Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Weekend Garden Extravaganza Celebration Set for Mother’s Day Weekend

Trade Secrets is back and better than ever! The oh-so-popular two-day garden event drawing thousands of garden enthusiasts to Connecticut's Litchfield Hills includes the rare plant and garden antique sale on Saturday, May 13, followed by a self-guided four-garden tour on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 14.

Saturday features over 60 vendors. Garden enthusiasts will find rare plant specimens from specialized growers and some of the nation's best-known small nurseries; and furniture, antiques, cloches, wrought iron fencing, garden statuary and so much more
from the choicest purveyors of garden antiques.

Sunday's garden tour includes four exquisite gardens. The handsome eighteenth century General Ashley House sits on a
breathtakingly romantic piece of land, with lawn and meadow sloping down to a wide and quiet bend on the Housatonic River.
Pom's Cabin Farm is a richly-varied twenty-seven-acre piece of land along the Housatonic River that is nurtured and celebrated by its owner, Dale McDonald, and her dedicated team headed by horticulturist, Robin Zitter.

Over the past fourteen years, Juliet and John Hubbard owners of Coltsfoot Garden have created an enchanting cottage garden around the colonial house that has been in the Hubbard family for almost 100 years.
Trade Secrets founder, Bunny Williams' and husband John Rosselli's beloved garden has been a favorite on tour for the past 16 years. This year Bunny introduces her brand-new woodland studio with its fantastic views of the Litchfield hills.

This year for the first time, due to popular demand, the Garden Tour tickets are limited and will only be sold in advance for $75.
Tickets for Saturday's sale at LionRock Farm in Sharon, CT., can be purchased in advance or day-of. Tickets: Early Bird $125 from 8 – 10 am with continental breakfast; Regular Admission $50 from 10 – 3 pm; and Late Bloomer $25 from 1 – 3 pm. Tickets go on sale April 1st. For more information or to purchase tickets visit tradesecretsct.com or call 860-364- 1080. 

Monday, May 8, 2017

Street Smart: Photographs of New York City, 1945-1980 @ Bruce Museum

A new exhibition, Street Smart: Photographs of New York City, 1945-1980  is on display at the Bruce Museum located on One Museum Dr. in Greenwich through June 4. This exhibition provides a glimpse at life in the Big Apple during the post-war period.  Featuring 30 black-and-white works drawn from the Bruce Museum’s permanent collection, the show records both cacophonous scenes of urban life and moments of quietude and respite from the chaos. The Museum is open Tues. - Sun. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Leon Levinstein (1910-1988)
Man Holding Cup, no date
Gelatin silver print, 10 x 13 ¼ in.
Gift of Peter and Barbara Noris,
Bruce Museum Collection


In the decades that followed World War II, New York City was a world cultural center hosting a whirlwind of activities from protests and race riots to jazz performances. At the same time, the role of photography in American life was changing. As exposure to wartime propaganda made the public question the objective truth of photographic imagery and as cameras became more affordable and easier to use, many American photographers began to imbue their pictures with a more personal approach. The exhibition features works by the 5 photographers Larry Fink, Herman Leonard, Leon Levinstein, John Shearer, and Garry Winogrand, who record in intimate detail how street-savvy New Yorkers navigate the bustling landscape.

In photographs like Stan Getz, Birdland, from 1949, Herman Leonard places the viewer in the center of the action, in the audience or right on stage,to see some of the most important musicians in American history perform. “The vibrancy and the excitement in the jazz clubs are palpable’” explains Mia Laufer, exhibition curator and PhD candidate at Washington University in Saint Louis.

In pictures of anonymous strangers like Leon Levinstein’s Man Holding Cup, where the heads are cropped and the camera angle tilted, the impression may appear candid and off-the-cuff, but Levinstein carefully composed this photograph to create the impression that we are walking down the street ourselves.

