Community Calendar

"Talismans" – is an online art show of the objects, people or ideas which guide us. 

Visual artist, video, music ands poetry.

Launches January 10

Personaland is an artist-driven global village transforming the world of art by using technology to bridge time zones and cultural boundaries. Our mission is to promote humanity, creativity, and community through a mix of entertainment, enchantment, and imagination.

Since its 2018 launch, Personaland, in its global reach, has showcased over 750 visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, and poets from 66 countries in 30 group art shows and 55 individual exhibitions, many with videos of artist profiles

https://www.personaland.com

The Gunn Memorial Library Stairwell Gallery is pleased to present "Light, Color, and Mood," a solo show by Sergio Villaschi on display from November 30 through January 27.

In Light, Color, and Mood, Sergio Villaschi takes an artistic approach to photography, using light, color, and texture to create compelling still life and landscape images. Inspired by the mosaics and frescoes of his native Rome, Sergio's work blurs the line between traditional photography and fine art, giving each piece a distinct atmosphere and depth. His still life compositions are vibrant and layered, while his landscapes capture a quiet, serene quality.

Through techniques like "light painting" and Intentional Camera Movement, Sergio enhances his images with unique textures and moods. He invites viewers to see familiar subjects in a new way, with each photo offering a refined and thoughtful perspective.

David Zinni is a longtime Southbury resident who began painting in 2018 after retiring from a career as a mechanical engineer. Always interested in painting, the opportunity to pursue the art came with his retirement. With no formal art education and a little studio training from local artists, Dave began working with acrylics and later oils. Dave’s technical background and love of nature led him to create realistic paintings with great detail. He finds his inspiration from the beauty of local landscapes, seascapes and wildlife. His works are based his own photography while hiking the local parks and land preserves. The exhibit is a collection of local landscapes and birds based on his many hikes and walks through scenic Southbury, Woodbury and Middlebury. His art has been featured in Southbury Makers Spotlight, at Southbury Library, Naugatuck’s Whitmore library and several charity auctions.

Instagram: @dajzinni_painting

“Cozy Up with a Good Book” Winter Reading Program, all ages, January 2 – March 20, 2025.

Stay warm this winter and Cozy Up with a Good Book in the Morris Public Library’s Winter Reading Program for all ages (January 2 – March 20, 2025). We explore various reading activities, new authors and genres in our reading journey this year.

Cross off the appropriate blocks in your Reading Card for each book you have read or listened to. One book may qualify for up to three categories (blocks). Return/e-mail your completed card by March 20 to qualify to win the Grand Cozy Prize. Reading Cards are available at the library or via morrispubliclibrary.net (starting January 2).

Have had an extra-cozy reading spree and completed several cards this winter? Enter more than one card into the drawing!

All reading levels have their own Reading Card and the Grand Cozy Prize!

Information: https://morrispubliclibrary.net or 860-567-7440.

"Art4All": an exhibit of artworks on display that have been created by artists with special needs. This is a rare opportunity for them to share expressions of their imaginations and the world around them. The show presents a diverse collection of unique, beautiful pieces, ranging from works on paper to 3-D sculptures.

Artist George Manesoitis says, "Art helps me express my feelings and thoughts and relaxes my mind and body."

Nicolas Yurgaitis, another artist whose work will be exhibited says, "I enjoy trying new things, and i find that creating art in any form is very regulating for my neurodivergence and fun."

Artist Owen Haldin says, "I have stories in my head and i need to draw them."

10:00am -2:00 pm: Aviaries open for self guided tours

11:00 am and 1:00 pm: Enrichment & feedings with our aviculturists.

Warm yourselves with hot chocolate and hot cider.

Pre-registration is requested but not required.

Our aviaries are outside. Please dress warmly and wear boots!

*Event is weather dependent. check our website for updates.

www.ripleyconservancy.org

Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy is located at 55 Duck Pond Rd. Litchfield, CT 06759

Thanks for celebrating with us!

Paintings by Amanda Acker, Sally Maca, and Melanie Parke

To everything turn, turn, turn

There is a season turn, turn, turn

And a time to every purpose under Heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose

A time to rain, a time of sow

A time for love, a time for hate

A time for peace, I swear it's not too late      - The Byrds (excerpt)

It is December and we have moved inside for the winter. The birds have picked the garden clean of seeds, leaves have been raked, and firewood stacked against the promise of cold nights. We move inside to welcome quietude and time for reflection, planning for new growth and regeneration.

Amanda Acker moves through her daily environment with affection towards her surroundings. In her words, “I see a scene and I think, oh I see you. I feel some sort of attraction, understanding, or curiosity. Sometimes I make a sound... Oooooo, ahhhhh, hello. It is really that simple. I choose to make paintings because it is the way I acknowledge, process, learn, and move around the place where I live”.

Technically, Acker is trying to make the thing look like the thing. Not so much in a photographic sense, but in the way it is seen and evoked. “Oooooo ahhhhh.” How do you make the chair, but in paint? How do you paint the water falling from the hose? How does the tree interact with the neighboring tree? That is when the artists really start to notice things, and more things, and how she falls in love with the world.

Amanda Acker is a self-taught artist whose work has been widely exhibited (in sold out shows) in Michigan and in CT. She lives and works in Michigan.

Pastoral and bucolic still life settings emerge from Melanie Parke’s life. The tenderness of each painting evokes the artist’s fondness for domestic setting and mementos of friendship. Melanie Parke reconstructs familiar interiors and filters them through the ideology of memory. Her subjects often center on flowers, birds, decorative objects, gardens, and intimate interior settings with an intent in creating safe places for pleasure. Sentiment crafts a domestic locus and seeks visual lushness by alternating tonal moods and vivid ornamentation.

Painting is a pleasure-seeking process for Parke and abstraction a vehicle with which to think and begin. The artist sets up the space intuitively in broad and textured gestures, then pieces together arrangements to compose a homespun narrative. Specific interiors and landscapes are implied. Shifting the emphasis to pattern, texture and tone, Parke works to destabilize notions of exacting representation. This is an effort to build on a sensation of memory which conjures both comfort and longing. 

The artist’s work is exhibited widely and is in collections throughout the United States. She has been a visiting artist at The American Academy in Rome three times, and an artist in residence at Borgo Finocchieto Invitational Residency, Tuscany, Italy, Heliker - LaHotan Foundation, Cranberry Isles, ME, Acadia National Park, ME, Yosemite National Park, CA, and Dorland Mountain Colony, CA. Parke earned a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL and studied at Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, IN. Parke lives and works in a contemporary studio in rural Michigan surrounded by orchards, meadows, and birds.

Sally Maca explores the daily changes in atmosphere and light and their transformational effect on familiar streetscapes and landscapes. The artist is dedicated to capturing the moment when the mundane becomes transcendent, a transition often created by the heaviness of a passing storm, the glow of a streetlamp, or an otherworldly sunset.

Maca’s subjects mostly hyperlocal landscapes, inspiration gleaned from daily walks or a glance out her front door. The artist explores the soft geometry in the angles of tree branches, or the horizon line and the hard-edged, manmade lines of roads and utility wires; these disparate elements are woven into lyrical compositions. Maca is not focused on a specific representation of a neighborhood or landscape, but in isolating the elements of a location to bring a universality to the painting, enough so that a viewer realizes that they too have experienced that same feeling, somewhere else, at another time.

The small scale of the paintings is central to the work; not only does the size invite close inspection but it evokes an intimacy with the painting.

Please contact Lani Holloway, Associate Director, Lani@kbfa.com, 860 560 3085 with inquires or to arrange a preview of the exhibition.

Munger Gallery

November 12, 2024 – February 9, 2025'At First Light: American Tonalism' showcases a critical era of late 19th and early 20th century landscape painting. Responding to the trauma of the Civil War and taking aesthetic inspiration from the French Barbizon and American Hudson River Schools, artists began to depict the landscape using loose brushstrokes and subdued colors. These techniques gave the movement its name and created hazy and dreamlike compositions that captured the qualities of light at dawn and dusk. Featuring the work of 17 artists alongside historic objects and archival material from the period, this exhibition explores how artists painting in the Tonalist style uniquely perceived and depicted the American landscape.

Get started with the basics of sewing in this three-week workshop! Participants will learn how to cut out a pattern, thread and safely operate a sewing machine, and machine-embroider a monogram as they create their very own reading pillow. This workshop is for grades 4-5.

