The Pequot War and the Founding of Fairfield

The Fairfield Museum and History Center presents a new exhibition, The Pequot War and the Founding of Fairfield, 1637-1639, on view through January 18, 2015, concluding a full year of exhibits, programs and events that celebrated Fairfield's 375th anniversary.

A collaboration with the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, this exhibit presents the story of the Pequot War in 1637, which led to Fairfield becoming established as an English settlement 375 years ago. Roger Ludlow, then a member of the Windsor Settlement, came south to join the fight. He was so taken with the area and its beauty, he returned in 1639 and founded the town of Fairfield.

An Algonquian-speaking people, the Pequot had been living in southeastern Connecticut for thousands of years prior to European contact. Before the arrival of the Europeans, roughly 13,000 Pequot lived in villages along Long Island Sound and the estuaries of the Thames, Mystic, and Pawcatuck Rivers, raising food through farming, hunting, and gathering

The Pequot War (1637-38) was the first serious conflict in New England between European colonizers and the indigenous population. Historians have referred to the war as a seminal event in early American history, as it paved the way for English control of southern New England and the subjugation of the region's Native people.

Among the many objects displayed in the exhibit is the sword of Captain John Mason, on loan from the Stonington Historical Society. Mason was the leader of the Connecticut troops during the Pequot War, and he most probably used this sword to fight the Pequot.

The exhibit also includes an original copy of John Underhill's Newes from America (1638), on loan from the Connecticut Historical Society, rarely on public display. Captain John Underhill led the Mass Bay troops during the war and later published this account of the events. It is not only one of the most important primary sources of the war, but the publication also includes a remarkable woodcut of the attack on Mistick Fort that has become an iconic image. Also on view are other early 17th century examples of English arms and armor, including a helmet and matchlock gun, as well as a period bale seal and religious book, all on loan from the Plimoth Plantation.

Also featured is a photograph of George Avison's artwork, commissioned during the Great Depression by the Works Progress Administration to paint a series of five murals depicting Fairfield's history, including one of the Swamp Fight. When he completed them in 1937, they were hung in the Roger Ludlowe High School building, now known as Tomlinson Middle School, where they remain today.

About the Fairfield Museum and History Center 

The Fairfield Museum and History Center is a nonprofit, community cultural arts and education center established in 2007 by the 103-year old Fairfield Historical Society. The 13,000 square-foot museum includes modern galleries, a research library, a museum shop and community spaces overlooking Fairfield's historic Town Green. The Fairfield Museum and History Center believes in the power of history to inspire the imagination, stimulate thought and transform society. Located at 370 Beach Road in Fairfield, CT, the Museum is open seven days a week, 10 am – 4 pm. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for students and seniors. Members of the Museum and children are free. For more information www.fairfieldhistory.org.

For area information visit www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Celebrate the Season at the P.T. Barnum Museum

The PT Barnum Museum located on 820 Main Street in Bridgeport is hosting two holiday events that detail traditions that began in the Victorian times and are still celebrated today. 

On December 10 at 12:15 for example, guests will get a sneak peek at the Barnum Museum.  This free event is open to the public and will explore the fact that Christmas as we know it today is really a  wonderful creation dating back to the Victorian times. The tradition of the Christmas tree, gift-giving and joyous celebrations with family and friends began in America in the mid 19th-century. Join the museum staff as they showcase some holiday costumes and finery that speak to the opulence of the holiday season!

On December 14 at 2 p.m. the musuem is celebrating the season with journey back in time.  Escape the hustle and bustle of the holiday season for an hour or so while listening to the lecture by Museum Director Kathy Maher.  She will present the evolution of the tales and traditions of the Victorian Age Christmas. There is no registration but a $5 donation is suggested. The museum is free for kids under 12.

For more information about the P.T. Barnum Museum visit http://www.barnum-museum.org.

‘Let’s Play Shakespeare’ free in Rowayton Dec. 12

 Shakespeare on the Sound reaches down through the centuries to introduce the enduring and timeless themes of The Bard in premiering the 2015 version of "Let's Play Shakespeare" Dec. 12 (Friday) at 3:30 p.m. in the Moose Room of the Rowayton Community Center on 33 Highland Avenue.

The 50-minute production—to be followed by a question-and-answer opportunity—is an original and interactive theatrical work designed to give children from kindergarten to grade five an insight into Shakespeare-- but appealing to all ages. Admission is free, donations optional.

