Colonial Cookery and Customs for Kids at the Wilton Historical Society

When we think of spring in New England many of us think of asparagus.  On May 14 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. the Wilton Historical Society is hosting a Colonial Cookery and Customs  workshop for kids in grades  4 – 8.  The workshop will include a special Connecticut recipe. 

While the food cooks, kids will learn about Colonial manners, morals and way of life.  This month, the children will be making Asparagus Forced in French Rolls. Tender asparagus, fresh from the garden, combined with fresh eggs, cream, nutmeg and French rolls would have been made by Colonial cooks into an easy and amusing spring offering, rather like a vegetable custard in a roll. The visual entertainment is that the asparagus stalks are presented poking through the browned crust of the roll, just as they would rise from their asparagus bed.
 

The workshops will feature relatively simple dishes made with local, seasonal ingredients.  The recipes used will be adapted for modern kitchens.  This is done for safety reasons, and also so that the attendees can recreate their meals at home.  All participants will sample their own cooking and take home recipe cards - as well as any leftovers! The children will learn how a Colonial kitchen would have operated, in order to appreciate the modern conveniences we take for granted.  Previous sessions have made bannock cakes, pease porridge, pickles and an amulet of green peas.  

Members: $15; Non-members $25. Space is limited --- please register by contacting

info@wiltonhistorical.org or call 203-762-7257. 

The Wilton Historical Society is located on 224 Danbury Road/Rt. 7, in Wilton; for more information www.wiltonhistorical.org. For more area information www.litchfieldhills.com

Study Tour- Gardens and Landscapes at the Glass House in New Canaan

On May 26 from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. experience the gardens and landscape of the Glass House on a half day study tour led by noted scholar Maureen Cassidy-Geigerin celebration of the publication of her new book The Philip Johnson Glass House: An Architect in the Garden. Tickets for this program will include a complimentary signed copy of the book An Architect in the Garden.

Known as one of the world’s best and most recognizable modernist structures, the Glass House serves as an icon of twentieth-century landscape and architectural design. The Philip Johnson Glass House: An Architect in the Garden provides the complete story of the evolution of the landscape and building designs of the New Canaan campus. This tour will analyze the evolution of this architectural gem built on forty-nine acres with eleven Johnson-designed follies dating back from 1949 to 1995. With over half a century of their gardening and landscaping partnership, Philip Johnson and David Whitney produced a sublime and scenic setting for the Glass House and the site’s other structures. This site preserves some of the most innovative and exciting contributions to art, architecture, and landscape design.

Maureen Cassidy-Geiger is an internationally recognized curator, scholar and educator with special expertise in European decorative arts, patterns of collecting and display and the history of architecture, gardens and photography. She is also a free-lance contributor to Departures, Elle Décor, The Magazine Antiques and Bentley Magazine. She has been studying the Glass House landscape since 2010 and was featured in the 2011 article by Suzanne Gannon on the Glass House landscape, ‘Natural Artistry,’ published in New Canaan/Darien/Greenwich magazine.

Please note that tour participants must be able to climb hills of moderate grade and stand for extended lengths of time. We regret that visitors using wheelchairs or scooters are not permitted on this tour.

For more information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Party @ The Palace in Waterbury May 13

The “party of the decade” returns to Waterbury, CT, on Friday, May 13, 2016, as the Palace Theater celebrates the culmination of its eleventh season with Palace 10.1, the latest version of the theater’s wildly popular “Palace 10.0” tenth anniversary event, which sold-out last season.

Featuring six different parties in one location, Palace 10.1 engages guests in a one-of-a-kind experience that invites them to explore six different spaces throughout the theater, each buzzing with themed entertainment, specialty bars, plentiful food stations, and live music running the spectrum of musical interests.

The pre-party kicks off at 5p.m. outside on the theater’s loading dock with an array of craft beers, food trucks, and a live performance by local tribute band E2 “An Eagles Experience.” 

At 6p.m., the doors swing open to the Grand Foyer and into a Tuscan themed lounge where guests will enjoy hors d’ oeuvres, wine and light musical entertainment from soprano Marissa Famiglietti and her husband Shae Apland.

 From there, guests can venture to the Poli Club for an evening of cabaret with Broadway performer Trevor McQueen, mosey to the mezzanine for a country bar encounter with Nashville artist AJ Jansen, dance the night away at a trendy on stage club featuring special guest DJ Jim O’Rourke, Executive Director of the Greater Waterbury YMCA, and end the night on a high note with an interactive performance by Keys to the City’s dueling piano players in the orchestra lobby.

Admission to the event is $75 per person, which includes two complimentary drink vouchers and complimentary food stations throughout the theater. Tickets can be purchased by phone at 203-346-2000, online at www.palacetheaterct.org, or in person at the Box Office, 100 East Main St. in Waterbury. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Palace Theater’s Annual Campaign.

For more area event information www.litchfieldhills.com

What's happening in New Preston

The businesses in the charming riverside village of New Preston located at the foot of scenic Lake Waramaug have planned several exciting events, sales and art exhibits for the month of May and in early June.

On May 7, for example, the Smithy Store and Gallery will host a local Makers Market from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the 2nd floor loft gallery of the store.  Visitors will find a wide selection of offers of products created by a variety of Connecticut artisans, including clay tiles and pots by Linda Boston of Boston Tile & Pot, jewelry by artists Elizabeth MacDonald, Missy Stevens and Terri Tibbatts, and others.  