Registration is required, and participants must attend all three sessions.

www.gunnlibrary.org/calendar/beginner-sewing-club-grades-4-5-2/

MIXMASTER is a comprehensive exhibition dedicated to uncovering and celebrating the diverse talents of its artist members who are based in New England and the Tri-State region.

The Cornwall Library is excited to begin its 2025 art shows with Hotspot, Kit White’s dramatic and innovative paintings prompted by recent California wildfires. As White worked on the paintings, his daughter in San Francisco was sending home vivid images of the lurid, smoke-filled air outside her taped-up windows. The paintings were his response to her apocalyptic scenario.

The show runs from January 11 until February 22 except Mondays, when the library is closed. The Artists Reception from 5 to 7 pm on January 11. Registration on the library website for the reception is requested.

Though at first the paintings can seem wholly abstract, close inspection reveals a black and white photograph of a wildfire embedded in each, creating a layered space that reveals itself slowly. The result is a startlingly eloquent reaction to the fire, and by extension to climate change.

The embedded image results from a unique process developed by the Eastman Company in Rochester. It begins with a digital photograph White manipulates and then transfers via inkjet printer onto a giant sheet of mylar. After White puts down a base layer of oil paint, he treats his canvas with a solution that lifts the photograph from the mylar onto the painted canvas. He then overlays the “ghost” image embedded in the painting with more oil paint. The effect is more akin to an 1860s-era glass plate photograph, with its imperfections, than to a crisp contemporary image, suggesting the porousness and mutability of memory.

White says “This particular method of working, with a spectral photo embedded in the painting, began with the Iran-Iraq war, when I started thinking that most people get their sense of the world from photographs, not direct experience. It seemed, then, that if I wanted to address the physical world, I had to acknowledge the role of photography in creating our sense of a place.”

Kit White is a New York-based artist and writer who studied Fine Arts at Harvard and was professor of Painting at the Pratt Institute for 21 years. He has had many solo exhibitions and his work is in the collections of museums including The Guggenheim Museum, The M, The Weisman Art Museum, The Johnson Art Museum, the Luther Brady Collection, (formerly, The Corcoran Museum), and others. In 1979, he received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award for painting. He is the author of 101 Things to Learn in Art School and his work is the subject of a monograph, Kit White, Line Into Form, by critic Carter Ratcliff.

“Full Spectrum” Open Juried Show

January 17 Friday – February 2, Sunday 2025

Opening Reception Saturday January 18, 2-4PM, with light refreshments and wine.

All are welcome to attend!

Gallery 25 and Creative Arts Studio

New Milford Commission on the Arts

11 Railroad St., New Milford, CT 06776

860-355-6009 * gallery25ct.com

Open Friday & Saturday 12 noon -6pm and Sunday 10am-4pm

 Gallery 25 Announces “Full Spectrum” Open Call For Artists

Gallery 25 and Creative Arts Studio are issuing an Open Call for artists who wish to take part in “Full Spectrum”, an open juried art show that will run from January 17 to February 2, 2025. Artists are invited to prepare up to 4 images. Entry fee is $20 per artwork and each artist must have a W-9 form. Visit Gallery25ct.com and enter your submissions. Artwork delivery date is Sunday January 12th. All work must be for sale and there is a 30% commission.

Terry Tougas, G25 Director, says, “Our annual open juried is always an exciting event. We receive artworks in varied genres and it’s exhilarating to walk through the gallery and enjoy them”.

The public is invited to attend the reception for “Full Spectrum” on January 18 (snow date: January 19th Sunday) from 2-4pm and awards will be announced at 3pm. Wine and light refreshments will be served along with stunning artworks.

Artists with any questions about the submission process can email Gallery25newmilfordct@gmail.com.

New Milford is an exciting destination, offering many enjoyable activities, among them well-reviewed restaurants, pubs and unique shops, as well as an Art Deco movie theater, an innovative playhouse, Theaterworks, and a historical New England green. So plan an interesting weekend in our fine town!

G25 is a high-quality art gallery that boasts 21 members who exhibit work of all genres. G25 is open Friday and Saturday 12-6 and Sunday 10-4.

G25 wishes to thank the town of New Milford and the New Milford Commission on the Arts for their continued generous support.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @Gallery25 and Creative Arts Studio.

🎨 Full Spectrum Community Art Show 🌈

We're thrilled to announce Full Spectrum, an exciting open juried art show featuring incredible works by artists from across Connecticut and parts of New York! From stunning pastels and digital paintings to vibrant watercolors, fiber art, acrylic pours, and oil paintings, this exhibition celebrates the diversity and creativity of our artistic community.

🗓 Show Dates:

Friday, Jan 17 - Sunday, Feb 2

📍 Location: Gallery 25 & Creative Arts Studio, 11 Railroad St., New Milford, CT

🎉 Opening Reception:

Saturday, January 18 from 2-4pm

(With a snow date on January 19)

✨ Awards Announcement: 3:30pm

Join us for an afternoon of art, wine, light refreshments, and the chance to meet the talented artists behind the stunning pieces! This is a free event open to the public, and we can't wait to see you there. 🥂

⏰ Gallery Hours:

Friday & Saturday: 12-6pm

Sunday: 10-4pm

📞 Contact Info: 860-355-6009

💻 Visit us online at: gallery25ct.com

Follow us on Facebook & Instagram for updates and sneak peeks!

We look forward to celebrating art and creativity with you all! 🌟

Exhibition featuring : Matthew J. Best, Mark Buku, Stanwyck Cromwell, Vincent Dion, Lois Goglia, Mark Guglielmo, Sam Posey, John Simboli, Laura J. Stern and Lydia Viscardi.

Exhibition runs from January 10 - February 22, 2025.

Opening reception Friday, January 10 and Artist talk Friday February 7.

The Fantasy Book Club will meet at the Morris Public Library on Friday, January 17, 6:30 PM to discuss “Emily Wilde’s Encyclopeadia of Faeries” by Heather Fawcett.

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, muddle Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart.



New registrations and book requests: 860-567-7440 or https://morrispubliclibrary.net/library-calendar-event…/

Friday, January 17th, at 7 PM, Dan Ringrose (https://danringrosemusic.com/) returns to 2nd Home. Dan has been performing professionally for over 30 years. While his first love is Celtic folk, on any given night you'll hear songs (including originals) from Woody Guthrie to the King of Rock & Roll. Great music, food, drinks, and fun. Come down and enjoy!

For reservations call 860-238-4500 or email us at momanddad@2ndhomelounge.com

See our complete event list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/events/

Google Street View

https://goo.gl/maps/eC7A4ZDEjenNqzpb6

https://goo.gl/maps/NWGK4NRyk6MNfmWZ6

2nd Home Lounge

524 Main Street, Winsted

2ndhomelounge.com

Join our mailing list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/email-sign-up/ 

90's Music Trivia at the brewery!

A comical feast that embraces the wackiness in every family, THE ADDAMS FAMILY is the magnificently macabre hit musical featuring everyone’s favorite creepy, kooky characters.

Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family. A man her parents have never met. And if that weren't upsetting enough, she confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he's never done before — keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday's "normal" boyfriend and his parents.

On the heels of Wednesday, the 3rd most-watched show on Netflix of all time, Big League Productions, Inc. presents THE ADDAMS FAMILY a devilishly delightful musical comedy based on the bizarre and beloved characters by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams. 

"Talismans" – is an online art show of the objects, people or ideas which guide us. 

Visual artist, video, music ands poetry.

Launches January 10

Personaland is an artist-driven global village transforming the world of art by using technology to bridge time zones and cultural boundaries. Our mission is to promote humanity, creativity, and community through a mix of entertainment, enchantment, and imagination.

Since its 2018 launch, Personaland, in its global reach, has showcased over 750 visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, and poets from 66 countries in 30 group art shows and 55 individual exhibitions, many with videos of artist profiles

https://www.personaland.com

David Zinni is a longtime Southbury resident who began painting in 2018 after retiring from a career as a mechanical engineer. Always interested in painting, the opportunity to pursue the art came with his retirement. With no formal art education and a little studio training from local artists, Dave began working with acrylics and later oils. Dave’s technical background and love of nature led him to create realistic paintings with great detail. He finds his inspiration from the beauty of local landscapes, seascapes and wildlife. His works are based his own photography while hiking the local parks and land preserves. The exhibit is a collection of local landscapes and birds based on his many hikes and walks through scenic Southbury, Woodbury and Middlebury. His art has been featured in Southbury Makers Spotlight, at Southbury Library, Naugatuck’s Whitmore library and several charity auctions.

