Mix it Up Exhibit at Sharon Historical Society in Litchfield Hills through Feb. 27

The second annual winter “Mix It Up” show hosted by the Sharon Historical Society in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut will juxtapose portraits by seven contemporary artists with five portraits from the museum collection by well-known folk artist Ammi Phillips (1788-1865). The exhibit at the Sharon Historical Society located on Main Street runs through February 27th.

Aung San Suu Kyi, by Robert A. Parker

This year’s “Mix It Up” exhibit is designed to challenge the viewer to visually travel from early nineteenth century folk portraits of local Sharon residents painted by Phillips to contemporary portraits painted by Sharon (and other local) artists.

Robert Louis Stevenson, by Duncan Hannah

Phillips, known locally by various monikers including the “Kent Limner”, painted in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut in the mid-1830s. By that time he was well established as an artist of some note, painting his first portraits probably as early as 1809/1810 in the area of Pittsfield, MA. Phillips painted at least five residents of the town of Sharon, Calvin and Phoebe Dowd Day, John Cotton Smith, and Ira and Melissa Williams. It is extremely likely that there are more Phillips’ portraits of Sharon residents in private collections, unsigned and/or unidentified. 

Midwinter Saint, by Richard T. Scott

In this exhibit all five Phillips portraits in the museum collection will be hung side-by-side with contemporary works by Duncan Hannah, Pieter Lefferts, Patty Mullins, Robert Andrew Parker, Warren Prindle, Richard T. Scott, and Peter Steiner. The exhibit hopes to challenge the viewer to evaluate the meaning of portraiture beyond the realm of “work of art”, and into the role of portrait as visual entrée into the historic record.

Phoebe Dowd Gay, by Ammi Phillip, ca. 1835

The Sharon Historical Society and Museum is located at 18 Main Street, Sharon, Connecticut 06069. For more information, call 860-364-5688 or visit http://www.sharonhist.org/.  

Museum Hours are Wednesday & Saturday from 10AM - 2PM, Thursday & Friday from 10AM - 4PM and by appointment.

For information on what to see and do in Litchfield Hills www.litchfieldhills.com

Sharon Audubon Enchanted Forest and Kids' Day in Litchfield Hills

Family fun is in the works at the Sharon Audubon Center the last two weekends in October.  Both events are "non scary" and   geared toward families with children pre-K through 2nd grade.

The Audubon's popular Enchanted Forest will be held on Saturday, October 19. Guided groups will meet friendly costumed animal characters along a candlelit trail and hear how the animals live their lives on the Audubon grounds. After the tour, which lasts approximately 45 minutes, participants can enjoy a cup of hot chocolate inside the Center building before taking a hayride back to the parking area. This non-scary program is ideal for children up to 8 years old and their families. Tours begin every 10-15 minutes between the hours of 6:00 and 7:30 p.m.. Participants should bring an extra flashlight.   Admission is $4 per person. Children under 2 are free.

Audubon Kids' Day is taking place on Sunday, October 27 from 12-3 p.m. This is a fun, autumn afternoon for young children and their families that features carnival-type games, kids' crafts, a hay bale maze, hay wagon shuttles, and food to name a few of the fun activities. Children are encouraged to come in costume and join in the costume parade that will be lead by a real life marching band around the Center grounds at 2:30. The event is held rain or shine. Admission is $7.00 per carload.

The Sharon Audubon Center is located on Route 4 in Sharon, for more information, contact the Audubon Center at (860) 364-0520 or visit http://sharon.audubon.org.

For area information www.litchfieldhills.com

Vanishing America at the Sharon Historical Society

The Sharon Historical Society is hosting an art exhibit by Jeffrey L. Neumann titled Vanishing America: The Disappearing Commercial Landscape of the 20th Century through October 25.  

This exhibit is a celebration of the exuberance and independent spirit of life in post WWII America tempered by the inexorable march of time. With a focus on the mom and pop eating establishments, motels and movie theaters of roadside America, Neumann's paintings take the viewer on journey down the two-lane highways of the twentieth century. They allow us to experience a part of our past that is being rapidly replaced by the widespread influence of corporate conformity.

