Art Auction in Norwalk Connecticut

The Center for Contemporary Printmaking has announced that Ron Pokrasso is the Honorary Chair of MONOTHON2013. Pokrasso is an originator of the printmaking event "Monothon" at the Printmaking Center of the College of Santa Fe in 1986 and brought it to  Norwalk's Center for Contemporary Printmaking in 1999, where it has been held annually.

This year Monothon2013's  live auction and party will be held on November 16 from 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. at the Lillian August Flagship Store in Norwalk.  The Silent Auction will be in the “Dream House”, a grouping of showrooms at Lillian August. There  will be a feature wall (salon style gallery) designated for framed Live Auction artwork.  The gala event provides a memorable way of viewing outstanding art while mingling with friends and fellow art lovers.

Live auction artwork includes offerings by: Ron Pokrasso as well as Roz Chast, Sandi Haber Fifield, Emily Mason, James Rosenquist, Ammanda Seelye Salzman, Donald Sultan, Deborah Weiss and other prominent artists. New this year is a drawing for three nights to Bordeaux, France for two couples.

Parking for this event is at 32 Knight Street, Norwalk.  The Lillian August Flagship Store has the huge parking lot in front, a large lot to the right of the building, and overflow parking at St. Philip Church, across Route 1 on France Street.  Tickets $50/person. Advance tickets: 203-899-7999. For more information visit http://contemprints.org.

To coincide with the show, the CCP members are opening an exhibit called New Works on Paper on November 7.  This show will run though January 1.  Works on Paper will be displayed at the Avenue Gallery on Main Street in Norwalk.

Swedish Music and Culture at Washington's Gunn Library Nov. 17

At 1 p.m. on November 17, the Gunn Historical Museum in Litchfield Hills will present Swedish Music and Culture: A Musician's Journey Through Scandinavia in the Wykeham Room of the Gunn Library in Washington Connecticut. Katie Trautz, a native Vermont fiddler who has toured nationally and internationally sharing traditional music and original folk songs, will give a performance of Swedish music playing fiddle, guitar and banjo crossing genres with her varying ensembles.

Gunn Historical Museum

Trautz's bands include: Mayfly, Wooden Dinosaur, and Kick 'em Jenny Stringband. She has studied with some of the greatest fiddle players in the US, including Dirk Powell, Pete Sutherland, James Bryan, Jimmy Tripplett, and Bruce Molsky. Katie has played alongside and shared the stage with many well-known bands including: Aoife O'Donovan Band, Brittany Haas & Lauren Rioux, Dirk Powell and Riley Baugus, Deadly Gentlemen, Sheesham and Lotus, David Wax Museum, Matt and Shannon Heaton, Rusty Belle, Michael Chorney and Dollar General, Brown Bird, Devil Makes Three, 4tet, Pete Sutherland, Brown Bird, and many others. Katie is also the co-founder of the non-profit folk music school 'The Summit School of Traditional Music and Culture' based in Montpelier, VT.

Traditional Swedish music is known for the rich harmonies expressed by twin fiddles, lilting polska rhythms, and the thematic play on light and dark. These are the motifs that drew the Vermont-based fiddle player, Katie Trautz, to Scandinavia. Her travels landed her at an intensive musical immersion on a farm north of Stockholm, where traditional music and culture are still thriving. After a visit with one of the country's most renowned folk artists, a journey through the Fjordlands of Norway, and a stop at a small venue along the way to give a performance, Katie brings her travels to life with a demonstration of Swedish fiddling, storytelling and imagery.

Gunn Historical Museum is located on 5 Wykeham Rd. in  Washington.  For additional information call  (860) 868-7586 or visit www.gunnlibrary.org.

For area information www.litchfieldhills.com

Get Real at the Bruce Museum

Martin Lewis (American, 1881-1962) Above the Yards, Weehawken, 1918 Aquatint and etching, 17 ½ x 23 ¼”

Collection of Dr. Dorrance T. Kelly ©Estate of Martin Lewis

Highlighting the work of nine American artists who at the beginning of the twentieth century were inspired by the world around them to realistically depict everyday scenes, the Bruce Museum presents the new exhibition Telling American History: Realism from the Print Collection of Dr. Dorrance T. Kelly from August 31 through December 1, 2013.

The show features more than 40 original fine art prints including lithographs and etchings that chronicle daily life – the bustle of urban streets, boisterous moments of leisure, modern modes of transportation, and bucolic rural images – by leading artists who approached their subject matter through the lens of realism: George Bellows (1882-1925), Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Martin Lewis (1881-1962), Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), John Sloan (1871-1951), Benton Murdoch Spruance (1904-1967), Stow Wengenroth (1906-1978), and Grant Wood (1891-1942).

The artworks present visitors with a snapshot of America from 1905 through 1967. Each print featured in the exhibition was chosen for its subject matter and artistic merit and placed together they present windows into scenes of America's past. Set amid a backdrop of events such as World War I, the Great Depression, New Deal programs, and World War II, the country was experiencing changes in its cultural, geographic, and demographic nature. The nation experienced a great upheaval as citizens and immigrants alike flocked to urban areas in hopes of greater economic prospects. At the same time, advances in technology and transportation were transforming rural regions.

Martin Lewis - Misty Night, Danbury, 1949

Drawn from different areas of the country, the artists shared a similar goal of creating artwork that was available to all. They embraced realism, using it to capture images of modern American society as it quickly changed around them.   This distinguished their work from the traditional, idealized and romanticized work of European art. By illustrating everyday scenes, the artists featured in this show created connections for the average American and invited them to become part of the artistic dialog,because their images appealed through accessible subject matter and to the pocketbook of the everyday person.