“Photographers working in New York were fascinated by both the glamorous lives of the rich and famous, and the darker undercurrents of urban poverty,” notes Laufer. “Despite the drastically different settings and circumstances surrounding their work, the photographers whose pictures are showcased in this exhibition.



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Saturday, May 6, 2017

Torrington Historical Society hosts John Brown Birthday Party

           Abolitionist John Brown was born in Torrington on May 9, 1800
and this year on  May 9, 2017, the Torrington Historical Society will host a party
to commemorate Brown’s birth.




Kevin Johnson pastor of AME Zion Church in Torrington and research assistant at the CT State Library will present his widely acclaimed and deeply moving performance of  William Webb, an African-American Civil War Soldier from Connecticut.
Private Webb was an actual soldier, a native of Hartford. He was recruited in 1863 and served in the Twenty-Ninth (Colored) Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry in several battles in Virginia. Johnson’s presentation of Webb is told from an emotional and exciting first-person perspective that vividly illustrates the struggle of the African-Americans in the Colored Infantry during the Civil War. He tells of his early life in Hartford, his recruitment and training, and the traumatic final battles of the Civil War. The presentation is based on extensive research in the collections of the Connecticut State Library and the Museum of Connecticut History at 231 Capitol Ave, opposite the State Capitol in Hartford.



The evening’s festivities will include a proclamation by Mayor Elinor Carbone, remarks by Mark McEachern, executive director of the Torrington Historical Society, Mark Linehan of the Torrington Trails Network and Torrington resident Conrad Sienkiewicz, co-ordinator of the event.

 Rounding out the program will be a drum circle led by Angaza Mwando of the AME Zion Church followed by birthday cake and coffee.

Friday, May 5, 2017

Take a trip to Peony Heaven in Litchfield Hills Connecticut

When Kasha and David Furman founded Cricket Hill Garden in 1989, it was one of the first nurseries in the United States to focus on rare Chinese tree peonies. These special plants have blossoms that are among the largest, most colorful and most fragrant of all flowers. They cultivated over 500 different hybrid peonies, choosing the hardiest, most vigorous and fragrant to propagate and sell. Over the years a rocky, wooded hillside has been transformed into a six-acre peony display garden they call Peony Heaven. The family, now including son Dan Furman, enjoys sharing the beauty of the garden in peak bloom in May and June.

This year the visitors are invited to join peony lovers from near and far at Peony Heaven to see a rare collection of mature peonies in a lovely, peaceful setting. Some of the tree peonies in the display garden are reaching an impressive size and age, with many plants now over 25 years old. The tree peonies will begin to bloom the week of May 15th. Expect a good show of tree peonies to about May 31st. Cricket Hill anticipates that the herbaceous and intersectional peonies will bloom as they usually do, starting near the third week of May. Call them at (860) 283-1042 or email info@crickethillgarden.com for bloom updates.
Cricket Hill located on 670 Walnut Hill Rd. in Thomaston is hosting a special garden event on Sunday,  May 14th, May 21st and May 28th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A highlight of the day is when Dan Furman leads a garden walk to discuss what they are growing and what is in bloom. Be sure to bring your walking shoes for the spectacular tour of the hillside garden that takes place from 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The garden and nursery is open through June 18th, Tuesday-Sunday, from 10am-5pm. They are closed on Mondays. The exception will be Memorial Day Monday, which is always a good bloom day. After June 18, the garden and nursery is open by appointment only, please call ahead before visiting in late June and during the summer.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Authors Speakers Series @ White Hart Inn in May

The White Hart Inn located on the Green in the center of Salisbury is hosting two special events this May. This speaker series in May will host two authors that will be at the Inn to talk about their books in this intimate setting. Admission to these events are free; books discussed will be available at each event for purchase.



