Do you know what is happening at the Glass House this spring?

The Glass House located in New Canaan Connecticut is celebrating its tenth year of offering tours of this magnificent property that was once the home of Philip Johnson and is now a National Trust Historic Site. 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. Tours of the site are available in May through November and advance reservations are recommended.

On May 1 through November 30 the Glass House will present an of Philip Johnson's birth, the Glass House will present Yayoi Kusama: Narcissus Garden. On view will be a new iteration of Yayoi Kusama's Narcissus Garden (1966/2016). Comprising 1,400 mirrored globes, each approximately 11 inches in diameter, the Narcissus Garden will be installed within the pastoral 49-acre landscape of the Glass House campus.

Another exhibition that runs from May 1 - August 15 by Robert Rauschenberg: Spreads and Related Works is a group of paintings and works on paper chosen to compliment the painting Recital (Spread), 1980 which Philip Johnson purchased that same year and is now included in the permanent collection of the Glass House. This exhibition is organized by David White, Senior Curator of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

Two performances are planned for May.  The first one takes place on May 13 and 14 and is a new project by Gerard & Kelly, that brings into dialogue two homes lived in by the architects who built them - the landmark Schindler House in West Hollywood, California, and Philip Johnson's Glass House. The project explores themes of queer intimacy and domestic space within legacies of modernist architecture.

On May 22, there will be the first performance by Ivy Baldwin, a new piece commissioned by the Glass House, brings a powerful yet often hidden emotion to life within the Glass House and its dramatic grounds. Keen (Part 1) embodies the emotional and physical experience of loss, memory and holding love, and filters it through the lens of serene Modernism and chaotic wilderness.

The 2016 Glass House tour season will begin on May 1 and ends on November 30. Tickets for the 2016 tour season are on sale now. Tickets are required for admission. Advance reservations are highly recommended as tours often sell out. Please check ticket availability prior to your visit. For tickets by phone, please call 866.811.4111.

For more area information visit www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Learn about Iceland at Flanders Nature Center

On Tuesday, March 22^nd, join area naturalists Peter and Barbara Rzasa

as they present a slide show of Iceland's geological features, flowers, wildlife and people that they encountered while traveling Iceland’s 832-mile long Ring Road.  On display will be samples of volcanic rocks, ash and basalt collected in Iceland along with samples of wool from Icelandic sheep.

Resting on the edge of the Arctic Circle and sitting atop one of the world’s most volcanically active hot spots, Iceland is a mix of majestic glaciers, bubbling hot springs, rugged fjords and towering waterfalls. Icelanders are a resilient people, living in active volcanic areas and enduring long, cold winter nights and summers where the sun shines at midnight. The country is a noted birder’s paradise famous for its population of Atlantic puffins, ptarmigan, artic terns, harlequin ducks and white-tailed eagles that are found along its 3,700 miles of coast. Iceland is also the home to hundreds of flowering plants including several varieties of orchids. The evening will include information, interesting stories, and a brief overview of Iceland and its natural history.

The program will be held at 7PM at the Flanders’ Studio which is located on the corner of Flanders Road and Church Hill Road in Woodbury. The cost is $10 for members or $15 for non-members. Those interested can register online at www.flandersnaturecenter.org.or call (203) 263-3711, Ext. 10.

For more area information on what to see and do www.litchfieldhills.com

The Covered Bridges of Litchfield Hills

The Kent Historical Society is hosting a talk on the Covered Bridges of Litchfield Hills. Covered bridges that date back to colonial times are an iconic image of Northwest Connecticut, and the Kent/Cornwall area boasts some of the oldest of these structures still in existence in New England. On Sunday, March 20, 2016, at 2:00 PM at the Kent Town Hall, these beloved landmarks will be explored by an expert who knows their history and their engineering.

Author William S. Caswell Jr. will share many historic photographs and information gathered for his book, Connecticut and Rhode Island Covered Bridges, which boasts rare vintage images and postcard memories of days gone by.

During their heyday in the 1800s, more than 150 covered bridges dotted the landscape of Connecticut and Rhode Island, with many concentrated in the hills of northwestern Connecticut. Since then, fires, floods, and progress have claimed all but three of the historic structures.

Connecticut was the birthplace of two of the nation's best­ known covered bridge designers: Ithiel Town and Theodore Burr. Half of the covered bridges currently standing in the United States are supported by trusses patented by Town or Burr.

