Connecticut Wine Festival July 23 and 24

This year on July 23 and 24 at the Goshen Fair Grounds located on 116 Middle Road (Rte. 63) in Goshen thriteen Connecticut Vineyards have come together to present the 2016 Connecticut Wine Festival. The participating vineyards include:Bishop's Orchards Winery Paradise Hills Vineyard DiGrazia Vineyards Priam Vineyards Holmberg Orchards & Winery Sharpe Hill Vineyard Hopkins Vineyard Sunset Meadow Vineyards Jonathan Edwards Winery Taylor Brooke Winery Jones Winery White Silo Winery and Miranda Vineyard.

Visitors are invited to come and sample the best of Connecticut's wineries as well as sample delicious locally produced specialty foods, browse for handicrafts while listening to live music.  The tickets are 27.00 in advance/$35.00 at the gate and $10.00 Designated Driver. Advance Tickets are available until midnight on Saturday, July 16th and can be purchased online or at the gate.

Tasting Tickets include admission to the festival, samples of up to 4 wines at each of the wineries, a free CT Wine Festival wine glass and a CT Wine Festival tote bag. Designated Driver Tickets include admission to the festival, a free CT Wine Festival tote bag and free water. 

If you are part of the 2016 Passport to Connecticut Wineries this is a perfect opportunity to get your passport stamped; wineries will not be stamping their individual pages, but the CT Wine Festival has a page of it's own to be stamped. Please remember to bring a valid I.D. and remember that there are no pets or outside food and beverages allowed on the fairgrounds.

Fairy Festival at Flanders Nature Center

Flanders will become inhabited by the “wee folk” on Saturday, July 16 from 10AM to 3PM.  Faeries are mystical little people who inhabit the land, living in harmony with nature.

It will be a magical day of viewing faerie houses that will enchant the trails and grounds of the nature center located at 5 Church Hill Road in Woodbury. There will be music, vendors, kid’s activities, food with a magical twist, roaming musicians, and faerie dancing. The magic continues with a 

Costume Contest and Faerie & Wizard Parade, a live owl presentation and woodcarvers on site creating wizard staffs and wands!

Admission to the festival is $6.00 per person and free for children aged 2 and under.

Participants are invited to build their own Faerie/Wizard house for display at the festival. Each participant will have a 4 foot by 4 foot outdoor space, in which to display the miniature home and “landscaping.” 

Organizers suggest working with a base structure, which could be a bird house or milk carton, adding “towers” and “turrets,” using paper towel tubes or tooth paste boxes and decorating inside and out with natural materials, highlighted by artificial flowers, doll house furniture or other creative elements. Houses must be set up between 8 and 10 a.m. on July 16 at Flanders. Ribbons will be awarded in various categories for the best designed faerie dwellings.

For more information on the festival, Faerie House rules or entry forms, visit www.flandersnaturecenter.org.  For more area information www.litchfieldhills.com

Sparks are flying this summer at the Bruce Museum

The Bruce Museum located on One Museum Dr. in Greenwich  will sizzle with excitement this spring and summer during their showing of Electricity, a special exhibition developed by The Franklin Institute. Electricity brings the science and history of electricity to life through engaging hands-on interactive displays including Plasma Tubes, Jumping Rings, Solenoid, and Jacob's Ladder. Visitors will learn the fundamental principles behind electricity such as magnetic fields, electric charges, and battery technology. Sparks will fly (safely) as museum goers examine concepts such as static electricity, attraction and repulsion, sparking, magnetic motion.

Reciprocating Motor Many early electric motors were reciprocating motors like this one that moves the wheel when the coils are turned turn on and off at just the right time.

Crowd-pleasing favorites include the lightning tendrils of purple, pink, and blue extended by the Plasma Tube and the Jumping Ring, which allows guests to wield electrical discharge, repelling a ring into the air. Visitors will learn how flowing currents relate to magnetic fields and how their own body can become a battery. The exhibition also highlights the applications and uses of electricity, how electricity gets into your home, sustainability, and electrical safety.

Plasma Tube - Colored light appears after voltage is applied to a gas in the plasma tube. 

Electricity will be on view in tandem with Electric Paris in the art galleries. This exhibition explores the way artists depicted older oil and gas lamps and the newer electric lighting that began to supplant them around the turn of the twentieth century. Whether nostalgic renderings of gaslit boulevards, starkly illuminated dance halls or abstracted prisms of electric street lamps, approximately 50 artworks will be shown by such artists as Edgar Degas, Mary Cassat, Pierre Bonnard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Childe Hassam, Edouard Vuillard, James Tissot and Charles Marville.