The first event is hosted by AnitaShrevethe New York Times best-selling author of The Weight of Water andThe Pilot's Wife (an Oprah's Book Club selection) comes The Stars are Fire, an exquisitely suspenseful new novel about an extraordinary young woman tested by a catastrophic event and its devastating aftermath, based on the true story of the largest fire in Maine's history.  This event begins at 6 p.m.



Anita Shreve grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts, the eldest of three daughters. After graduating from Tufts University, she taught high school for a number of years in and around Boston. In the middle of her last year, she quit (something that, as a parent, she finds appalling now) to start writing. "I had this panicky sensation that it was now or never." Joking that she could wallpaper her bathroom with rejections from magazines for her short stories, she published her early work in literary journals. One of these stories, "Past the Island, Drifting," won an O. Henry prize. Despite this accolade, she quickly learned that one couldn't make a living writing short fiction. Switching to journalism, Shreve traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, where she lived for three years, working as a journalist for an African magazine. One of her novels, The Last Time They Met, contains bits and pieces from her time in Africa. She is the author of 13 other novels, among them the best selling The Weight of Water (made into a movie starring Elizabeth Hurley and Sean Penn), The Pilot's Wife (also a major feature film starring Christine Lahti), A Wedding in DecemberBody SurfingTestimony, and A Change in Altitude. She is the recipient of the PEN/L. L. Winship Award and the New England Book Award for fiction. Author image by Elena Seibert.



On May 18 Dani Shapiro, best selling novelist and memoirist delivers her most intimate and powerful work in Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage: a piercing, life-affirming memoir about marriage and memory, about the frailty and elasticity of our most essential bonds, and about the accretion, over time, of both sorrow and love.

Shapiro is the best-selling author of the memoirs Still WritingDevotion, and Slow Motion, and five novels including Black & White and Family History. Her work has appeared in The New YorkerGrantaTin HouseOne StoryElleVogueThe New York Times Book Review, the op-ed pages of The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, and has been broadcast on This American Life. Dani was recently Oprah Winfrey's guest on Super Soul Sunday. She has taught in the writing programs at Columbia, NYU, The New School, and Wesleyan University; she is co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. She is also a contributing editor at Condé Nast Traveler.


For a free monthly newsletter on things to do and see and travel tips  visit www.litchfieldhills.com


Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Nationally Acclaimed Living History Actress to Perform @ Lockwood Mathews Mansion

On Sunday, May 21, 2017, 2:30-4:30 p.m. at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, 295 West Avenue in Norwalk, CT, Jan Turnquist will present a living history performance portraying American author Louisa May Alcott. Jan Turnquist is the executive director of the historic house museum Orchard House, in Concord, Mass, where Louisa May Alcott wrote the novel, Little Women.

Ms. Trunquist has portrayed Louisa May Alcott in Public Service Announcements currently running nationally on the FOX TV network, several BBC productions, including Blue Peter, Britain's longest running children's TV show, Book Worm and their Open University programs, as well as on Public Television (PBS) and for First Lady Laura Bush.
Jan's performance is a blend of stage drama and "Living History." In a living history portrayal, an actor becomes a character, just as they do in a play, but, unlike a play, the audience may interact with the character and ask questions or make comments. LMMM's audience will be invited to travel back in time to meet Louisa May Alcott who will enter the Mansion's Rotunda after having had a minor accident and waiting for her carriage's repair.
Jan is an educator, actress, and historian. She holds her teaching certification and degrees in English and Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin. Currently a consultant to Orchard House Museum, she spent 18 years on staff there as Living History Coordinator, Education Coordinator, and Historic Interpreter.
This will be the second in a series of Sunday Salons by experts in the field of 19th and early 20th centuries' material and cultural life. This Salon includes a living history performance, refreshments, and a tour of the first floor of the Mansion; $15 for members, $20 for non-members per session. Refreshments are courtesy of Best in Gourmet. Please RSVP by Thurs, May 17, 2017.
Please visit our website: lockwoodmathewsmansion.com to purchase tickets or contact info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com or call 203-838-9799, ext. 4. The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is a National Historic Landmark. For more information on schedules and programs please visit www.lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, e-mail info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, or call 203-838-9799.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum- Suzanne McClelland: Just Left Feel Right

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum located on 258 Main Street in Ridgefield  is pleased to present Suzanne McClelland: Just Left Feel Right. Spanning twenty-five years, Just Left Feel Right focuses on works from specific periods of her career that share a distinctive commonality, capturing the eruptive and disparate voices of a shifting American vernacular and its rippling effect on the way we communicate in our hyperkinetic time.