Kent's Bulls Bridge is an example of a modification of Town's lattice truss design, for which he received his first patent in 1820. The covered bridge in West Cornwall is another example of the modified truss design. They are two of the remaining three covered bridges in the state.

Caswell, an engineer for the NH Department of Transportation, is president and historian for the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges, and also maintains a website dedicated to gathering and sharing covered bridge photographs and information.

Free to members; $5 suggested donation for non­members. For more information please call 860.927.4587 or email info@kenthistoricalsociety.org. For more information about the Litchfield Hills visit www.litchfieldhills.com

Take a ride on a vintage railroad in Danbury

The Easter Bunny will once again pay a visit to the Danbury Railway Museum and you can take a ride in a vintage train through the historic railyard to visit him. This popular annual family event will take place on March 19 & 20, and Friday & Saturday, March 25 & 26. Museum hours are 10:00-4:00 on Friday and Saturday; noon-4:00 on Sunday.

Trains leave every 30 minutes from 12:30 to 3:30. Admission is $10.00 (age 2 and over); each child will receive a small gift from the Bunny. Reservations are suggested and may be made by visiting the museum's Web site at http://www.danburyrail.org.

The short train ride in a fully-restored 1953 New Haven RR Rail Diesel Car (Budd RDC), will take visitors past the fully operational turntable, over 70 vintage railroad cars and locomotives, and many unique pieces of railroad history, including a Boston & Maine steam locomotive built in 1907. The train ride will stop at the Easter Bunny's special railroad car. The museum's beautifully restored circa-1910 Railway Post Office (RPO) car will also be open.

Of course, the exhibits inside the restored 1903 Danbury station will be open, along with a coloring station, temporary tattoos, Thomas® play table, and the operating model train layouts. A fully-stocked gift shop will also be open.

The Danbury Railway Museum is a non-profit organization, staffed solely by volunteers, and is dedicated to the preservation of, and education about, railroad history. The museum is located in the restored 1903 Danbury Station and rail yard at 120 White Street, Danbury, CT. For further information, http://www.danburyrail.org or call the museum at 203-778-8337.

Artifact Identification Day at the Institute of American Indian Studies

The Institute for American Indian Studies located on 38 Curtis Road in Washington Connecticut is hosting an artifact identification day on March 20 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

This event is perfect for people looking for information about an artifact that you have you found or inherited.  Everyone is invited to bring their mysterious treasure to the Institute's Artifact Identification Day!

The  Institutes Director of Research & Collections, Lucianne Lavin, Ph.D.  will be on hand to identify objects and provide interesting commentary about your local stone objects and Native American cultural items.

Although, the Institute for American Indian Studies can't appraise or speculate about the value of an object, they  can certainly talk about the who, what, when, where, and how of your mystery items!

Please limit 12 artifacts per person. Museum Admission: $8 Adults; $6 Seniors; $5 Children (3-12 yrs.); IAIS Members Free.

After visiting the Institute be sure to stop in at one of the many wonderful restaurants in Washington including: GW Tavern, The Pantry and the Mayflower Inn.

For more event information about Litchfield Hills www.litchfieldhills.com

Westport Playhouse Family Festivities

Westport Playhouse Family Festivities shows are presented on selected Sundays from November through April. Family Festivities Corporate Sponsors are Pitney Bowes and Northwestern Mutual. Family Festivities Partner is Darlene Krenz. The Family Festivities Series is also supported by the Westport Young Woman’s League.

Upcoming Family Festivities presentations are “Moon Mouse: A Space Odyssey,” on Sunday, March 20, 1 and 4 p.m., a cosmic adventure with music about Marvin, the mouse, produced by Lightwire Theater; and “Are You My Mother?,” on Sunday, April 10, 1 and 4 p.m., a musical based on P. D. Eastman’s whimsical and well-loved picture book, produced by ArtsPower.

In conjunction with the Family Festivities Series, the Playhouse will once again host a book collection for Read to Grow, Inc., a statewide nonprofit organization that helps parents take an active role in their children’s literacy development by providing free children’s books to families with limited access and to community resources that serve them. At each Family Festivities performance, bins will be located in the Playhouse lobby for donations of gently used and new children’s books which will be given to families and programs in the greater Fairfield County area through Read to Grow. During last season’s Family Festivities series, the Playhouse collected nearly 300 books.