The sweep of Shakespeare's lyrical scythe from comedy to tragedy unfolds onstage as the actors argue over which passages they should perform—and who gets the biggest part-- from a palate that shuffles iconic scenes from "Macbeth," "Henry V," "Much Ado About Nothing," "As You Like It" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The performers work with props extracted from a trunk they bring onstage with them. All three are New York-based professionals who have all appeared in previous outdoor productions of Shakespeare on the Sound in Rowayton's Pinkney Park. They are Katie Wieland, Matthew Lynch and Daniel Levitt.

The playwrights, Kelly and Bryan, created an innovative format where youngsters from the audience are invited on-stage to warm up with the actors and to act in the performance, becoming, for example, part of Henry V's army. The play with its interactive dimension is also portable and available for presentation in schools and libraries.

For more information visit http://www.shakespareonthesound.org   For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Beauty and Ruin: Broken Landscapes, Lost Symbols at the Silvermine Art Center

Beauty and Ruin:  Broken Landscapes, Lost Symbols is the name of the show at the Silvermine Art Center located on 1037 Silvermine Road in New Cannan that runs through December 23.  The focus of the show is the work of three artists that explore three themes in photography, sculpture, and a site-dependent work that includes video as a primary element.

 “The Hand of Man,” J Henry Fair - J Henry Fair’s stunning abstract compositions are full of organic forms and graphic patterns:  plumes, branches, rivulets, as well as grids and softened geometric forms.  But in Fair’s large-scale photographs, beauty and horror coexist.  Fair’s subject in “The Hand of Man” is a damaged environment: de-forested landscapes, polluted waterways, hydraulic fracturing sites, and waste from refinery operations and other industrial practices.  His goal is to “produce beautiful images that stimulate an aesthetic response, then curiosity, then personal involvement.”

 “Flying over these sites is the only way to see things,” Fair has said.  “The aerial perspective is inherently intriguing to land-based animals.”  It is the aerial view that is his particular angle of vision—the distant view, not of the peaceful blue planet, but of the compromised landscape of a world that even in the digital era is still predominantly industrial.

 J Henry Fair’s photography has been the subject of solo exhibitions throughout the U.S. and in Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands.  His work has been featured or reviewed in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Smithsonian Magazine, New York Magazine, Harper’s, and National Geographic.  He has served as an artist-in-residence at Swarthmore, Dartmouth, Colorado College, and the Cooper Union, and his work is in a number of permanent collections including the Cooper Union and Dartmouth’s Hood Museum. Fair has been a member of the SIlvermine Guild of Artists since 2011.

J Henry Fair       Plume of foam in bauxite waste from aluminum refinery       Darrow, Louisiana

 “Neo-Archaism,” Carlos Davila- Carlos Davila creates a visual landscape that abstracts the symbols and forms of ancient cultures and combines them with those of advanced technology and modern industry.  He explores the relationship between the modern, highly mechanized age that we live in and a totemic, stylized symbolism of a variety of ancient cultures from Egypt, South America, and Africa. 

Davila abstracts line, form, and color to create sculptures, three-dimensional wall pieces, and large-scale diptychs and triptychs.  His mechanical and industrial elements coalesce into a layered, three-dimensional geometry that is textural and drenched in brilliant color. His is a figurative landscape at once familiar and alien.

After earning his MFA, Davila participated in the reconstruction of the ancient city of Chan Chan, Peru.  His work at this Pre-Columbian archaeological dig led to a fascination with ancient and lost cultures, and the experience profoundly affected the course of his work.

Carlos Davila’s art has been the subject of solo exhibitions from Lima, Santiago, and Bogota to New York, Boston, and Miami.  He has work in the permanent collections of Yale University’s Richard Brown Baker Collection, the National Arts Club in New York City, the Bibliotèque Nationale in Paris, and dozens of international corporations. 

Born and educated in Lima, Peru, he lived for many years in New York City.  He currently lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and maintains a studio in a loft in Bridgeport.  He has been a member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists since 2012.

 “What’s Left,” June Ahrens- In her recent work, June Ahrens has explored repurposed and broken glass as material and metaphor.  “What’s Left” is a new turn for Ahrens—a unified environment made up of a video surrounded by blue walls that are layered with a combination of dried pigment mixed with salt.  This site-dependent piece, created for the Hays Gallery at the Silvermine Arts Center, evokes loss and fragility while channeling light through a landscape of broken glass.