Instagram: @dajzinni_painting

The New Milford Farmers Market will be in the Parish Hall of St. John's Episcopal Church, 7 Whittlesey Avenue, New Milford.

The Gunn Memorial Library Stairwell Gallery is pleased to present "Light, Color, and Mood," a solo show by Sergio Villaschi on display from November 30 through January 27.

In Light, Color, and Mood, Sergio Villaschi takes an artistic approach to photography, using light, color, and texture to create compelling still life and landscape images. Inspired by the mosaics and frescoes of his native Rome, Sergio's work blurs the line between traditional photography and fine art, giving each piece a distinct atmosphere and depth. His still life compositions are vibrant and layered, while his landscapes capture a quiet, serene quality.

Through techniques like "light painting" and Intentional Camera Movement, Sergio enhances his images with unique textures and moods. He invites viewers to see familiar subjects in a new way, with each photo offering a refined and thoughtful perspective.

“Cozy Up with a Good Book” Winter Reading Program, all ages, January 2 – March 20, 2025.

Stay warm this winter and Cozy Up with a Good Book in the Morris Public Library’s Winter Reading Program for all ages (January 2 – March 20, 2025). We explore various reading activities, new authors and genres in our reading journey this year.

Cross off the appropriate blocks in your Reading Card for each book you have read or listened to. One book may qualify for up to three categories (blocks). Return/e-mail your completed card by March 20 to qualify to win the Grand Cozy Prize. Reading Cards are available at the library or via morrispubliclibrary.net (starting January 2).

Have had an extra-cozy reading spree and completed several cards this winter? Enter more than one card into the drawing!

All reading levels have their own Reading Card and the Grand Cozy Prize!

Information: https://morrispubliclibrary.net or 860-567-7440.

This three-session workshop will introduce innovative applications of smartphone photography. Uncover the secrets behind creative composition and explore a variety of photo editing techniques with any smartphone or tablet. Great for expanding your knowledge of the digital image and designed to address all levels of experience.

Instructor: Thaddeus Kubis

Saturdays, January 11, 18 & 25, 2025 

10 AM - 1 PM

Ages: 15+

Members: $121.50

Non-Members: $135

MORE INFO & REGISTER

| January 18, 10:00-11:30am

Do you have boxes of unsorted photographs? Collections of digital images scattered across assorted phones, computers, and hard drives? Want to start organizing them but not sure how to start? The Makerspace can help you achieve your goals in 2025! Join us to learn strategies for sorting, consolidating, labeling, and storing your photographs. We’ll also demonstrate how to use the photo and slide scanners in the Makerspace to digitize your collections for easy access and sharing.

Ages 18+. Registration is required. Visit: https://www.gunnlibrary.org/calendar/organizing-your-photo-collections/

"Art4All": an exhibit of artworks on display that have been created by artists with special needs. This is a rare opportunity for them to share expressions of their imaginations and the world around them. The show presents a diverse collection of unique, beautiful pieces, ranging from works on paper to 3-D sculptures.

Artist George Manesoitis says, "Art helps me express my feelings and thoughts and relaxes my mind and body."

Nicolas Yurgaitis, another artist whose work will be exhibited says, "I enjoy trying new things, and i find that creating art in any form is very regulating for my neurodivergence and fun."

Artist Owen Haldin says, "I have stories in my head and i need to draw them."

Learn how to grow a heart that is ready for anything!

Meditation is a time-tested, evidence-based tool for regaining balance and locating joy.

Learn how to train our minds for stability and our hearts for peace. We will explore time-honored practices that can be done anywhere to grow roots in a constantly changing world.

Together, we will look at why people meditate, discuss the benefits of regular practice, and learn important foundational techniques to support a home practice. We will:

• Embrace mindfulness in daily activity
• Learn ways to overcome the obstacles that arise around practice
• Sit together in a guided meditation each week
• Share reflections and questions as we go
• Explore mindfulness in movement and eating 
• Discuss ways of creating a supportive home practice

Summon your curiosity and see what quieting a busy mind is like. You are welcome if you have a practice needing refreshing or if you are simply curious and imagine this practice might be a valuable tool for your well-being.

BIO: Sheila Klapper’s unwavering dedication to meditation spans many decades, practicing within various traditions. In 2021, she completed an intensive 2-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training program with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach through the Greater Good Science Center, Sounds True, and the Awareness Training Institute. For 9 years, Sheila taught in community centers, adult education programs, and libraries in Northwestern, CT. During COVID, she began leading virtual groups that continued for several years. She started a bi-monthly meditation group at the Litchfield Community Center more than 5 years ago that continues to serve a welcoming group of meditators.

Sheila became a certified Kripalu Yoga Instructor in 2000 and briefly ran her yoga studio in Glastonbury, CT. Later, she brought her commitment to wellness to Hartford Hospital, where she taught yoga and meditation to both staff and patients while serving as a Medical Librarian.

Registration is required. Visit https://www.gunnlibrary.org/calendar/mindfulness-meditation-to-balance-renew-with-sheila-klapper/

The Cornwall Library is excited to begin its 2025 art shows with Hotspot, Kit White’s dramatic and innovative paintings prompted by recent California wildfires. As White worked on the paintings, his daughter in San Francisco was sending home vivid images of the lurid, smoke-filled air outside her taped-up windows. The paintings were his response to her apocalyptic scenario.

The show runs from January 11 until February 22 except Mondays, when the library is closed. The Artists Reception from 5 to 7 pm on January 11. Registration on the library website for the reception is requested.

Though at first the paintings can seem wholly abstract, close inspection reveals a black and white photograph of a wildfire embedded in each, creating a layered space that reveals itself slowly. The result is a startlingly eloquent reaction to the fire, and by extension to climate change.

The embedded image results from a unique process developed by the Eastman Company in Rochester. It begins with a digital photograph White manipulates and then transfers via inkjet printer onto a giant sheet of mylar. After White puts down a base layer of oil paint, he treats his canvas with a solution that lifts the photograph from the mylar onto the painted canvas. He then overlays the “ghost” image embedded in the painting with more oil paint. The effect is more akin to an 1860s-era glass plate photograph, with its imperfections, than to a crisp contemporary image, suggesting the porousness and mutability of memory.

White says “This particular method of working, with a spectral photo embedded in the painting, began with the Iran-Iraq war, when I started thinking that most people get their sense of the world from photographs, not direct experience. It seemed, then, that if I wanted to address the physical world, I had to acknowledge the role of photography in creating our sense of a place.”

Kit White is a New York-based artist and writer who studied Fine Arts at Harvard and was professor of Painting at the Pratt Institute for 21 years. He has had many solo exhibitions and his work is in the collections of museums including The Guggenheim Museum, The M, The Weisman Art Museum, The Johnson Art Museum, the Luther Brady Collection, (formerly, The Corcoran Museum), and others. In 1979, he received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award for painting. He is the author of 101 Things to Learn in Art School and his work is the subject of a monograph, Kit White, Line Into Form, by critic Carter Ratcliff.

Every Saturday at 10:30am beginning 1/11

All ages welcome!

Saturday Storytime is BACK! Come to OWL for an all ages storytime in the children's room every Saturday at 10:30 then stay to play. In addition to our puppet theater, wooden blocks, and train set, we now have a dollhouse! We also have an ongoing Scavenger Hunt with a squishy prize for winners. During January our craft table is home to a GIANT coloring poster, as well as a special weekly craft for older children. And most importantly come in to browse our collection of print books, Nutmeg nominees, and Wonderbooks!

Three Lectures all held at

10:30-12:00 at the Beardsley Library,

40 Munro Place, Winsted

Paintings by Amanda Acker, Sally Maca, and Melanie Parke

To everything turn, turn, turn

There is a season turn, turn, turn

And a time to every purpose under Heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose

A time to rain, a time of sow

A time for love, a time for hate

A time for peace, I swear it's not too late      - The Byrds (excerpt)

It is December and we have moved inside for the winter. The birds have picked the garden clean of seeds, leaves have been raked, and firewood stacked against the promise of cold nights. We move inside to welcome quietude and time for reflection, planning for new growth and regeneration.

Amanda Acker moves through her daily environment with affection towards her surroundings. In her words, “I see a scene and I think, oh I see you. I feel some sort of attraction, understanding, or curiosity. Sometimes I make a sound... Oooooo, ahhhhh, hello. It is really that simple. I choose to make paintings because it is the way I acknowledge, process, learn, and move around the place where I live”.