Everyone in the audience requires a ticket. For more information or tickets, call the box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets are available online 24/7 at www.westportplayhouse.org. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), or view Playhouse videos on YouTube 

For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com.

New Exhibition at the Bruce Museum Mianus River Gorge

The new exhibition at The Bruce Museum located on One Museum Drive in Greenwich is hosting a show celebrating Connecticut's Mianus River Gorge from March 12 through May 29, 2016. 

In 2013, in order to commemorate the 60th anniversary of its founding, the Mianus River Gorge organization gave renowned photographer William Abranowicz unrestricted access to the Gorge over the course of a year. This exhibition features selected photos from the book published to mark that anniversary. In his photographs, Abranowicz has captured the profound beauty and myriad faces of this primeval forest in our midst.

Only forty miles from New York City, the Mianus River Gorge is a 1000-acre island of forest and fields in suburban Westchester and Fairfield Counties, a rare, surviving remnant of this original, primeval forest found by colonial explorers. Steeped in history, the Mianus River Gorge or "the Gorge," is the first land project of the Nature Conservancy. It is also the nation's first registered Natural Landmark, as designated by the Federal Government in 1964.

Founded in 1953, Mianus River Gorge, Inc. is an independent, not-for-profit organization, whose mission is to preserve, protect and promote appreciation of the natural heritage of the Mianus River watershed through land acquisition and conservation, scientific research and public education throughout the region.

Mr. Abranowicz's photographs enable viewers who are already familiar with the Gorge a chance to see it year round, including when it is closed to the public for the winter season -- when the frozen trails crunch underfoot and the ice-covered river meanders through the deep hemlock valley. They also give viewers who have never visited the Gorge a real sense of what it is like to walk in this protected place, a place of rushing water, abundant wildlife and, of course, ancient trees.

About William Abranowicz

William Abranowicz has been a photographer for nearly 40 years.

His work is included in public, corporate, and private collections throughout the world, including The National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum, The National Portrait Gallery in London, The Getty Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Menil Collection Library, Bibliothèque Nationale, The International Center of Photography, The Museum of Art at RISD, The Newark Museum, The Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, and the Goulandris Museum in Greece.

His exhibitions include: Bonni Benrubi Gallery (NY), The Witkin Gallery (NY), Photographer's Gallery (LA), Afterimage (Dallas), The Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (Greece), The Skopelos Center for Photography (Greece), Batagianni Gallery (Greece), and Camerawork (Berlin).

He has been a contributing photographer to Condé Nast Traveler for 25 years, and his work has appeared in nearly every major publication in the United States, Europe, and Asia including The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Elle Décor, Architectural Digest, Vogue, Town and Country, Bon Appetit, Martha Stewart Living, and Gourmet.

A graduate of The School of Visual Arts in New York, early in his career he assisted famed photographers Horst P. Horst and George Tice. As a master printer, Abranowicz printed the work of Edward Steichen, Horst, George Hoyningen-Huene, and Michael Disfarmer. He taught photography at Parsons School of Design and The New School, and was an artist-in-residence at Peters Valley in Layton, New Jersey.

For more area information on Fairfield County www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Beardsley Zoo's Newest Arrival - A New Baby Anteater !

A Giant Anteater was born for the first time ever at Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo on Saturday, Feb. 13. The new addition and weighed 2.4 pounds at birth and is just over 14 inches.

Proud parents are first time dad "EO" and second time mom, "Pana." The pair was brought to Connecticut's only zoo with the hopes of successful breeding.

"Our fingers were crossed that our Giant anteaters would have babies and we couldn't be happier that the breeding was successful," Gregg Dancho, zoo director said in a statement. "We encourage everyone to follow the baby's growth and progress on our social media pages until the time comes for it to meet the public."

Female anteaters give birth to one offspring and the baby rides on mom's back for the first several months of life, occasional venturing off not too far from mom to explore its surroundings.

Anteaters can live up to 26 years old in captivity and are usually solitary animals. They can weigh up to 100 pounds, and are 5 to 7 feet long. Mother and baby are off exhibit, but should make their debut in the late spring.