The video serves as the primary element in the composition and contains many of the materials used in her environment. The integration of materials and images (including images of a human face and hands) invites the viewer to explore and embrace the residue of lives.  Salt and glass enhance the imperfections of the walls, which become a metaphor for the imperfections in each of us.  The surface partially hides some of the scarring but salt and pigment reveal it in a new way.  Repurposed broken glass (clear or blue) is also part of the installation—random patterns of fallen shards will pool and reflect danger, pain, and vulnerability.

June Ahrens’s work has been exhibited at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City; at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland; in “Strong Women Artists,” a group exhibit in Matera, Italy; and in many other exhibitions throughout the U.S.  She was nominated for a 2012 Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant and was a recipient of a grant from the NEA.  She was honored by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism as a Distinguished Advocate for the Arts and as an Individual Artist.  She lives in New Canaan, Connecticut, and has been a member of the Silvermine Guild since 1993.

Still from Video by Ahren

Silvermine Arts Center is one of the oldest artist communities in the United States. Its five-­ acre campus in New Canaan, Connecticut, consists of a nationally renowned artist guild, an award-­winning school of art offering classes for all ages, an arts and fine crafts shop, and a gallery offering over twenty contemporary and historic exhibitions annually. Silvermine is a non-­profit organization that also offers an educational outreach program, Art Partners, and hosts lectures, performances, film screenings, and special events.

Gallery Hours: Silvermine Galleries are open Wednesday through Saturday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (203) 966-­9700 ext. 20 or visit the website: www.silvermineart.org.

Clare Romano & John Ross: 70 Years of Printmaking at Center for Contemporary Printmaking

The fall exhibition, featuring a sampling from the extensive collection of original prints by Clare Romano and John Ross,  at The Center for Contemporary Printmaking (CCP), 299 West Ave., in Mathews Park, Norwalk, runs through Sunday, December 14, 2014.

Clare Romano, "Silver Canyon"

Gallery visitors have the opportunity to view original prints made by these preeminent printmaking artists, educators, and authors—husband and wife, each with their own acclaimed individual careers—who have made the fine art of printmaking, with a particular emphasis on the art of the collagraph, their life's work.

Clare Romano and John Ross had a major influence on the art printmaking and printmaking students. For many, their text, "The Complete Printmaker", represented the next wave in printmaking. The exhibition showcases landscapes and cityscapes, lithographs, etchings, silkscreens, woodcuts, letterpress and, of course, collagraphs. Visitors will discover novel and innovative images using silk aquatint, asymmetrically cut plates, and the combination of intaglio and relief on the same plate.

John Ross, "Duomo

The Center has scheduled an Artists Talk and Book Signing with John and Tim Ross for December 10 from 7 to 8:30 pm.  Clare Romano and John Ross wrote and illustrated a number of books together, the first entitled Manhattan Island (1957) and the most important publication, The Complete Printmaker, originally published in 1972 is now in its second edition with Artist/Printmaker and Educator Tim Ross joining his parents as co-author. The Complete Printmaker is still used as a printmaking text in college classrooms today. 

Normal hours are Tuesday through Sunday 9 am to 5 pm. The gallery is closed on Columbus Day, Veterans Day, and over the Thanksgiving Day weekend. Admission is free, and the gallery is handicapped accessible. For more information visit http://www.contemprints.org.

For information on Fairfield County visit www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Bruce Museum Store to Host Special Holiday Shopping Night

The Bruce Museum will hold a special holiday shopping night at their Museum store next Thursday, November 13 from 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. Admission to the Museum is not required to visit the Museum shop.

People like to shop at the Bruce Museum Store because they carry unique things in many different categories. Chances are you’ll find something for everyone on your list somewhere in the shop.  The special holiday shopping night at the Museum on Thursday, November 13 will include  complimentary wine and cheese in addition to a rare evening shopping opportunity at the Museum.

The Museum has extended its regular store hours to facilitate holiday shopping throughout the season.
From now until Christmas, the store will be open on Mondays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (December 22, 10
a.m. to noon) and Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The Bruce Museum Store is located in the lobby of the Museum at One Museum Drive in Greenwich.  For additional information, call the Bruce Museum at (203) 869-0376 or visit the website at https://brucemuseum.org.

For area information visit www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Delightful, Delicious, Disgusting: Paintings by Mia Brownell 2003-2013 at the Housatonic Museum of Art

Twenty-eight of Mia Brownell's paintings will be on display at the Housatonic Museum of Art in the Burt Chernow Galleries from through November 17, 2014. Luscious and sensuous, Mia Brownell's paintings invite us to indulge in "earthly delights" and are themselves ripe with sexual innuendo.