Technically, Acker is trying to make the thing look like the thing. Not so much in a photographic sense, but in the way it is seen and evoked. “Oooooo ahhhhh.” How do you make the chair, but in paint? How do you paint the water falling from the hose? How does the tree interact with the neighboring tree? That is when the artists really start to notice things, and more things, and how she falls in love with the world.

Amanda Acker is a self-taught artist whose work has been widely exhibited (in sold out shows) in Michigan and in CT. She lives and works in Michigan.

Pastoral and bucolic still life settings emerge from Melanie Parke’s life. The tenderness of each painting evokes the artist’s fondness for domestic setting and mementos of friendship. Melanie Parke reconstructs familiar interiors and filters them through the ideology of memory. Her subjects often center on flowers, birds, decorative objects, gardens, and intimate interior settings with an intent in creating safe places for pleasure. Sentiment crafts a domestic locus and seeks visual lushness by alternating tonal moods and vivid ornamentation.

Painting is a pleasure-seeking process for Parke and abstraction a vehicle with which to think and begin. The artist sets up the space intuitively in broad and textured gestures, then pieces together arrangements to compose a homespun narrative. Specific interiors and landscapes are implied. Shifting the emphasis to pattern, texture and tone, Parke works to destabilize notions of exacting representation. This is an effort to build on a sensation of memory which conjures both comfort and longing. 

The artist’s work is exhibited widely and is in collections throughout the United States. She has been a visiting artist at The American Academy in Rome three times, and an artist in residence at Borgo Finocchieto Invitational Residency, Tuscany, Italy, Heliker - LaHotan Foundation, Cranberry Isles, ME, Acadia National Park, ME, Yosemite National Park, CA, and Dorland Mountain Colony, CA. Parke earned a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL and studied at Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, IN. Parke lives and works in a contemporary studio in rural Michigan surrounded by orchards, meadows, and birds.

Sally Maca explores the daily changes in atmosphere and light and their transformational effect on familiar streetscapes and landscapes. The artist is dedicated to capturing the moment when the mundane becomes transcendent, a transition often created by the heaviness of a passing storm, the glow of a streetlamp, or an otherworldly sunset.

Maca’s subjects mostly hyperlocal landscapes, inspiration gleaned from daily walks or a glance out her front door. The artist explores the soft geometry in the angles of tree branches, or the horizon line and the hard-edged, manmade lines of roads and utility wires; these disparate elements are woven into lyrical compositions. Maca is not focused on a specific representation of a neighborhood or landscape, but in isolating the elements of a location to bring a universality to the painting, enough so that a viewer realizes that they too have experienced that same feeling, somewhere else, at another time.

The small scale of the paintings is central to the work; not only does the size invite close inspection but it evokes an intimacy with the painting.

Please contact Lani Holloway, Associate Director, Lani@kbfa.com, 860 560 3085 with inquires or to arrange a preview of the exhibition.

Munger Gallery

November 12, 2024 – February 9, 2025'At First Light: American Tonalism' showcases a critical era of late 19th and early 20th century landscape painting. Responding to the trauma of the Civil War and taking aesthetic inspiration from the French Barbizon and American Hudson River Schools, artists began to depict the landscape using loose brushstrokes and subdued colors. These techniques gave the movement its name and created hazy and dreamlike compositions that captured the qualities of light at dawn and dusk. Featuring the work of 17 artists alongside historic objects and archival material from the period, this exhibition explores how artists painting in the Tonalist style uniquely perceived and depicted the American landscape.

MIXMASTER is a comprehensive exhibition dedicated to uncovering and celebrating the diverse talents of its artist members who are based in New England and the Tri-State region.

Knitting and crochet workshop tickets sold separately

Beginner Knitting Class 11:30-12:30pm

In this class, you will learn the basic stitches of knitting – the knit stitch and the purl stitch – as well as how to read a yarn label, how to read a knitting pattern, and more! - 5 weekly classes, 1 hour each

Beginner Crocheting Class 1:30-2:30pm

In this class, you will learn the 6 basic crochet stitches, how to start a project and end a project, how to read a yarn label , how to read a crochet pattern, and more!

- 5 weekly classes, 1 hour each

All materials and supplies will be provided at the 1st class at a $25 fee

“Full Spectrum” Open Juried Show

January 17 Friday – February 2, Sunday 2025

Opening Reception Saturday January 18, 2-4PM, with light refreshments and wine.

All are welcome to attend!

Gallery 25 and Creative Arts Studio

New Milford Commission on the Arts

11 Railroad St., New Milford, CT 06776

860-355-6009 * gallery25ct.com

Open Friday & Saturday 12 noon -6pm and Sunday 10am-4pm

 Gallery 25 Announces “Full Spectrum” Open Call For Artists

Gallery 25 and Creative Arts Studio are issuing an Open Call for artists who wish to take part in “Full Spectrum”, an open juried art show that will run from January 17 to February 2, 2025. Artists are invited to prepare up to 4 images. Entry fee is $20 per artwork and each artist must have a W-9 form. Visit Gallery25ct.com and enter your submissions. Artwork delivery date is Sunday January 12th. All work must be for sale and there is a 30% commission.

Terry Tougas, G25 Director, says, “Our annual open juried is always an exciting event. We receive artworks in varied genres and it’s exhilarating to walk through the gallery and enjoy them”.

The public is invited to attend the reception for “Full Spectrum” on January 18 (snow date: January 19th Sunday) from 2-4pm and awards will be announced at 3pm. Wine and light refreshments will be served along with stunning artworks.

Artists with any questions about the submission process can email Gallery25newmilfordct@gmail.com.

New Milford is an exciting destination, offering many enjoyable activities, among them well-reviewed restaurants, pubs and unique shops, as well as an Art Deco movie theater, an innovative playhouse, Theaterworks, and a historical New England green. So plan an interesting weekend in our fine town!

G25 is a high-quality art gallery that boasts 21 members who exhibit work of all genres. G25 is open Friday and Saturday 12-6 and Sunday 10-4.

G25 wishes to thank the town of New Milford and the New Milford Commission on the Arts for their continued generous support.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @Gallery25 and Creative Arts Studio.

🎨 Full Spectrum Community Art Show 🌈

We're thrilled to announce Full Spectrum, an exciting open juried art show featuring incredible works by artists from across Connecticut and parts of New York! From stunning pastels and digital paintings to vibrant watercolors, fiber art, acrylic pours, and oil paintings, this exhibition celebrates the diversity and creativity of our artistic community.

🗓 Show Dates:

Friday, Jan 17 - Sunday, Feb 2

📍 Location: Gallery 25 & Creative Arts Studio, 11 Railroad St., New Milford, CT

🎉 Opening Reception:

Saturday, January 18 from 2-4pm

(With a snow date on January 19)

✨ Awards Announcement: 3:30pm

Join us for an afternoon of art, wine, light refreshments, and the chance to meet the talented artists behind the stunning pieces! This is a free event open to the public, and we can't wait to see you there. 🥂

⏰ Gallery Hours:

Friday & Saturday: 12-6pm

Sunday: 10-4pm

📞 Contact Info: 860-355-6009

💻 Visit us online at: gallery25ct.com

Follow us on Facebook & Instagram for updates and sneak peeks!

We look forward to celebrating art and creativity with you all! 🌟

Teen Knit and Crochet Club is a social club for teens to explore knitting and crochet. Learn the basic skills of knitting and crochet or bring a project and share your progress with friends. 

Welcoming all levels of experience from beginner to advanced. Guided projects are available upon request if seeking to learn new skills.

Club is ongoing and meets every third Saturday of the month from 1-2:30 PM. 

Grades 6-12. Registration required.

If you have any questions or need to cancel your registration, call the Teen Desk @ (860) 355-1191 ext. 4203 or email lcunningham@newmilfordlibrary.org

Feeling stressed after the holidays? Try some Aromatherapy! Certified Aromatherapist Kim Larkin will lead this presentation on the history and health benefits of essential oils and healing botanicals. Participants will create a fabric aromatherapy dream pillow, healing foot salt soak, and deconstructed soaps, all while enjoying relaxing music and herbal tea. Ages 12+ are invited to this calming & creative experience. This program is FREE and all supplies are included. Space is limited; please register @ harwintonlibrary.org/events

Create a Sparkling Snowflake at the Gunn Memorial Library!

Let your creativity shine this winter. Join us for a fun-filled crafting session where kids can design unique snowflakes using sparkly pipe cleaners, beads, and gems. This hands-on activity is also educational, as it teaches children about the unique structure of snowflakes. Celebrate the beauty of the chilly, white season with snow-themed crafts that are sure to delight.