The cultural and anthropological aspect of Neumann's work is balanced by his uniquely personal vision. The artist, born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1953 and currently residing in Copake, NY, cannot be considered a regional painter. The subjects of his oil and watercolor paintings come from all across the nation. They are influenced by Neumann's childhood years living in New Mexico and California and his numerous trips on Route 66 in the back of the family station wagon.  His work is noted as finding profound meaning in places often overlooked.

On October 13 at 3 p.m. there will be a gallery walk and talk with the artist. 

Running concurrently with Neumann's Vanishing America exhibit in The Gallery @the SHS, the Sharon Historical Society & Museum will present Now you see it...in the exhibit galleries. This exhibit will take its audience backwards in time, challenging the viewer to use objects and images that are familiar today as a roadmap to the past. Focusing primarily on the changes that have occurred in town from 1850 to the present day, visitors will be confronted with familiar scenes, such as the Sharon War Memorial, the Sharon Fire Department, Mudge Pond Beach, the Sharon Valley Tavern, Sharon Hospital and the Sharon Center School, and with the help of objects from the museum collection, will be transported back in time to pivotal junctures in the town's development.

About the Sharon Historical Society

The Sharon Historical Society and Museum is located at 18 Main Street, Sharon, Connecticut 06069. For more information, call 860-364-5688 or visit www.sharonhist.org. Museum Hours are Wednesday & Saturday from 10AM - 2PM, Thursday & Friday from 10AM - 4PM and by appointment.

For area information www.litchfieldhills.com

Garden Lovers Gather for Treasures, Tours At 11th Annual Trade Secrets in the Litchfield Hills

Nearly 60 vendors and garden antiques dealers from around the northeast region will be setting up their wares under the tents at the picturesque LionRock Farm for the 11^th Annual Trade Secrets on Saturday, May 14^th in Sharon. This much-anticipated yearly event in the Litchfield Hills offers the rare chance to find in one setting unusual garden plants and topiary from specialized growers and some of the nation’s best known small nurseries, as well as unusual accessories, furniture, statuary, fencing and garden antiques from the choicest purveyors of these wares.

The event includes the opportunity on Sunday to tour five extraordinary gardens; most of them rarely open to the public. These include the sublime Falls Village garden of John Rosselli and Trade Secrets founder, interior designer Bunny Williams, featuring the mock-coliseum pool house, heirloom apple trees in bloom, wild-flowers, a woodland pool, a birdhouse “village,” and a sea of tulips and bulbs,  
Another highlight is the private garden of author and noted garden designer Lynden Miller, who is responsible for the beloved Conservatory Garden and rejuvenated Bryant Park in New York City. Her personal garden features mixed herbaceous borders of perennials and shrubs in lovely hues, a daylily walk, a flowering meadow with mowed paths, a woodland garden, a raised herb garden and a cottage garden for unusual plants.

Hodgson Garden -- Holabird House Garden in Falls Village includes three acres of perennials, bulbs, cutting, vegetable and herb gardens planted with tiers and rustic fencing, while the Cobble Pond Garden in Sharon, a vintage Olmsted Brothers landscape designed for strolling, features clipped conifers, walled gardens bursting with bulbs and spring blossoms, an apple orchard, and viburnums and wisteria at their peak.

Judy and Patrick Murphy opened Old Farm Nursery in Lakeville in 1988 on land that had been used agriculturally for generations. Living in the old farm house (c 1800) and using the farmland and barns for their landscape business, the Murphys transformed five acres of paddocks and adjacent cornfields into garden rooms with extensive plantings that include a large kitchen and herb garden, perennial borders, a fruit tree allée, a formal boxwood-lined white garden, a woodland shade garden featuring a Japanese maple collection, and a secret garden with a swimming pool.

Proceeds from Trade Secrets go to Women’s Support Services (WSS) a regional non-profit organization celebrating its 30th year in the northwest corner of Connecticut offering free and confidential services to victims of domestic violence.

Trade Secrets includes the antique and plant sale on Saturday, May 14 at LionRock Farm in Sharon, CT, from 10am to 3pm, for $35, and the tour of five gardens on Sunday, May 15 for $70 ($60 if purchased in advance). Tickets go on sale April 1. For those who want first chance at the vendors on May 14, “early buying” tickets are available for $100, and include early admittance with continental breakfast. For more information or to purchase advance tickets phone 860-364-1080 or visit www.tradesecretsct.com.