What Brownell asks us to contemplate is the brevity of life. "We begin in the madness of carnal desire and the transport of voluptuousness," wrote the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, "we end in the dissolution of all our parts and the musty stench of corpses." Seventeenth century Dutch still life paintings of tables laden with gastronomic delights served to remind viewers that all things perish but Brownell's fruits invite us to relish the sweetness of now.

Although Mia Brownell's paintings "may recall classical Vanitas paintings, her food-based compositions also invoke contemporary food politics. A critic of the food industrial complex, Brownell creates a juxtaposition between the natural and artificial, modeling her opulent still-lifes after molecular structures. Her depictions of shiny apples, bead-like caviar and juicy grapes look almost too good to be edible, hence the title of her upcoming traveling solo show, Delightful, Delicious, Disgusting.

The exhibition, which premiered at J. Cacciola Gallery in New York, is a ten-year survey of Brownell's paintings (2003-2013) travelled to the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, New Jersey, Juniata College Museum of Art in Pennsylvania and the final stop at Housatonic Museum of Art in Connecticut."

Gallery hours: Monday- Friday from 8:30am until 5:30pm, Thursdays until 7pm, Saturday from 9am until 3pm and Sunday Noon until 4pm.  Please note that the Gallery will be CLOSED Monday. October 13th.  For more information visit http://www.housatonic.edu/artmuseum/index.asp

Antarctic Photography Opens at the Bruce Museum Oct. 28

A new exhibition is opening on October 28 at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich called  Antarctic Photography: Selections from Gondwana: Images of an Ancient Land.  This exhibition features a selection of large-format photographs by Diane Tuft, a New York-based mixed-media artist and photographer.

Wind Formation, Victoria Lower Glacier. Photograph by Diane Tuft

In 2012, Tuft traveled to Antarctica after receiving a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. Her images chronicle the extraordinary results of that expedition with stunning photographs that capture Antarctica’s raw, untouched splendor with colors, textures, and compositions that verge on the surreal. 

The exhibition will also include a few specimens, on loan from Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History, representing some of the amazing life forms recently found in the Antarctic waters.

Snow Folds, Scott Base Pressure Ridges

Photograph by Diane Tuft

The selected images are highlights of Tuft's 2014 book Gondwana: Images of an Ancient Land,named for the mega continent that once contained what is now Antarctica, and present her vision of the continent as a living abstract reflection of hundreds of millions of years of Earth’s history. This exhibition runs through February 1, 2015. For more information about the Bruce Museum  https://brucemuseum.org.  The museum is open Tuesday - Sunday 10 am - 5 pm. Doors close 1/2 hour before closing, Last admission 4:30 pm .  For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Diane Tuft

Diane Tuft is a New York-based mixed-media artist who has focused primarily on photography since 1998. She earned a degree in mathematics at the University of Connecticut before continuing her studies in art at Pratt Institute in New York. She has always been fascinated by the mystery of what exists beyond the visible; capturing this through her camera—often traveling to the world s most remote places to do so—has been a guiding principle of her work. Tuft has had solo exhibitions at Marlborough Gallery, Ameringer-Yohe Gallery, and Pace Gallery in New York City, as well as The Kimball Art Center in Park City, Utah. Tuft's work can be found in the permanent collection of The Whitney Museum of American Art and The International Center of Photography in New York City, as well as numerous private collections and museums throughout the country.

Wednesday Workshops Challenge Kids’ Creativity

Every Wednesday now through December 17, the Westport Historical Society has organized a series of workshops for curious creative kids from 3:45 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.  These fun workshops will allow kids ages 6 to 12 years old  to create a new project each week.

The workshops will be a fun way to encourage kids to explore their creativity.  Projects will be of interest for kids with a variety of interests.  For the child fascinated by technology, there’s “Industrial Revolution Robots,” where kids will make their own bots from nuts and bolts. For the budding artist there are workshops on how to make folk art signs and decoupage treasure boxes. Workshops on making sock dolls, parchment paper, scary Halloween stuff, antique toy reproductions and holiday gifts round out the syllabus.

“Wednesday Workshops,” Wednesdays, Oct. 1-Dec. 17, 3:45 to 5:15 p.m. Ages 5-12. There is a $25 per session fee, $20 for members. For 10 sessions, the fee is $150 members, $200 non-members; includes all supplies. Reservations suggested: (203) 222-1424. For additional information visit  http://westporthistory.org.