All materials are provided—just bring your imagination!

Spaces are limited, so please register online at https://www.gunnlibrary.org/calendar/winter-crafts/

Unlock the skills to draw from life and consider ways in which you can see, think, and sketch. Discover the excitement that comes from drawing anything and everything. Designed for teens, this workshop will lay the groundwork for observational artmaking.

Instructor: Bryn Brunnstrom

Saturdays, January 18 & 25, 2025

1 - 4 PM

Ages: Teens

Members: $85.50

Non-Members: $95

MORE INFO & REGISTER

Exhibition featuring : Matthew J. Best, Mark Buku, Stanwyck Cromwell, Vincent Dion, Lois Goglia, Mark Guglielmo, Sam Posey, John Simboli, Laura J. Stern and Lydia Viscardi.

Exhibition runs from January 10 - February 22, 2025.

Opening reception Friday, January 10 and Artist talk Friday February 7.

A comical feast that embraces the wackiness in every family, THE ADDAMS FAMILY is the magnificently macabre hit musical featuring everyone’s favorite creepy, kooky characters.

Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family. A man her parents have never met. And if that weren't upsetting enough, she confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he's never done before — keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday's "normal" boyfriend and his parents.

On the heels of Wednesday, the 3rd most-watched show on Netflix of all time, Big League Productions, Inc. presents THE ADDAMS FAMILY a devilishly delightful musical comedy based on the bizarre and beloved characters by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams. 

The Gunn Museum and Makerspace present a series of craft workshops inspired by artifacts from the Museum's collections. These hands-on workshops blend creativity, history, and art, providing participants with a unique learning experience.

February: Exploring Fashion History with Paper Dolls

February's workshop explores the history of fashion through the art of paper dolls. Participants will view handmade paper dolls from the Gunn Museum's collection and then design and create their own using an assortment of art supplies and the Cricut cutting machine. This hands-on activity offers an exceptional way to connect creativity and history.

This program is offered for ages 18+. Registration is required for each session. Please visit www.gunnlibrary.org/calendar to sign up! 

Yarn Bomb Community Gatherings are taking place at Five Points Arts Center throughout the winter and spring - free and open to the public of all ages, skills and techniques welcome!

MORE INFO HERE

Wednesdays (weekly)

2 - 4 PM

Jan 8 - May 28

Saturdays

2 -4 PM

January 11 & 25

February 8 &22

March 8 & 22

April 12 & 26

May 10

Join us at Wisdom House for the opening gallery reception of Haitian-born artist Brintle, whose vibrant and symbolically rich paintings blend cultural heritage with universal human themes. Explore her bright, vivid works infused with intricate symbolism and narratives that address global issues such as nuclear disarmament, the Holocaust, and the Haitian earthquake. This special evening offers a chance to meet the artist and experience her internationally acclaimed work, featured in prestigious venues like the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Florence and the Grand Palais in Paris.

Join us for a very brief meeting about the Library's year, followed by a special presentation.

Bobcat sightings on our property and across our state are not as rare as you think! Join Ginny Apple as she shares information about the natural history of this most elusive creature. Learn about The Connecticut Bobcat Project and what biologists have learned from data collected over two years from placing of wildlife cameras throughout our state.

Ginny Apple, Master Wildlife Conservationist with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, is involved with the Connecticut Bobcat Project. GPS collars allow researchers to learn more about where bobcats live in Connecticut...even in the state’s big cities!

Join us for a Studio Affair

Saturday, January 18th

21+ 6:30 - 10:00PM - Free

Unleash Your Inner Artist

Express your Creativity

Bring your Passion

Do you have a craving to unleash your creativity but aren't sure where to start? Well, look no further! We aim to create a vibrant space for our community to gather, socialize with friends, and even make new ones. Our focus is on inclusivity and fostering creativity.

If you're already working on a masterpiece, feel free to bring it along and showcase your skills. You don't have to be a professional artist to join in; all you need is the passion to create. Just bring your enthusiasm, and we'll supply a variety of materials for you to play around with.

Spread the word, invite your friends, and get ready for an unforgettable experience! Plus, if you're feeling thirsty, don't forget to bring your own beverages.

Located at 12 Main Street, New Milford, CT

(860) 354-4318

https://www.villagecenterarts.org/things-to-do-calendar

Saturday, January 18th, at 7 PM, 2nd Home welcomes back Orb Mellon with Dave Robbins. Orb Mellon (https://www.facebook.com/orbmellon/) is the blues moniker of Mike Malone, founder and guitarist of the seminal 1990s indie rock band and Sony/Epic recording artists Dirt Merchants. Orb Mellon mines the raw energy of 20th Century American roots music, particularly whiskey fueled house party delta blues. They are one of the most dynamic performers we've had, and we don't use "don't miss" lightly. We are very much looking forward to having them back!

For reservations call 860-238-4500 or email us at momanddad@2ndhomelounge.com

See our complete event list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/events/

Google Street View

https://goo.gl/maps/eC7A4ZDEjenNqzpb6

https://goo.gl/maps/NWGK4NRyk6MNfmWZ6

2nd Home Lounge

524 Main Street, Winsted

2ndhomelounge.com

Join our mailing list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/email-sign-up/

Featuring:

Bernie Kaplan | Riva Jean | Holly McNerney | Bruce Carroll

A night of music meant to uplift and bring you HOPE.

Join us for the 2nd Annual Scottish Burns Supper

Live Music | Whiskey Tasting | Dancing and more!

21 years of age and older ONLY

Click here to purchase tickets

A comical feast that embraces the wackiness in every family, THE ADDAMS FAMILY is the magnificently macabre hit musical featuring everyone’s favorite creepy, kooky characters.

Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family. A man her parents have never met. And if that weren't upsetting enough, she confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he's never done before — keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday's "normal" boyfriend and his parents.

On the heels of Wednesday, the 3rd most-watched show on Netflix of all time, Big League Productions, Inc. presents THE ADDAMS FAMILY a devilishly delightful musical comedy based on the bizarre and beloved characters by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams. 

MOMIX to perform ALICE on January 18 at 8 p.m. & January 19 at 2 p.m. at the Warner Theatre in Torrington, CT

Seamlessly blending illusion, acrobatics, magic, and whimsy, MOMIX sends audiences Flying down the rabbit hole in Moses Pendelton's newest creation, ALICE, inspired by Lewis Carroll's classic Alice in Wonderland. 

Join this dazzling company on a mind-bending adventure as Alice encounters time-honored characters including the undulating Caterpillar, a Lobster Quadrille, frenzied White Rabbits, a mad Queen of Hearts, and a variety of other surprises. Filled with visual splendor and startling creative movement, ALICE reveals that nothing in MOMIX's world is as it seems.

ALICE has toured extensively throughout France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Israel, Brazil, Uruguay, China, and the United States.

"Talismans" – is an online art show of the objects, people or ideas which guide us. 

Visual artist, video, music ands poetry.

Launches January 10

Personaland is an artist-driven global village transforming the world of art by using technology to bridge time zones and cultural boundaries. Our mission is to promote humanity, creativity, and community through a mix of entertainment, enchantment, and imagination.

Since its 2018 launch, Personaland, in its global reach, has showcased over 750 visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, and poets from 66 countries in 30 group art shows and 55 individual exhibitions, many with videos of artist profiles

https://www.personaland.com

“Full Spectrum” Open Juried Show

January 17 Friday – February 2, Sunday 2025

Opening Reception Saturday January 18, 2-4PM, with light refreshments and wine.

All are welcome to attend!

Gallery 25 and Creative Arts Studio

New Milford Commission on the Arts

11 Railroad St., New Milford, CT 06776

860-355-6009 * gallery25ct.com

Open Friday & Saturday 12 noon -6pm and Sunday 10am-4pm

 Gallery 25 Announces “Full Spectrum” Open Call For Artists

Gallery 25 and Creative Arts Studio are issuing an Open Call for artists who wish to take part in “Full Spectrum”, an open juried art show that will run from January 17 to February 2, 2025. Artists are invited to prepare up to 4 images. Entry fee is $20 per artwork and each artist must have a W-9 form. Visit Gallery25ct.com and enter your submissions. Artwork delivery date is Sunday January 12th. All work must be for sale and there is a 30% commission.

Terry Tougas, G25 Director, says, “Our annual open juried is always an exciting event. We receive artworks in varied genres and it’s exhilarating to walk through the gallery and enjoy them”.

