Celebrate National Indian Heritage Month @ Institute for American Indian Studies With Annawon Weeden

November is National Indian Heritage Month and many institutions nationwide join in paying tribute to the rich ancestry and traditions of Native Americans. Each year, the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington Connecticut organizes special programs that highlight the rich cultural diversity and traditions of Native American communities through hands-on activities, arts and crafts, exhibits, music, and interactive programs.

This year’s highlight of National Indian Heritage Month at the Institute for American Indian Studies will be a highly interactive program by actor, activist, dancer, and Tribal mentor, Annawon Weeden. This special program will take place at 1 p.m. on November 16. Weeden is the founder of the First Light Foundation whose mission is to highlight the importance of preserving and celebrating diversity to reinforce the identity of each individual served.

Persuasive and powerful, authentic and imaginative, the stories and performance of Annawon Weeden reveal the unexpected ways Native Americans are embedded in our cultural identity as well as in our pop culture, sometimes accurately, and sometimes erroneously. Drawing on his Mashpee Wampanoag, Narragansett, and Pequot lineage, Weeden will explore the pre- European Tribal history of the People of the Dawn and share his personal experiences and insights. Through this interactive program, visitors will walk through time with Weeden and discover that Native American cultures are alive and well today, thriving and evolving across the United States. This program helps to foster a better understanding of Native American culture and traditions while dispelling some of the historical misinterpretations.

About The Institute for American Indian Studies

Located on 15 acres of woodland acres the Institute For American Indian Studies preserves and educates through archeology, research, exhibitions, and programs. They have a 16^th c. Algonquian Village, Award-Winning Wigwam Escape, and a museum with temporary and permanent displays of authentic artifacts from prehistory to the present that allows visitors to foster a new understanding of the world and the history and culture of Native Americans. The Institute for American Indian Studies is located on 38 Curtis Road, Washington, CT.

About Annawon Weeden

Weeden is an enrolled member of his mother’s Mashpee Wampanoag tribal community. He currently works in the MPTN Cultural Resource Department as the Eastern Woodland song/dance instructor for his father’s Mashantucket Pequot Tribal community.

Growing up on the Narragansett reservation he was instructed on the traditional dances and customs of New England’s Native American Communities. As an adult, Weeden has developed a comprehensive knowledge of the vast diversity of native customs and traditions.

In October 2016, Congressman James Langevin took special notice of Weeden and decided to commemorate the life efforts of Weeden awarding him with a Congressional Honor as Culture Bearer for the entire New England Region.

Weeden’s knowledge of indigenous people and his ability to share his tribal culture is highly sought because it educational and inspiring.

Artist Demo with Jim Laurion @ Gregory James Gallery

Gregory James Gallery in New Milford is presenting an exhibit of more than 40 new and recent landscape paintings by Connecticut artist Jim Laurino that will be on view through December 8th.  A special highlight of this show, on November 16 at 5 p.m. is a special onsite demonstration with the artist, Jim Laurino. 

Laurino, who studied design and color theory at the University of Connecticut, paints en plein air in a bold representational style, producing evocative scenes of rivers, lakes, seascapes, woodlands, farms, historic buildings, and other iconic scenes in the Northeast.

His compositions appear almost photographic from a vantage point of eight to 10 feet, but these are hardly just pretty pictures. Get closer to each canvas and Laurino’s proficiency as a serious painter becomes apparent. His robust brushstrokes form a meditative exaltation of form and texture, with individual brushstrokes pushed toward abstraction before coalescing as a suite to masterfully depict the transformative effect of light on landscapes and seascapes.

The artist is inspired by the thick brushstrokes of Van Gogh, and by the Impressionists, notably American artists Childe Hassam and Theodore Robison. He has been painting since he was a teenager and studied with noted painter Christopher Magadini, among others. “Laurino doesn't fret too much over color,” Bob Bahr wrote in a January 2018 story published in Plein Air Magazine. “He’s more concerned with texture and brushstrokes. 

The colors in a Laurino painting are very harmonious, and this is undoubtedly attributable to his extremely limited palette. The artist only squeezes out a cool blue, a cool red, a warm red, a [cool] yellow, and white. His pieces tend toward a high key, with a lot of bright light.”