The tightly coiled wire in this solenoid produces a strong magnetic force when the power is turned on. 

About the Bruce:
The Bruce Museum is a regionally-based, world-class museum promoting an appreciation of art and an understanding of science in more than a dozen changing exhibitions annually and with permanent galleries that feature the natural sciences. Each year, the Bruce Museum provides cultural, educational and experiential exhibitions and programs that appeal to a broad cross-section of people throughout Fairfield and Westchester Counties. The Museum welcomes approximately 80,000 visitors, including 13,000 school aged children annually and has over 6,000 public program attendees.

For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com.  Like is on Facebook

Solos @ the Westport Art Center through Aug. 20

Now in its tenth year, SOLOS is a celebration of the artistic talent and diversity of the Arts Center's artist members. The exhibition will feature a diverse range of works, including paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures, and mixed media. With entries from across the country, selected artists are from Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey.

Barbara Ringer, "Psychotherapeutic Game for Children," Mixed media, 29 x 36 inches.

Selected artists include: Nina Bentley, Mixed Media Artist (Westport, CT), Cynthia Cooper, Painter (Farmington, CT), Larry Gordon, Painter (Larchmont, NY), Allan Gorman, Painter (West Orange, NJ), David Kalman, Photographer (Westport, CT) ,Daniel Lanzilotta, Sculptor (Westport, CT), Barbara Ringer, Photographer (Ridgefield, CT) and David Sheskin, Printmaker (Bethel, CT). This exhibition celebrates a disparate group, which in fact is the underlying purpose of SOLOS – it's about 21st century artists embracing daring innovations, unusual media and bold new techniques.

David Sheksin, "The Control Group -- Museum Viewer," Original digital print, 24 x 24 inches.

For more information, contact the Westport Arts Center at (203) 222-7070 or www.westportartscenter.org. The Westport Arts Center gallery is open Monday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. at 51 Riverside Avenue, Westport, CT. For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Larry Gordon, "Space," Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24 inches.

Best Book Sale in New England July 22-26 in Southport

Known as "The Best Book Sale in New England", Pequot Library located on 720 Pequot Ave. in Southport is hosting the 56th Annual Summer Book Sale from Friday, July 22 – Tuesday, July 26, 2016.  This year's summer book sale will be held under the tents on the Great Lawn, parking lot, in the Auditorium, Reading Room, and in the Rennell Room of Pequot Library.  Visit www.pequotlibrary.org for daily hours and pricing.

New this year will be an Eclectic Print and Art Sale, Friday, July 22 - Sunday, July 24, 2016. An amazing collection of 1,700 prints, original photographs, and art will be for sale.

This summer's sale boasts a solid collection of many hundreds of high quality jazz CDs available in the Media Tent. Interesting ephemera such as post-WWll sheet music, circa 1928, coveted by collectors, musicians, music teachers, and even collage artists and illustrators will be for sale.

Large, original pastel drawings by Bernhard August "Hardie" Gramatky, Jr. (April 12, 1907 - April 29, 1979), an American painter, author, and illustrator, will be available. He wrote and illustrated several children's books, most notably Little Toot. There is also an increase in the number of contemporary children's books on sale this summer.

For adults, first edition books by such notable authors as Gabriel Garcia Márquez and J. D. Salinger will be for sale, as well as high quality photography magazines.

In addition there will be over 140,000 other books, CDs, DVDs, and records in over 60 categories. Admission is free and open to the public. Proceeds help fund Pequot Library's over 750 annual programs and events. High quality books at reasonable prices can be purchased. Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express accepted. Help Pequot Library save the environment by bringing your own reusable bags.

There will be a "Specials" Online Catalog available at pequotlibrary.org on July 17, 2016. Buyers have an opportunity to purchase two (2) Specials in advance of the sale, at a premium of 25% above the catalog price. The advance sale will field requests in order of submission at 12:01am on Sunday, July 17th. Viewing items is by appointment only, schedule yours at booksale@pequotlibrary.org. Links go live Friday morning, July 15, 2016.