The public is invited to attend the reception for “Full Spectrum” on January 18 (snow date: January 19th Sunday) from 2-4pm and awards will be announced at 3pm. Wine and light refreshments will be served along with stunning artworks.

Artists with any questions about the submission process can email Gallery25newmilfordct@gmail.com.

New Milford is an exciting destination, offering many enjoyable activities, among them well-reviewed restaurants, pubs and unique shops, as well as an Art Deco movie theater, an innovative playhouse, Theaterworks, and a historical New England green. So plan an interesting weekend in our fine town!

G25 is a high-quality art gallery that boasts 21 members who exhibit work of all genres. G25 is open Friday and Saturday 12-6 and Sunday 10-4.

G25 wishes to thank the town of New Milford and the New Milford Commission on the Arts for their continued generous support.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @Gallery25 and Creative Arts Studio.

🎨 Full Spectrum Community Art Show 🌈

We're thrilled to announce Full Spectrum, an exciting open juried art show featuring incredible works by artists from across Connecticut and parts of New York! From stunning pastels and digital paintings to vibrant watercolors, fiber art, acrylic pours, and oil paintings, this exhibition celebrates the diversity and creativity of our artistic community.

🗓 Show Dates:

Friday, Jan 17 - Sunday, Feb 2

📍 Location: Gallery 25 & Creative Arts Studio, 11 Railroad St., New Milford, CT

🎉 Opening Reception:

Saturday, January 18 from 2-4pm

(With a snow date on January 19)

✨ Awards Announcement: 3:30pm

Join us for an afternoon of art, wine, light refreshments, and the chance to meet the talented artists behind the stunning pieces! This is a free event open to the public, and we can't wait to see you there. 🥂

⏰ Gallery Hours:

Friday & Saturday: 12-6pm

Sunday: 10-4pm

📞 Contact Info: 860-355-6009

💻 Visit us online at: gallery25ct.com

Follow us on Facebook & Instagram for updates and sneak peeks!

We look forward to celebrating art and creativity with you all! 🌟

History Gallery

June 23, 2024 – January 19, 2025

Ted Williams: The Splendid Splinter in Waterbury explores the remarkable life and impact of Baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams. Presented through the Frederic "Flyhawk" Koch collection of Williams' art and memorabilia, generously donated in honor of his father, the exhibition encapsulates the legendary player's career and enduring legacy.

August 15, 2024 – August 17, 2025

Celebrating the year-long loan of three Georgia O’Keeffe paintings, this exhibition unites the Mattatuck Museum’s collection with O’Keeffe’s life and work through common themes.

 These unique spotlight exhibitions celebrate the year-long loan of three Georgia O’Keeffe paintings and will unite the Mattatuck Museum’s collection with O’Keeffe’s life and work through common themes, creating a unique dialogue between her work and other celebrated artists. Each unique pairing will be curated and narrated by a different member of the Museum’s curatorial department and offer a distinctive perspective on the Mattatuck Collection in relation to the works and story of Georgia O’Keeffe.

Paintings by Amanda Acker, Sally Maca, and Melanie Parke

To everything turn, turn, turn

There is a season turn, turn, turn

And a time to every purpose under Heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose

A time to rain, a time of sow

A time for love, a time for hate

A time for peace, I swear it's not too late      - The Byrds (excerpt)

It is December and we have moved inside for the winter. The birds have picked the garden clean of seeds, leaves have been raked, and firewood stacked against the promise of cold nights. We move inside to welcome quietude and time for reflection, planning for new growth and regeneration.

Amanda Acker moves through her daily environment with affection towards her surroundings. In her words, “I see a scene and I think, oh I see you. I feel some sort of attraction, understanding, or curiosity. Sometimes I make a sound... Oooooo, ahhhhh, hello. It is really that simple. I choose to make paintings because it is the way I acknowledge, process, learn, and move around the place where I live”.

Technically, Acker is trying to make the thing look like the thing. Not so much in a photographic sense, but in the way it is seen and evoked. “Oooooo ahhhhh.” How do you make the chair, but in paint? How do you paint the water falling from the hose? How does the tree interact with the neighboring tree? That is when the artists really start to notice things, and more things, and how she falls in love with the world.

Amanda Acker is a self-taught artist whose work has been widely exhibited (in sold out shows) in Michigan and in CT. She lives and works in Michigan.

Pastoral and bucolic still life settings emerge from Melanie Parke’s life. The tenderness of each painting evokes the artist’s fondness for domestic setting and mementos of friendship. Melanie Parke reconstructs familiar interiors and filters them through the ideology of memory. Her subjects often center on flowers, birds, decorative objects, gardens, and intimate interior settings with an intent in creating safe places for pleasure. Sentiment crafts a domestic locus and seeks visual lushness by alternating tonal moods and vivid ornamentation.

Painting is a pleasure-seeking process for Parke and abstraction a vehicle with which to think and begin. The artist sets up the space intuitively in broad and textured gestures, then pieces together arrangements to compose a homespun narrative. Specific interiors and landscapes are implied. Shifting the emphasis to pattern, texture and tone, Parke works to destabilize notions of exacting representation. This is an effort to build on a sensation of memory which conjures both comfort and longing. 

The artist’s work is exhibited widely and is in collections throughout the United States. She has been a visiting artist at The American Academy in Rome three times, and an artist in residence at Borgo Finocchieto Invitational Residency, Tuscany, Italy, Heliker - LaHotan Foundation, Cranberry Isles, ME, Acadia National Park, ME, Yosemite National Park, CA, and Dorland Mountain Colony, CA. Parke earned a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL and studied at Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, IN. Parke lives and works in a contemporary studio in rural Michigan surrounded by orchards, meadows, and birds.

Sally Maca explores the daily changes in atmosphere and light and their transformational effect on familiar streetscapes and landscapes. The artist is dedicated to capturing the moment when the mundane becomes transcendent, a transition often created by the heaviness of a passing storm, the glow of a streetlamp, or an otherworldly sunset.

Maca’s subjects mostly hyperlocal landscapes, inspiration gleaned from daily walks or a glance out her front door. The artist explores the soft geometry in the angles of tree branches, or the horizon line and the hard-edged, manmade lines of roads and utility wires; these disparate elements are woven into lyrical compositions. Maca is not focused on a specific representation of a neighborhood or landscape, but in isolating the elements of a location to bring a universality to the painting, enough so that a viewer realizes that they too have experienced that same feeling, somewhere else, at another time.

The small scale of the paintings is central to the work; not only does the size invite close inspection but it evokes an intimacy with the painting.

Please contact Lani Holloway, Associate Director, Lani@kbfa.com, 860 560 3085 with inquires or to arrange a preview of the exhibition.

Munger Gallery

November 12, 2024 – February 9, 2025'At First Light: American Tonalism' showcases a critical era of late 19th and early 20th century landscape painting. Responding to the trauma of the Civil War and taking aesthetic inspiration from the French Barbizon and American Hudson River Schools, artists began to depict the landscape using loose brushstrokes and subdued colors. These techniques gave the movement its name and created hazy and dreamlike compositions that captured the qualities of light at dawn and dusk. Featuring the work of 17 artists alongside historic objects and archival material from the period, this exhibition explores how artists painting in the Tonalist style uniquely perceived and depicted the American landscape.

Reflections on Gordon Parks showcases the creative responses of middle and high school students at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Waterbury inspired by the powerful photography and storytelling of Gordon Parks. Through their own photography and writings, students reflect on the themes of identity, resilience, and belonging explored in Parks’ work. This collaborative exhibition invites the community to engage with the students’ perspectives while honoring Parks’ legacy of capturing the human experience.

Sponsored by Art Bridges Foundation

Gordon Parks: Homeward to the Prairie I Come

Opening Celebration January 19

January 19, 2025 – March 30, 2025Homeward to the Prairie I Come showcases the work of Gordon Parks (1912-2006), a pioneering photographer, poet, filmmaker, musician, and composer. After becoming LIFE Magazine’s first Black staff photographer in 1948, Parks captured diverse images of life in the 20th century. Paired with his lesser-known works of poetry, this exhibition positions Parks within the history of art and provides a catalogue of his wide-ranging interests beyond documentary photography.

MIXMASTER is a comprehensive exhibition dedicated to uncovering and celebrating the diverse talents of its artist members who are based in New England and the Tri-State region.