A fully illustrated catalogue of the show will be available in the Bruce Museum Store. A series of public programs will be offered to complement the show, including Monday morning lectures, hands-on printmaking workshops for adults and students, a program for families with toddlers and one for seniors suffering from memory loss, as well as school tours.

   

Wengenroth Grand Central, Lithograph, 1949

About the Bruce Museum

Explore Art and Science at the Bruce Museum, located at One Museum Drive in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 1 pm to 5 pm; closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for students up to 22 years, $6 for seniors and free for members and children under 5 years. Individual admission is free on Tuesday. Free on-site parking is available and the Museum is accessible to individuals with disabilities. For additional information, call the Bruce Museum at (203) 869-0376 or visit the website at www.brucemuseum.org.

For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Children's Book Festival

Pequot Library's second Children's Book Festival is set for Saturday, November 9, 2013, from 11:00am - 4:00pm. The festival is free and open to the public. It will take over the entire library – Auditorium/Concert Hall, Reading Room, and Children's Department.

The public will meet an amazing array of 14 authors and illustrators. These talented and award-winning professionals will be on hand to sign book copies. Picture books, Juvenile and Young Adult books will be available for purchase. There will be presentations and demonstrations throughout the day, and one-of-a-kind raffle prizes. The Pequot Library is located on 720 Pequot Ave., Southport. 

Featured authors and illustrators are: Tony Abbott, Firegirl; Jennifer Berne, On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein; Bruce Degen, I Gotta Draw, Jamberry, The Magic School Bus Series; Deborah Freedman, The Story of Fish & Snail; Susan Hood, Spike: The Mixed-up Monster; Ann Haywood Leal, A Finders-Keepers Place; Barbara Mariconda, The Voyage of Lucy P. Simmons: Lucy At Sea; Marc Tyler Nobleman, Bill, the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman; Michael Rex, Goodnight Goon; Laura Toffler-Corrie, My Totally Awkward Supernatural Crush; Dan Yaccarino, Doug, Unplugged; Bryan Collier, Dave the Potter; R.L. Stine, Goosebumps Most Wanted; Patricia Reilly Giff, Hunter Moran Saves the Universe, Gingersnap.

Please visit www.pequotlibrary.org to learn more about this open-to-the-public small, unique community library. All classes and programs are open to everyone. For information: (203) 259-0346 ext. 15.  

Bee Aware at Fairfield Museum and History Center

The Fairfield Museum Shop located on 370 Beach Street in Fairfield is all abuzz with a new selection of bee-related items including honey produced by their own honeybees!  

This year, for the first time, the Museum raised bees near the 1750 Ogden House in keeping with their mission to explore the past and to imagine the future.  The museum has used bees to pollinate the colonial garden and has harvested the honey in much the same way as our ancestors did.

The Ogden House located on 1520 Bronson Rd., is an authentic saltbox home with a colonial kitchen garden containing plantings dating back to the home’s origin. Visitors to the garden can see replica straw bee skeps that represent the importance of beekeeping in the colonies in terms of pollination and wax production, as well as the medicinal, culinary, and household uses of honey.  In fact, apple trees and honeybees used to pollinate trees were brought across the Atlantic in the early 1600s so settlers could make cider because water was not considered portable.  Honey was used to preserve  food, weatherproof  leather and medicinally to help prevent infection.

Today, visitors to the gift shop at the Fairfield Museum will find the museum's newly harvested honey along with bee-themed tea towels, coasters, and pure beeswax candles. In addition to these "sweet" products, the museum shop offers an interesting selection of locally made items such as art by Michael Michaud and beach inspired jewelry.  

In conjunction with the Museum's current maps exhibit, There’s a Map for That! the Museum Shop  offers map themed pieces such as passport covers, journals, and flasks. Specialty jewelry items from CHART metalworks, including pendants, earrings and key chains, exclusively designed for the Museum, feature maps of Fairfield Beach and Southport Harbor.

The Fairfield Museum Gift Shop is open daily from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. and weekends from 12 p.m. - 4 p.m. For more information visit www.fairfieldhistory.org.

Coming to America: Washington's Swedish Immigrants

The Gunn Memorial Museum on 5 Wykeham Road in Washington Connecticut is exploring its' European roots with a new exhibit that runs through January 12, 2014 called Coming to America: Washington's Swedish Immigrants.  This exhibition shares the little-known story of Swedish immigration to this small New England town.

Known for their superior agricultural skills, 1.3 million Swedes immigrated to America during the 19th and 20th centuries, escaping conscription, famine, and poverty. Washington, Connecticut became one of their new homes, where many found employment as laborers and servants on local farms and estates owned by wealthy New Yorkers.

Beginning in 1870, over one hundred Swedish families settled in Washington and built two churches across the street from each other. One, the Salem Covenant Church, is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. Swedes made up 22% of Washington's population in 1910, and many of their descendants still reside in town today. This exhibit tells their story.

The Gunn Museum is located at 5 Wykeham Road, at the intersection of Wykeham Road and Rt. 47, on Washington Green. The Museum is open to the public Thursday through Saturday 10am-4pm and Sunday from 12pm-4pm. Call the Museum at 860-868-7756 or view www.gunnlibrary.org for more information.