Over 60 categories, including your favorites: Art & Architecture, Astrology & Occult, Atlas & Dictionary, Biography, Business, Children, Children Young Adult, Classics, Coffee Table, Cookbooks, CT & NE & NY, Crafts & Hobbies, Education & Text, Exotica, Family & Parenting, Fiction, First Editions, Foreign Language, Gardening & Nature, Graphic Novels, Health Issues, History & Politics, Humor, Impulse, Large Print, Law & Crime, Maritime, Military History, Music, Nutrition, Diet & Exercise, Mystery, Old and Interesting, 'Ologies, Performing Arts, Pets & Animals, Photography, Poetry, Records, CDs, Tapes, DVDs, Videos, Religion & Philosophy, Science, Science Fiction, Self Help, Sets, Sheet Music, Signed Books, Sociology & Anthropology, Specials, Spies/Espionage, Sports (Large selection of Golf books this year), Travel, Vintage Children, Transportation, Writing, Literature, Journalism And more!

Parking: In Pequot Library's parking lot, or the Trinity Episcopal Church* parking lot (on the corner of Pequot Avenue and Center Street), or in the Southport Congregational Church parking lot (524 Pequot Avenue and across from church) or, on the weekend, in the train station parking lot (400 Center Street).

For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

New Exhibit at Five Points Gallery in Torrington

  Five Points Gallery will open a new show on July 7, 2016 which will run through August 13, 2016 and will feature the work of Bob Gregson, David Holzman and Becky Rosen and is being sponsored by Northwest Savings Bank.  The public is encouraged to attend an opening reception on Friday, July 8^th from 6-8:30 p.m.  An artist conversation, also open to the public, will be held on July 29^th at 6 p.m.  Both events are free.  Regular gallery hours are Thursdays through Mondays from 1 – 5 p.m.

For this new show, Five Points Gallery is proud to feature the work of the FPG 2015 Juried Show Award Winner, Becky Rosen in an exhibition titled regarding the disregarded. Torrington native and distinguished scholar Ann Temkin, Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, selected Rosen for this award.  Ann Temkin is also an advisory board member of Five Points Gallery.

Rosen, an artist who works in various media, is currently attending Hunter College where she is pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts degree.  According to Rosen, she intensely studies familiar places in the world around her and from these intense studies, she transforms overlooked moments into the compositional and color inspiration for her thoughtfully crafted abstractions.  Often painting directly on unprimed fabric and papers, there is a rawness and immediacy to Rosen’s work that suggests a temporality and ephemerality of material and imagery.  This temporal nature encourages viewers to carefully examine not only Rosen’s work, but also how things change over time in the world around them.  These series of Rosen’s work follow in the steps of Ingrid Calame, Sol LeWitt, Eva Hesse, and John Cage’s visual art.

David Holzman is the featured artist in the TDP Gallery.  Holzman considers himself to be part of a tradition of storytelling through the medium of relief sculpture.  In his exhibit at Five Points, Atonal Apples, he continues his series of carved wood wall reliefs based on the stream of consciousness series, a series which he calls "The Book of Umm." Holzman develops his imagery using the surrealist technique of automatic drawing. His work refers to contemporary imagery as well as tribal culture and according to Holzman, “It’s about being spontaneous, being simple and being human”. 

Holzman received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  Among his achievements, he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Visual Artist Fellowship for Artist’s Books.  He has exhibited throughout Connecticut and currently teaches in the Simsbury School System and at Central Connecticut State University. 

The East Gallery will feature the work of Bob Gregson in an exhibit titled Off Kilter.  Bob Gregson challenges the traditional relationship between artwork and viewer. He sees his work as a hinge connecting them in a very personal way. The work is a collision of ideas that mixes color, design, and architecture into provocative situations. Responding to the lack of intimate social interactions in today’s technology-saturated culture, he strives to use art to create situations that bring people together in a shared experience. Panels can be turned, sculpture can be rolled and people can rock. The result is work that is clever, witty and fun.  Bob’s philosophy is as direct as his work. As he explains, “I believe an artwork is absorbed and filtered through one’s life experiences. We respond to the colors, shapes and images that awaken unconscious connections. I like to play in the hazy territory between an artwork and the public.”

Bob Gregson received a B.F.A. from the Hartford Art School and an M.F.A. from the Art Institute of Chicago.  His art education started with noted artist/illustrator Carroll N. Jones, Jr. and Pulitzer Fellowship recipient Rudolph Zallinger.  He has exhibited in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. as well as his home state of Connecticut. In addition, Bob has taught and lectured in various locations and is the author and illustrator of several books.  His work is represented in various private collections as well as the collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art.

About the Gallery
Located in a historic downtown building, Five Points Gallery (FPG) is a non-profit contemporary art gallery showcasing professional regional, national and international visual artists. The gallery presents exhibitions in three beautifully renovated exhibition spaces, and has earned the reputation as one of Connecticut's outstanding contemporary art venues.  For more information about the gallery please visit www.fivepointsgallery.org.