Homeward to the Prairie I Come, an exceptional exhibition celebrating the extraordinary life and legacy of Gordon Parks (1912–2006), one of America’s most influential photographers, filmmakers, poets, and composers. This exhibition will showcase Parks’ diverse and groundbreaking contributions to art and culture, offering a deeper understanding of his vast creative range beyond his celebrated work in documentary photography. This major exhibition, organized with the generous support of the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art and the Art Bridges Foundation, highlights the profound impact of Parks’ work. Visitors will experience a wide range of his powerful photographic images, many of which became iconic during his tenure as the first Black staff photographer for Life magazine. Parks’ work, known for its persistent exploration of racial injustice, poverty, and urban life, is paired with lesser-known poetic writings that reveal the full depth of his creativity and ability to articulate the human experience in both visual and literary forms. On view through March 30, 2025.

The Mattatuck Museum’s annual MIXMASTER is an exhibition that seeks to discover and recognize the talents of the Museum’s artists members working in New England and the Tri-state region. Initiated to support and recognize contemporary art, MIXMASTER provides an opportunity for established and emerging artists to debut their most recent work, done in the last three years. Through this exhibition, artists gain the visibility and recognition they deserve, while art enthusiasts have the chance to experience a wide array of fresh, innovative pieces. The exhibition not only highlights the vibrant art scene in these regions but also fosters a sense of community and appreciation for contemporary artistic expressions. MIXMASTER is open to all Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont resident artists 18 years and over. A record-breaking 153 artists applied to be part of the Mixmaster 2025 Juried Member Exhibition and 353 pieces were submitted in total. Submissions closed on Monday, November 18, 2024. The exhibition will be open to the public between January 12, 2025 and February 6, 2025. Submissions will be judged this year by Kalia Brooks, Ph.D., Director of Programs and Exhibitions at NXTHVN.

The reception and opening celebration for our new exhibitions will take place on Sunday, January 19, 2025. Opening remarks will take place at 1 pm

The museum is offering a reduced admission of $5 for the day.

The Cornwall Library is excited to begin its 2025 art shows with Hotspot, Kit White’s dramatic and innovative paintings prompted by recent California wildfires. As White worked on the paintings, his daughter in San Francisco was sending home vivid images of the lurid, smoke-filled air outside her taped-up windows. The paintings were his response to her apocalyptic scenario.

The show runs from January 11 until February 22 except Mondays, when the library is closed. The Artists Reception from 5 to 7 pm on January 11. Registration on the library website for the reception is requested.

Though at first the paintings can seem wholly abstract, close inspection reveals a black and white photograph of a wildfire embedded in each, creating a layered space that reveals itself slowly. The result is a startlingly eloquent reaction to the fire, and by extension to climate change.

The embedded image results from a unique process developed by the Eastman Company in Rochester. It begins with a digital photograph White manipulates and then transfers via inkjet printer onto a giant sheet of mylar. After White puts down a base layer of oil paint, he treats his canvas with a solution that lifts the photograph from the mylar onto the painted canvas. He then overlays the “ghost” image embedded in the painting with more oil paint. The effect is more akin to an 1860s-era glass plate photograph, with its imperfections, than to a crisp contemporary image, suggesting the porousness and mutability of memory.

White says “This particular method of working, with a spectral photo embedded in the painting, began with the Iran-Iraq war, when I started thinking that most people get their sense of the world from photographs, not direct experience. It seemed, then, that if I wanted to address the physical world, I had to acknowledge the role of photography in creating our sense of a place.”

Kit White is a New York-based artist and writer who studied Fine Arts at Harvard and was professor of Painting at the Pratt Institute for 21 years. He has had many solo exhibitions and his work is in the collections of museums including The Guggenheim Museum, The M, The Weisman Art Museum, The Johnson Art Museum, the Luther Brady Collection, (formerly, The Corcoran Museum), and others. In 1979, he received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award for painting. He is the author of 101 Things to Learn in Art School and his work is the subject of a monograph, Kit White, Line Into Form, by critic Carter Ratcliff.

Join us for Morris Senior Center's fifth annual BUNCO PARTY!

A fundraiser for the Morris Senior Center Commission.

Come solo or bring all of your friends - we guarantee a good time!

Who knew you could have so much fun with a set of die!

ALL Bunco supplies will be provided - just bring your smile and willingness to have a great time with us!

Raffles! BUNCO prizes!

Beverages, nibbles and dessert are available!

Sunday, January 19, 2025

(snow date: Sunday, January 26)

Doors open at 12:30 pm

Games start at 1:00 pm

$20.00 entrance donation

PRE-registration is greatly appreciated.

Exhibition featuring Matthew J. Best, Mark Buku, Stanwyck Cromwell, Vincent Dion, Lois Goglia, Mark Guglielmo, Sam Posey, John Simboli, Laura J. Stein, Lydia Viscardi

https://fivepointsarts.org/2025/01/06/pushing-the-envelope/

MOMIX to perform ALICE on January 18 at 8 p.m. & January 19 at 2 p.m. at the Warner Theatre in Torrington, CT

Seamlessly blending illusion, acrobatics, magic, and whimsy, MOMIX sends audiences Flying down the rabbit hole in Moses Pendelton's newest creation, ALICE, inspired by Lewis Carroll's classic Alice in Wonderland. 

Join this dazzling company on a mind-bending adventure as Alice encounters time-honored characters including the undulating Caterpillar, a Lobster Quadrille, frenzied White Rabbits, a mad Queen of Hearts, and a variety of other surprises. Filled with visual splendor and startling creative movement, ALICE reveals that nothing in MOMIX's world is as it seems.

ALICE has toured extensively throughout France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Israel, Brazil, Uruguay, China, and the United States.

Love-Art-Play.com is a New Milford, CT based non-profit 503-C arts organization which will be presenting Kimberly Wilson in her original one-woman show, “A Journey.” This touring production has been performed nationally since 2012. In 2016 she was awarded the Best Playwright Award at the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival for her one-woman show.

“A Journey" brings to life seven historical Black women, from seven pivotal generations, who present to you their stories through song, movement and dialogue and how ultimately their faith, hope and calling helped shape the American we know today. Joyful celebrations and painful reflections are rendered artistically to tell a story of persistence, courage and how Black Women’s history, not alway woven into the tapestry of American history, is an integral part of the thread that holds together the fabric of American life.

Included in this journey are reflections from an African Queen, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks and more.

After each performance Ms. Wilson invites the audience to remain for a talk-back which extends the wealth of this theatrical experience. Audience members have the opportunity to share their feedback and stories as well.

AS we celebrate these historical Black women’s stories and their journeys as a tribute to honor Black History month. let us also celebrate our journeys. We must live, love and treasure each other, for this is also our journey as well.

"Talismans" – is an online art show of the objects, people or ideas which guide us. 

Visual artist, video, music ands poetry.

Launches January 10

Personaland is an artist-driven global village transforming the world of art by using technology to bridge time zones and cultural boundaries. Our mission is to promote humanity, creativity, and community through a mix of entertainment, enchantment, and imagination.

Since its 2018 launch, Personaland, in its global reach, has showcased over 750 visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, and poets from 66 countries in 30 group art shows and 55 individual exhibitions, many with videos of artist profiles

https://www.personaland.com

The Gunn Memorial Library Stairwell Gallery is pleased to present "Light, Color, and Mood," a solo show by Sergio Villaschi on display from November 30 through January 27.

In Light, Color, and Mood, Sergio Villaschi takes an artistic approach to photography, using light, color, and texture to create compelling still life and landscape images. Inspired by the mosaics and frescoes of his native Rome, Sergio's work blurs the line between traditional photography and fine art, giving each piece a distinct atmosphere and depth. His still life compositions are vibrant and layered, while his landscapes capture a quiet, serene quality.

Through techniques like "light painting" and Intentional Camera Movement, Sergio enhances his images with unique textures and moods. He invites viewers to see familiar subjects in a new way, with each photo offering a refined and thoughtful perspective.

David Zinni is a longtime Southbury resident who began painting in 2018 after retiring from a career as a mechanical engineer. Always interested in painting, the opportunity to pursue the art came with his retirement. With no formal art education and a little studio training from local artists, Dave began working with acrylics and later oils. Dave’s technical background and love of nature led him to create realistic paintings with great detail. He finds his inspiration from the beauty of local landscapes, seascapes and wildlife. His works are based his own photography while hiking the local parks and land preserves. The exhibit is a collection of local landscapes and birds based on his many hikes and walks through scenic Southbury, Woodbury and Middlebury. His art has been featured in Southbury Makers Spotlight, at Southbury Library, Naugatuck’s Whitmore library and several charity auctions.