Audubon Greenwich offers late Oct. family fun

Audubon Greenwich located on 613 Riversville Road has several exciting events planned for late October that are sure to please young and old alike.

On Sunday, October 19, the Audubon has planned two family fun events.  The first event, a Wild Bird Banding Demonstration begins at 12:30 p.m.  This hour long demonstration will show how scientists study bird migration, health, and ecology using ‘bird ID bands’ that are placed on birds, large and small, as they pass through the Audubon’s 285-acre sanctuary in Greenwich, CT. After a short learning session indoors, guests will venture into the field for an up-close bird encounter with bird banding expert, Sean Graesser. All ages welcome.$10/person includes cookies & cider afterwards. RSVP required & space limited.

The bird banding demonstration is followed by an Autumn Nature Art Class that will take place from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Special guest teacher, Adriana Rostovsky, will show how to create textures and collages with autumn treasures found outdoors. These sessions willfocus on using natural items like grasses, cones, seed heads and other itemsto create nature-themed decorations. All ages welcome. $25 for first two peopleand $5 per additional. RSVP required & space limited.

On Saturday, October 25, the Audubon Greenwich will host an Enchanted Orchard and Live Animal Show from 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. This fun Halloween-themed evening for the whole family. Meet kid-friendly, costumed animal characters on a tour of the ‘Enchanted Orchard’. After the tour, participants will enjoy dinner, treats and a live animal show, too. Costumes welcome but are not required! All ages are welcome to this event and it is $10 per person. Space very limited so RSVPs & parent supervision is required. The rain date for this event is October 30.

THREE TOP FALL FESTIVALS LURE FOOD LOVERS TO WESTERN CONNECTICUT

The aroma of steaming chowder, the tantalizing scent of garlic, and the chance to sample the best specialties of Iceland await autumn visitors to Western Connecticut, home to three of the season's top food festivals.

Chowdafest, New England's largest cooking competition, will be held at Norwalk's Calf Pasture Beach on October 12, a new location spacious enough to accommodate the growing fan base, while another popular event, the tenth annual Connecticut Garlic & Harvest Festival takes place October 11-12, 2014 at the Bethlehem Fairgrounds. The following Saturday, October 18, the fifth annual Iceland Affair and Fire and Ice Music Festival once again will bring fans to Winchester, CT. for a rare treat, one of only two such festivals in the United States.  

YOU ARE THE JUDGE AT CHOWDAFEST

At this SOUPerbowl of festivals to benefit the Connecticut Food Bank, attendees are the judges as more than two dozen of the regions best restaurants compete in four categories: classic New England Clam Chowder, Traditional Manhattan and Rhode Island chowders, “creative” chowders that might be anything from sweet potato to Cajun shrimp, and bisque soups such as Butternut Squash and Golden Corn.  Everyone receives a spoon, pencil and ballot and can sample unlimited chowder and soups, grading entries on a scale from 7 to 10. Winners are announced at the end of the event.

For tasting variety, samples are offered at the Cheese and Cracker Corner, at ChowdaMex featuring salsas and chips and at a beverage center stocked with beer and wine.  The ChowdaKIDS area will provide samples of ice cream and milk as well as free chef hats, coloring books and stickers provided by Stop & Shop, the event sponsor.

Admission is $10 in advance for adults, $15 at the door on October 11. Ages 6 to 12 pay $5, children under 6 are free. Hours are 12 noon to 4 p.m. Proceeds from this food festival to fight hunger have provided over 100,000 meals for the CT Food Bank. For information, see www.chowdafest.org

GARLIC IN ITS GLORY

Foodies flock each year to the Connecticut Garlic & Harvest Festival where they enjoy cooking demonstrations, informative food talks, lessons in growing garlic, plus free samplings of garlic dips, spreads, cheeses and oils from specialty food vendors. Visitors can buy farm-fresh garlic as well as other bounty from the fall harvest. All of that is the warm-up for some serious eating that includes treats like homemade roasted garlic sausage with peppers and onions, garlic marinated steak sandwiches, garlic roast pork sandwiches, deep fried garlic, and even garlic ice cream.

Live bands add to the festive feel, fine artisans are on hand offering hand made crafts and young visitors will find rides and games to keep them entertained.