“I love the extremes in a painting, the dark darks, and light lights, so I do work toward that,” Laurino says in the story. “I tend to paint darks first and apply lights on the focal point last—last, or close to last. I don't like working too small. I like a lot of inference, and you lose some of that when you tighten it up.”

Laurino, who begins with a thumbnail sketch, works on-site and finishes paintings in his studio, is a hands-on artist from the beginning to the end of the process. He stretches his own canvas—and he makes his own rustic frames for each of his paintings. “I’ve always liked to make my own frames, and about 10 years or so ago I started using reclaimed materials,” the artist says. “I just like working with the wood that’s a little older, a little roughed up.”

A resident of Burlington, Conn., Laurino paints often in western Connecticut, and favors the Finger Lakes region among many preferred locales in the Northeast.

Laurino has paintings in numerous private collections, and is a longstanding member of the prestigious Lyme Art Association, where he exhibits frequently. In 2019, the artist won the Artists’ Choice Award at the Parrsboro International Plein Air Festival in Nova Scotia, and in 2018 he won a third-place award in the Finger Lakes Plein Air Competition & Festival. His juried show participation includes the Granby Land Trust Art Show and the seaARTS Maritime Exhibit in Gloucester, Mass.

The artist has had a selection of works at the Gregory James Gallery about a year. “I’m so pleased with that arrangement,” he says.

For more information, call the Gregory James Gallery at (860) 354-3436, or see the website at gregoryjamesgallery.com. The artist’s website is jimlaurino.com.

Institute for American Indian Studies to Honor Golden Paugussett Native American Veterans

Historically, American Indians were known as warriors. It is a deep tradition that has continued to modern times. Perhaps this is why Native Americans have a long-standing record of proud military service on behalf of the United States as well as a higher rate of military service than any other racial or ethnic group in the country. Native American patriotism is inextricably connected to the land itself.

Design by Harvey Pratt/Butzer Architects and Urbanism, illustration by Skyline Ink, courtesy of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.

To commemorate Native American and Alaskan American contributions, service, and sacrifices, in November of 2020, a $15 million memorial, Warriors Circle of Honor is set to open in Washington DC. The structure incorporates many items involved in Native American ceremonies. It was designed by a Marine veteran, Harvey Pratt, a member of the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes and will be situated on the National Mall.

Closer to home, in Washington, Connecticut, the Institute for American Indian Studies is holding a traditional Native American ceremony that includes prayers and drumming to honor the contributions and valor of Native American and non-Native Veterans on November 10 beginning at noon.

Each year, the Institute for American Indian Studies honors local Native Americans who have served their country. This year, the ceremony will recognize Golden Hill Paugussett community members who represent past, present and future veterans. The honorees at this year’s ceremony include Chief Aurelius Piper Sr., deceased, who served during World War II; Gary Tinney, who served in Germany, England, Korea and Stateside; and the sons of Clan-mother Shoran Piper, Jeremy Cole, and Nikita Kuznetsov that are currently serving in the military. 

The drumming and prayer ceremony will begin at noon and take place in the Institute’s newly restored 16^th century Algonquian Village. After the ceremony, visitors are invited to a light lunch in the museum with the opportunity to explore the Institution’s vast collections. This event is free and open to the public. 

About The Institute for American Indian Studies

Located on 15 acres of woodland acres the Institute For American Indian Studies preserves and educates through archeology, research, exhibitions, and programs. They have a 16^th c. Algonquian Village, Award-Winning Wigwam Escape, and a museum with temporary and permanent displays of authentic artifacts from prehistory to the present that allows visitors to foster a new understanding of the world and the history and culture of Native Americans. The Institute for American Indian Studies is located on 38 Curtis Road, Washington, CT.

About Veterans Day

Veterans Day originated as “Armistice Day” on Nov. 11, 1919, the first anniversary marking the end of World War I. Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for the annual observance and Nov. 11 became a national holiday beginning in 1938. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation in 1954 to change the name to Veterans Day as a way to honor those who served in all American wars. The day honors military veterans with parades and speeches across the nation and a remembrance ceremony takes place at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA. The ceremony honors and thanks all who served in the U.S. armed forces.