McClelland is most widely known for her deft use of linguistics and her sensually textured surfaces. She mines the ways in which communities speak, collecting language and choosing words that trend, are debated, heard on street corners, and absorbed from streaming news feeds; words that are rich in meaning, that reach and multiply, that drop in and out of everyday life. The words she selects hover between materials; letters press up against each other, run off the surface, join together, dissolve, loop, and collide into and onto themselves. Employing a wide range of materials, her compositions have a rhythm and beat as they perform, throb, and swagger, capturing the cadences of our speech, mimicking the physicality of how people express themselves. Pauses, utterances, and hysteria, the inflection of tone and the modulation of our tempo, bodily expressions and gesticulations, all are translated into painterly rhythmic compositions modeled after oratory repartee.
McClelland seizes these audible sensations, stealing words right out of the mouth, but also embodying our micro-expressions. In 2012, she began to incorporate numbers into her work as a reaction to the data onslaught of the Internet age. A mind-numbing rush of streaming lists for everything and anything are published on the Web. McClelland, a collector of messaging, in particular emotive and directional information, began researching the data that represents the individual and vice versa. This endless data stream is how twenty-first century society forecasts outcomes: from steady news spills that flood the imaginations, to engineering distorted images about identity and body type, and (in)forming biased estimates and postures. With the rise of social media as a primary source of content, opinion is now often misread as "news."
This survey will include McClelland's formative painting My Pleasure (1990); a seminal painting from the series Right (1993), originally shown as part of a group of paintings in the 1993 Whitney Biennial; the painting series Rap Sheet (2010-13), portraits of early female rap and hip hop artists during the "Roxanne Wars" in the Bronx; the painting series Action Objects (2010); paintings from the series Left (2011); the debut of three new paintings from the Before Tomorrow series (2015-16); and the premiere of a new site-engaged installation, third party (2016-17), which will incorporate materials such as glass, ceramic, and paint. Just Left Feel Right will also include many other never-before-exhibited works from past and current series.
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Mon. - Sat. and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.


For a free monthly newsletter on things to do and see and travel tips  visit www.litchfieldhills.com

Monday, May 1, 2017

New Art Show in Norwalk - Music Sets the Tone!

Art that represents music, tones paired with visions of grandeur, will be on exhibit at the Maritime Garage Gallery from through June 2, 2017. The Gallery is located in the Maritime Parking Garage exhibit space in Norwalk, CT.  The exhibit is free and open to the public from 9:00am -5:00pm, Monday through Friday.



            
The exhibit, entitled “Chromatic,” features art that shows the visual crossing of the sense of hearing and sight. Exhibiting artists include Binnie Birstein of Norwalk; Tania Canteli of Beacon, NY; Ashley Nelson and Mary Grace Leone of West Haven; Lori Slotkin of Darien; Eric Chiang of Westport; Heidi Lewis Coleman and Mari Gyorgyey of Stamford. Jeanine Esposito and Frederic Chiu of Beachwood Arts in Westport, CT were ​guest jurors for “Chromatic”.
             
The Maritime Garage Gallery is part of the Parking Authority’s “Art in Parking Places” initiative, an effort to support art in public spaces. For more information, call 203- 831-9063, or visit www.norwalkpark.org/public-art .


For a free monthly newsletter on things to do and see and travel tips  visit www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com