Special Kids Tour of the Glass House in New Canaan

If your children are budding young architects and art lovers the special children’s tour offered by the Philip Johnson Glass House might be of interest.

The Glass House is offering special after-school tours for children only, ages 9-13 in grades 5-8. Tours will begin and end at the Glass House Visitor Center located on 199 Elm Street directly across from the New Canaan Train Station.

Space is limited to 12 children ensuring a fun and comprehensive tour of this cultural gem. 

The children will be shuttled to the Glass House for an interactive tour of the entire property and its buildings. Parents will drop off their children at the Visitors  Center at 4 p.m. and pick them up at 5:30 p.m. Children should dress for the weather and wear walking shoes for this tour of the property and buildings.

Tickets are $20 per child.  Tours take place on Sept. 23, and 30; October 7, 21, and 28. As an added bonus, children participating in this tour will receive the book From Saltbox to the Glass House, generously donated by the New Canaan Preservation Alliance.   For tickets visit: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/923181.  For more information call 203.594.9884 or visit http://philipjohnsonglasshouse.org

For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

The Glass House - Exhibition through November

The Glass House, a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is hosting two exhibits, SNAP and Gnomon/ Wave this summer and fall that are unique to this fascinating attraction in Fairfield County.

E.V. DAY: SNAP!
On view May 2 - November 30, 2013

SNAP! is a site-specific exhibition by New York-based artist E.V. Day. Conceived for the building known as Da Monsta (1995), the last building completed by Philip Johnson on the Glass House campus, SNAP! comprises four recent sculptures as well as site-specific installations for the building's interior and exterior. E.V. Day is the first artist the Glass House has invited to reinterpret the building, originally intended as a visitor center and now used as a project space for contemporary art.

Upon arrival at the Glass House, visitors will immediately encounter Day's reinterpretation of Da Monsta. Responding to Philip Johnson's statement that "the building is alive," Day boldly casts a series of massive red nets across its undulating volume, capturing and staking Da Monsta to the ground. The interaction between artwork and building continues inside. 

After entering Da Monsta, visitors first see individual sculptures by Day, including Spinneret (a study for Spidey Striptease), 2008; Wet Net, 2009; Pollinator, 2011; and Bandage Dress (white with chain), 2012. Once viewers enter the second gallery, they encounter a dramatic, site-specific installation that explores the expressive contours of Da Monsta with a deconstructed Herve Leger Bandage dress deployed as an architectural element.

NIGHT (1947-2015)
Tauba Auerbach, Gnomon/Wave Fulgurite I.I, 2013
On view May 2 – September 1, 2013

The Glass House will debut New York-based artist Tauba Auerbach's Gnomon/ Wave, a sculpture made for Night (1947 – 2015), a "sculpture-In-residence" series presented on the Mies van der Rohe glass coffee table inside the Glass House. Auerbach's first sand sculpture, Gnomon/Wave evokes a solid wave of light composed of tiny particles. The physical form of the work resembles that of a gnomon, the vertical shadow casting part of a sundial.

Throughout the day, Gnomon/Wave will cast a moving shadow along and through the glass table where it rests. It will be on view until early September 2013. Night (1947 – 2015) presents a series of contemporary sculptures that contend with the legacy of Night, a 1947 sculpture by Alberto Giacometti that disappeared from the Glass House in the mid-1960s, as well as the architecture of the Glass House itself. Guest curator Jordan Stein organized this unfolding sculpture exhibition, held in the same spot where Giacometti's Night once stood, over the course of three years. On display for three to six months at a time, the individual works presented in Night (1947 – 2015) each "disappear" after their run, making room for new works and new absences.

About the Glass House

Built between 1949 and 1995 by architect Philip Johnson, the Glass House 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, and to purchase tickets, visit www.philipjohnsonglasshouse.org.  For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com.

Ehrick K. Rossiter - Designs for Modern Living

One of America’s foremost architects, Ehrick  K. Rossiter, is the subject of a new book by noted American Architecture Historian Ann Y. Smith.  This volume, which features nearly 200 illustrations, 50 of them in color, include glass pate images of the buildings when they were new, floor plans and gardens, and images from an original copy of Rossiter’s rare 1883 book.

Ehrick K. Rossitter – Designs for Modern Living is a window into America’s past for historians, owners of historic properties, students of architecture and design, and for everyone who wonders about this country’s most expansive era in building. Rossiter worked primarily in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, designing everything from low-cost housing to country estates, exclusive hotels and apartment buildings in New York City, along with libraries, town halls, clubs, resorts, and churches.

In Connecticut, many people live in the shadow of Rossiter’s famous buildings such as The Music Shed in Norfolk and churches in Washington, Litchfield and New Milford.

Ann Y. Smith, a well known historian who was a museum curator for 30 years, and an adjunct lecturer on American Architectural History, has written extensively about New England, and Connecticut in particular. In this text she offers the most in-depth analysis ever available of Rossiter’s great contribution to American architecture.

The book is available now at The Hickory Stick Bookshop, 2 Green Hill Road, Washington, CT. 06793 and the author will have a book signing there on Saturday, May 4 at 2 p.m. She will also offer a lecture on Ehrick Rossiter at the Gunn Museum (another Rossiter building) on Saturday, May 11 at 11 a.m. For more information, please visit the website at www.ehrickrossiter.com.

For area information www.litchfieldhills.com