes and goes. For approximately 10 to 15 minutes each hour, the Glass House will appear to vanish, only to return as the fog dissipates. Inside the structure, the sense of being outdoors will be temporarily suspended during the misty spells.

Veil will stage a potent dialogue with the Glass House, producing an opaque atmosphere to meet the building's extreme transparency and temporal effects that complement its timelessness. Johnson's interest in the balance of opposites is evident throughout the Glass House campus. With Nakaya's temporary installation, this sensibility is carried  to its endpoint while allowing the unique magic of the Glass House - the dream of transparency, an architecture that vanishes - to return again and again as the fog rises and falls.

The Glass House, situated on a promontory overlooking a valley, is subject to changing wind patterns, as well as variable temperature and humidity, that will continually influence the interchange between Veil and the building it shrouds. Fresh water, pumped at high pressure through 600 nozzles, will produce an immersive environment that reveals these dynamic conditions.  

Fog responds constantly to its own surroundings, revealing and concealing the features of the environment. Fog makes visible things become invisible and invisible things - like wind - become visible. The drama of Nakaya's work rests in the continuous interplay between what is visible and what is not. Known coordinates vanish, only to be replaced by a miasma, rich in changing phenomenological effects, that evoke a sense of mystery, foreboding, and wonder.

This installation is part of a greater initiative to transform the Glass House campus into a center for contemporary art and ideas, in particular those that foster new interpretations of the historic site's meanings. The exhibition will be accompanied by public programs at the Glass House and in New York City.

Nakaya has created fog installations around the world, including projects for the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao; the Grand Palais, Paris; the Australian National Gallery, Canberra; and the Exploratorium, San Francisco, among others. She consulted with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro on the Blur Building for the 2002 Swiss Expo, and has worked with numerous artists (including Trisha Brown, David Tudor, and Bill Viola) on environments for music and performance. This will be her first large-scale installation on the east coast of the United States and the first time her work has been presented at an internationally renowned historic site.

The Glass House, built between 1949 and 1995 by architect Philip Johnson, is a National Trust Historic Site located in New Canaan, CT. The pastoral 49-acre landscape comprises fourteen structures, including the Glass House (1949), and features a permanent collection of 20th-century painting and sculpture, along with temporary exhibitions. The tour season runs from May to November and advance reservations are required. For more information, please visit www.theglasshouse.org.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation (www.PreservationNation.org) is a privately funded nonprofit organization that works to save America's historic places to enrich our future, re-imagining historic sites for the 21st century. The guiding principle of this initiative is that historic sites must be dynamic, relevant, and evolving in order to foster an understanding of history and culture that is critical, sensory, and layered.

Visitor Information:
The Glass House Visitor Center and Design Store
199 Elm Street, New Canaan, CT 06840
Open Thursday - Monday, 9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Tickets start at $30, including tour of the site.
For general information, please call 203.594.9884 or visit the Glass House online: www.theglasshouse.org.

For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Silvermine Arts Center Annual Guild Members Exhibit through Feb. 16

The Silvermine Arts Center located on 1037 Silvermine Road in New Canaan Connecticut is hosting the the highly anticipated annual New Guild Members show, plus the work of Lifetime Guild Artist member, Jens Risom, and the Gabor Peterdi International Print Collection.

“Death of the Prince, Richard III” by Fritz Brosius from the Gabor Peterdi International Print Collection

In 2012, Silvermine Galleries officially named its print collection The Gabor Peterdi International Print Collection, in honor of Silvermine’s print collection founder, Gabor Peterdi. Having started the printmaking department at Yale University, Peterdi established the National Print Biennial competition at Silvermine in 1956.  The juried exhibitions, the Arts Center established the foundation of a permanent print collection through the acquisition of juror purchase awards.  In subsequent years, additional prints were added to the collection via donations and bequests.  The recent efforts have enabled the Galleries to conserve the collection, while actively growing its holdings.

The past year, The Gabor Peterdi International Print Collection received, several significant donations to the collection; including works by such renowned artists as Josef Albers, purchased with funds honoring the late Guild Member, Tina Rohrer; a Robert Cottingham screened print; and a Gabor Peterdi Print donated by the Gabor Peterdi Estate.   This year’s exhibition will feature recent acquisitions of prints by Fritz Brosius, Alexander Calder, James Flora, Charles Hinman, Liliana Porter, and a print attributed to Salvador Dali; and  a selection of other highlights from the collection.

Stool made of birch wood and parachute straps by Jens Rison (resident of New Canaan) from his exhibit “The Answer is Risom”

Silvermine Arts Center is honored to showcase the works of Jens Risom (b. 1916), an icon of Danish American furniture design, and a Silvermine Guild Member since the 1950’s.  The upcoming exhibit “The Answer is Risom,” will feature several of Mr. Risom’s signature furniture designs along with original drawings and other historical items from an influential career that has spanned over 70 years. Although he learned the trade in Denmark (he trained at the Copenhagen School of Industrial Arts and Design), he is often counted among the American designers who were shaping postwar design, and indeed his most important contributions to the modern style were made after his emigration here in 1939.  Mr. Risom’s commitment to design also extended to his advertising. One of the more notable examples, a series of ads he did in the 1960’s with famed fashion photographer, Richard Avedon will be included in the exhibition.   Throughout the decades, Risom's work has continued to reflect our human need for warmth, beauty, and simplicity. 

For more information on upcoming exhibits and events, visit our website at www.silvermineart.org or call 203-966-9700, ext. 20. For information on Fairfield County Connecticut www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

About Silvermine Arts Center

Silvermine Arts Center located in New Canaan, Connecticut is one of the oldest artist communities in the United States.  Located on a four acre campus, the center consists of a nationally renowned artist guild, award winning school of art offering multi-disciplinary art classes for all ages, an art and fine crafts shop and galleries, offering over twenty contemporary and historic exhibitions annually.  The center also provides innovative free and subsidized arts education in Norwalk and Stamford schools through its outreach program, Art Partners; and hosts a lecture series, performances, and special programs throughout the year.  Silvermine Arts Center is a nonprofit organization.