Beardsley Zoo is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Adult admission (ages 12 & older) is $14, children (ages 3 -11) and senior admission (62 and older) is $11, and children under 3-years-old are free.

CONNfection - food festival in Waterbury on March 9

The Palace Theater and Waterbury Neighborhood Council present the return of their third CONNfection event, a showcase featuring Connecticut made food, wine and craft beer, on Wednesday, Mar. 9, from 5:30p.m. – 8:30p.m. at the Palace Theater in Waterbury.  Tickets are $25 per person and 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.

CONNfection attendees will have the delight of sampling some of the best locally sourced products that Connecticut has to offer, including pastas, sausages, artisanal breads, gourmet olive oils, smoked cheeses, specialty condiments, cookies, chocolates, cupcakes and more. Guests will also have the opportunity to sample an array of craft beers and fine wines from a variety of local breweries and vineyards.

Vendors scheduled to appear at this year’s event include 1249 Restaurant, Black Hog Brewery, Brass Works Brewing Company, Carrott Top Kitchens, The Cheesy Smoke House, Dottie’s Diner, Emelyn Sweets, Fascia’s Chocolates, Gift Baskets Galore, Hardcore Sweet Cupcakes, Hogan’s Cider Mill, Polly & Joan’s Cordial Company, Provender Catering, The Olive Oil Factory, The Pasta Gallery, Sunset Meadow Vineyards, Sweet Confections by Regina,  Sweet Maria's Bakery and others to be announced.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Palace Theater’s Annual Campaign, as well as the Waterbury Neighborhood Council’s work on behalf of all Waterbury neighborhoods.

For more area information on the Litchfield Hills www.litchfieldhills.com 

Square One Theatre Presents Outgoing Tide

Square One Theatre continues its 26^th Anniversary Season with The Outgoing Tide, by Bruce Graham. This new drama hums with dark humor and powerful emotion. Gunner, husband and father, has hatched an unorthodox plan to secure his family’s future, but meets with resistance from his wife and son, who have plans of their own. ‘Before the tide goes out’ - the three must quickly find common ground and come to an understanding.

Performances of The Outgoing Tide are Thursdays through Sundays  through March 20 (2016) at the theatre’s new location on the stage of Stratford Academy at 719 Birdseye Street in Stratford, Connecticut.

The Outgoing Tide is described as a touching family drama sprinkled with surprising humor that asks what it means to truly love someone. The twists, the turns, the deeply recognizable family relationships and, of course, the humor, combine to carry the audience to a place where dignity, honesty and humanity take hold and refuse to let go. The Outgoing Tide is a powerful work devoid of sentimentality yet filed with an honorably honest conclusion.

Square One Theatre’s 26^th Season continues at its NEW LOCATION on the stage of Stratford Academy at 719 Birdseye Street in Stratford, Connecticut. Square One has re-configured Stratford Academy's expansive stage into an intimate 64-seat black box-type theatre. The audience is actually seated (in new padded chairs) on the stage with the actors, insuring that all patrons have a good seat to hear and see. With this re-designed, modern venue no audience member will be more than 15 feet from the stage. Ample parking is available in the school parking lots.

Performances of The Outgoing Tide are

 

Thursday, March 10 at 7pm 

Friday, March 11 at 8pm

Saturday, March 12 two performances at 4pm (twilight matinee) and at 8pm

Sunday, March 13 at 2pm (matinee)

 

Thursday, March 17 at 7pm 

Friday, March 18 at 8pm

Saturday, March 19 two performances at 4pm (twilight matinee) and at 8pm

Sunday, March 20 at 2pm (matinee – final performance)

 

Single tickets are $20 for adults and $19 for senior citizens and students

Tickets may be purchased:

By phone: Box Office at 203.375.8778 (24/7)

Online at: squareonetheatre.com

In person: at box office 60 minutes prior to each performance

All performances are at the NEW LOCATION on the stage of Stratford Academy located at 719 Birdseye Street in Stratford, Ct….off I-95 Exit 32 (northbound and southbound) in Stratford Center.

The stage at Stratford Academy is wheelchair/walker accessible and, if needed, the theatre offers its patrons hearing-assisted listening devices. Please inform the box office of any special needs when reserving tickets.

For more information and up-to-date news about suggested parking, the theatre, the plays, the actors and seating chart visit www.squareonetheatre.com

For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com