The Garlic Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday October 11 and 12

at the Bethlehem Fairgrounds, Route 61 just north of town.  Adult admission is $7, under age 12, just $1. Find more details at www.garlicfestct.com

TAKE A TRIP TO ICELAND

One woman's love affair with Iceland was the spark that began this unusual festival. Gerri Griswold, a former chef and current broadcaster, visited the “land of fire and ice” and fell in love.

She has made over a dozen trips to Iceland since 2002 and in 2009, decided to introduce more Americans to their northern neighbor in what she thought would be a one-time event in her home town.  Instead, the Iceland Affair keeps growing. At this year's fifth edition at Winchester Center's Grange Hall visitors will hear experts talk about Iceland's arts and amazing nature, see prize photography of the land's lavish geysers and waterfalls, and will be able to sample authentic Icelandic foods such as goat sausage, smoked and dried fish, sensational chocolates and licorice, the special local yogurt known as skyr, pure Icelandic water, and what Griswold calls the best hot dogs in the world. On the Winchester Center Green the public will meet Iceland’s biologically pure animals including Icelandic horses, sheep, sheep dogs, and chickens. The event will be held on October 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. All the day's activities are free.

At night, the original small concert in a barn has morphed into the Fire & Ice Festival, to be held this year at Infinity Hall in Norfolk at 8 p.m. Those attending will hear a host of top entertainers rarely seen in this country, and, perhaps discover the next Bjork, Iceland's best known performer in the U.S.. For details on the festival and information on concert tickets, see http://icelandaffair.com or phone 860-307-6144.

For more information about lodging and other activities in the area and a free copy of UNWIND, a full-color, 152-page booklet detailing what to do and see, and where to stay, shop and dine in Fairfield County and the Litchfield Hills of Western Connecticut, contact the Western Connecticut Visitors Bureau, PO Box 968, Litchfield, CT 06759, (860) 567-4506, or visit their web site at www.visitwesternct.com

Westport Arts Center Presents a New Performing Artists Season with Local and International Musicians

The Westport Arts Center is proud to announce a new season for their Performing Arts Series of Jazz and Chamber concerts. The season will feature international musicians, such as Croatian guitarist Ana Vidovic as well as local gems like the Hartford Jazz Orchestra. Bernard Purdie and the Juilliard String Quartet will return for encore performances after their wonderful performances from the Arts Center’s past performing arts seasons.

Julliard String Quartet

The Center begins and closes the season with Sunday-afternoon performances by some of America’s most distinguished veteran artists. It all starts on Sept. 7 with a concert at the Pequot Library by the long-respected duo-pianists Misha and Cipa Dichter, who have brought their elegant style and technical command to the major music capitals of the world. Audiences will remember that the incomparable Juilliard String Quartet created a sold-out sensation when they performed here during the 2012-13 season, and they will wrap up the new season with another concert at the Pequot on May 17 with a salute to the musical traditions of Vienna.

Dover Quartet

The younger artists performing at the Westport Arts Center are  all first-rate. When the late-winter storm of 2013 forced the cancelation of the dazzling Armenian clarinetist Narek Arutuynian’s concert, the Center knew they had to re-engage Arutuynian—and he’ll play at the Pequot Library on March 1. Another Young Concert Artists winner, Ana Vidovic, continues the Center’s  tradition of solo guitar recitals at the Westport Arts Center gallery on April 26, presenting a satisfying program of music by Bach, Paganini, William Walton, and pieces from the Spanish repertory. On Nov. 9 will be the Dover Quartet, will perform at the Westport Arts Center.  The Dover Quartet has swept the major string-quartet competitions in the last two years and is on track to become a major ensemble.

Bernard Perdie

The 2014-15 WAC jazz series will provide a panoramic view on American and world music styles. Legendary funk drummer Bernard Purdie will kick things off in October followed by an intimate concert in November with jazz vocalist Nicole Pasternak featuring Chris Brown in a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Brasilian sounds will be presented in 2015 with Ali-Ryerson and Joe Carter followed by the Hartford Jazz Orchestra lead by the esteemed pianist Donn Trenner.

Tickets are $30/ $25 for Members of the Westport Arts Center, with a $65 ticket available for the Juilliard String Quartet. Student tickets start at $10 per concert and Jazz Jams are $20/ $15 for WAC Members. Season tickets for the Jazz Season are $125/ $105 for Members, and Chamber Season  tickets are $165/ $145 for Members of the Westport Arts Center. A limited number of discounted Senior tickets will be available for presale at the Westport Center for Senior Activities, 21 Imperial Avenue, Westport.Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at www.westportartscenter.org and 203-222-7070.

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.