On May 28, the Smithy will have an artist's reception for Ella Crampton-Knox whose artwork will hang in the gallery through July 10.  Ella paints stunningly beautiful, light-filled paintings of our breathtaking Connecticut countryside and shoreline. The work of Emily Kennedy will also be on display.  With a unique artistic eye, Emily shoots photos of her surroundings that continue to inspire her, including the nature and landscapes right outside her back door.

Ella Crampton Knox

J. Seitz and Co., a fine furniture, accessories and apparel store is celebrating the work of Michael Quadland, currently artist-in-residence at the Ann Norton Sculpture Garden in Palm Beach, on Saturday, May 14th from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Inspired by the WPA and Ashcan schools of American art, where artists found beauty in unadorned industrial landscapes, artist Michael Quadland uses acrylic paints to create layered, textured abstractions.

Rain on Lake

For those of you that love to arrange flowers, be sure not to miss the flower arranging class at Dawn Hill Antiques on May 21 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.  This workshop will feature two fantastic talents in the world of flowers and design: Nicolette Camille of The Little Flower School, and Frances Palmer of Frances Palmer Pottery. Nicolette will do a demonstration, followed by a class in which each participant can create an arrangement in their own limited edition vase created by Frances Palmer especially for the class. Tickets to the class are $350, which includes a limited edition Frances Palmer vase, and all flowers. For reservations all 860.868.0066 or 917.767.6384.

On June 1, the Private House has organized its annual Backyard Sale at the George Platt Field in New Preston located on 16 Church Hill Road.  This event held under a big tent features the wares of many antique dealers displaying all manner of treasures at affordable prices. The tent is just up at the top of the hill, behind the New Preston shops.

Center for Contemporary Printmaking presents the annual members’ exhibition

The Center for Contemporary Printmaking presents the annual members' exhibition Re:Location that will open on April 3, 2016, and run through May 22. The Opening Reception and Award Ceremony will take place on Sunday, April 3, from 2pm to 5pm.

This exhibition asks artists to consider the role location plays in their life and practice. Would they be the same if they lived someplace else? Where would their ideal place be? How have their present and past residences shaped who they are and their creativity? This exhibition provides CCP members the chance to interpret their world through the art of the print. We ask submitting artists to look back on the places that have made an impact on them and have shaped their lives today.

Nomi Silverman, CCP's 2015 Best in Show Award Recipient will present, Refugees in the lithography room in conjunction with Re:Location. When asked about the works Silverman explained, "In numbers equivalent to the population of the United Kingdom, the greatest migration in the world to date, refugees, like a raging river, stream across borders. They are forced by necessity – be it war, famine, persecution or other insurmountable challenges to leave all they know. They are isolated and alone, separated from family and home, carrying only a small backpack with all their possessions, most to never return."

For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Art to the Avenue - Greenwich May 5-31

Once again this year, the Greenwich Arts Council has organized Art to the Avenue, which is now in its' nineteenth year! This event is held to show that art and commerce do mix, and since 1998 this stellar event has been doing just that!

The nationally acclaimed Greenwich High School Jazz Band playing on Opening Night on Greenwich Avenue

This years event promises to be one of the most exciting festivals ever organized. The opening is set for Thursday, May 5, from 5:30-8 p.m. The evening launches a truly spectacular show with musicians and street performers filling the street  along with entertaining strollers. 

On May 5, most stores host receptions for the hundreds of visitors who attend  this event to preview the work of over 120 artists. The art selected by the retailers remains in place through Memorial Day, so there is ample time for viewers to experience the "gallery" that downtown Greenwich becomes. All the art on display is for sale, and a 30% tax deduction for the purchaser benefits Greenwich Arts Council. 

Painting by Angel Mieres displayed in the entry of an office space on Greenwich Avenue.

Don't forget to pick up a complete map/guide that lists all participants making it easy to zero in on what interests you. The Greenwich Arts Council is located at 299 Greenwich Ave., Greenwich, CT.  For more information visit: www.greenwichartscouncil.org.

For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

New Art Show through June 23 @ Oliver Wolcott Library

The artwork of Jocelyn Regenbogen will be on display in the Oliver Wolcott Library's Jamie Gagarin Community Room and Gallery from May 5 through June 23, 2016. The opening reception is on Thursday, May 5 from 5:00- 7:00 p.m.  The  Oliver Wolcott Library is located on 160 South Street in Litchfield, CT.

Jocelyn Regenbogen has been painting watercolors for the past twenty years. Her interest in the medium began with a series of six lessons with the accomplished Frank Federico at his Goshen studio. Little did she know then that she would remain a devoted weekly student of Frank's for the next eight years and would continue painting for years thereafter.

Her body of work consists largely of florals and landscapes. In her work, she strives to capture the ephemeral aspects of nature and the interplay of light and shadow. She paints with bold and varied brush strokes, uses glazes of color carefully and preserves the white of the paper whenever possible. Her work incorporates familiar local backdrops as well as favored travel destinations including Martha's Vineyard and the Caribbean.

Dr. Regenbogen has shown her work at numerous venues including a juried exhibit at the Kent Art Association, the Oliver Wolcott Library, the William Pitt Real Estate Gallery, Western New England College and the Hunt Memorial Library in Falls Village. She has done multiple paintings on commission also.

For more information on Litchfield Hills visit www.litchfieldhills.com