Instagram: @dajzinni_painting

Show your support for our small local business by joining in the fun! Each day has a theme; participate for your chance to win a $50 BD Provisions gift card! Check our posts on social media (Facebook/Instagram) for more information!

Live on Zoom:

Monday Scholars combines the best of online learning and engaging discussion!

Join us for the full 9-weeks or drop in to explore your favorite topics. Each week, we will watch two lectures together and then engage in lively conversation afterwards. The conversation will be facilitated by OWL's Caroline Ugurlu. 

From its inception, the United States has been a maritime nation. Ever since the first use of sea power during the American Revolution, the growth, the trajectory, and the international standing of the United States has been deeply tied to its maritime role and its naval forces.

The story of the United States Navy offers essential perspectives on how the United States came to be, the unfolding of its history, the experiment of American democracy, and the nation’s transformation into a global superpower. Beyond all of this, the history of the US Navy is a spellbinding and deeply poignant human story—a chronicle of extraordinary commitment, ingenuity, valor, sacrifice, and patriotism, spanning the 250 years of its existence.

Your guide is Professor Craig L. Symonds of the US Naval Academy, a celebrated maritime historian who brings to the table astonishingly detailed and far-reaching knowledge of US naval history, coupled with a flair for engrossing storytelling.

11/18: British Origins & American Revolution

11/25: Early Navalists & War of 1812

12/09: Pirates of the Caribbean & Navy Expeditions

12/16: Civil War

12/23: Civil War continued & Spanish American War

12/30: Battleship Age, WW1, and WWII

01/06: WWII continued

01/13: WWII continued

01/20: Hyman Rickover and the Nuclear Navy &The Gulf of Tonkin and War in Vietnam

01/27: How the Navy Reformed After Vietnam & Projecting Naval Power in the Middle East

02/03: America's 21st-Century Missions at Sea & China's Threats to US Naval Supremacy

More about the Professor: Craig L. Symonds is a Professor Emeritus of History at the US Naval Academy and a former Ernest J. King Distinguished Professor of Maritime History at the US Naval War College. He earned a PhD in History from the University of Florida and is the author or editor of more than two dozen books. His book Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles That Shaped American History won the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Prize in Naval History. He also wrote Lincoln and His Admirals: Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Navy, and the Civil War, which won several awards.

Frank Tosto creates local and NYC scenes using graphite and colored pencil. Don't miss this wonderful, innovative art show.

"Talismans" – is an online art show of the objects, people or ideas which guide us. 

Visual artist, video, music ands poetry.

Launches January 10

Personaland is an artist-driven global village transforming the world of art by using technology to bridge time zones and cultural boundaries. Our mission is to promote humanity, creativity, and community through a mix of entertainment, enchantment, and imagination.

Since its 2018 launch, Personaland, in its global reach, has showcased over 750 visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, and poets from 66 countries in 30 group art shows and 55 individual exhibitions, many with videos of artist profiles

https://www.personaland.com

The Gunn Memorial Library Stairwell Gallery is pleased to present "Light, Color, and Mood," a solo show by Sergio Villaschi on display from November 30 through January 27.

In Light, Color, and Mood, Sergio Villaschi takes an artistic approach to photography, using light, color, and texture to create compelling still life and landscape images. Inspired by the mosaics and frescoes of his native Rome, Sergio's work blurs the line between traditional photography and fine art, giving each piece a distinct atmosphere and depth. His still life compositions are vibrant and layered, while his landscapes capture a quiet, serene quality.

Through techniques like "light painting" and Intentional Camera Movement, Sergio enhances his images with unique textures and moods. He invites viewers to see familiar subjects in a new way, with each photo offering a refined and thoughtful perspective.

David Zinni is a longtime Southbury resident who began painting in 2018 after retiring from a career as a mechanical engineer. Always interested in painting, the opportunity to pursue the art came with his retirement. With no formal art education and a little studio training from local artists, Dave began working with acrylics and later oils. Dave’s technical background and love of nature led him to create realistic paintings with great detail. He finds his inspiration from the beauty of local landscapes, seascapes and wildlife. His works are based his own photography while hiking the local parks and land preserves. The exhibit is a collection of local landscapes and birds based on his many hikes and walks through scenic Southbury, Woodbury and Middlebury. His art has been featured in Southbury Makers Spotlight, at Southbury Library, Naugatuck’s Whitmore library and several charity auctions.

Instagram: @dajzinni_painting

“Cozy Up with a Good Book” Winter Reading Program, all ages, January 2 – March 20, 2025.

Stay warm this winter and Cozy Up with a Good Book in the Morris Public Library’s Winter Reading Program for all ages (January 2 – March 20, 2025). We explore various reading activities, new authors and genres in our reading journey this year.

Cross off the appropriate blocks in your Reading Card for each book you have read or listened to. One book may qualify for up to three categories (blocks). Return/e-mail your completed card by March 20 to qualify to win the Grand Cozy Prize. Reading Cards are available at the library or via morrispubliclibrary.net (starting January 2).

Have had an extra-cozy reading spree and completed several cards this winter? Enter more than one card into the drawing!

All reading levels have their own Reading Card and the Grand Cozy Prize!

Information: https://morrispubliclibrary.net or 860-567-7440.

Connect with fellow clay enthusiasts in this handbuilding workshop custom designed to address all levels of experience. Practice essential techniques in coil building, pinch pots, slab construction, and surface decoration to develop your own unique style.

Instructor: Alice Pulliam 

Tuesdays, January 14, 21, 28, February 4, 11, 18, 25 & March 4, 2025

10 AM - 1 PM

Ages: 18+

Members: $360

Non-Members: $400

MORE INFO & REGISTER

The Cornwall Library is excited to begin its 2025 art shows with Hotspot, Kit White’s dramatic and innovative paintings prompted by recent California wildfires. As White worked on the paintings, his daughter in San Francisco was sending home vivid images of the lurid, smoke-filled air outside her taped-up windows. The paintings were his response to her apocalyptic scenario.

The show runs from January 11 until February 22 during normal library hours, except Mondays when the library is closed. The Artists Reception from 5 to 7 pm on January 11. Registration on the library website for the reception is requested.

Though at first the paintings can seem wholly abstract, close inspection reveals a black and white photograph of a wildfire embedded in each, creating a layered space that reveals itself slowly. The result is a startlingly eloquent reaction to the fire, and by extension to climate change.

The embedded image results from a unique process developed by the Eastman Company in Rochester. It begins with a digital photograph White manipulates and then transfers via inkjet printer onto a giant sheet of mylar. After White puts down a base layer of oil paint, he treats his canvas with a solution that lifts the photograph from the mylar onto the painted canvas. He then overlays the “ghost” image embedded in the painting with more oil paint. The effect is more akin to an 1860s-era glass plate photograph, with its imperfections, than to a crisp contemporary image, suggesting the porousness and mutability of memory.

White says “This particular method of working, with a spectral photo embedded in the painting, began with the Iran-Iraq war, when I started thinking that most people get their sense of the world from photographs, not direct experience. It seemed, then, that if I wanted to address the physical world, I had to acknowledge the role of photography in creating our sense of a place.”

Kit White is a New York-based artist and writer who studied Fine Arts at Harvard and was professor of Painting at the Pratt Institute for 21 years. He has had many solo exhibitions and his work is in the collections of museums including The Guggenheim Museum, The M, The Weisman Art Museum, The Johnson Art Museum, the Luther Brady Collection, (formerly, The Corcoran Museum), and others. In 1979, he received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award for painting. He is the author of 101 Things to Learn in Art School and his work is the subject of a monograph, Kit White, Line Into Form, by critic Carter Ratcliff.

The Morris Public Library offers Story and Music Time for participants ages 9 mo. - 5 y.o every Tuesday at 10 am.

Please call to ask if a spot is available: 860-567-7440.

Sing songs, read a story, do a craft!

Show your support for our small local business by joining in the fun! Each day has a theme; participate for your chance to win a $50 BD Provisions gift card! Check our posts on social media (Facebook/Instagram) for more information!

Join us for a unique Martin Luther King Jr. family storytime. Miss Linda will read Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s book “I Have a Dream”. Then, children will learn about a real American hero and why we celebrate him in the USA. Following storytime, children will create handprint crafts to take home.

Space is limited, and registration is required, so be sure to sign up on our website - https://www.gunnlibrary.org/calendar/martin-luther-king-jr-family-storytime-craft/

Community members are invited to stop by the library between 11 am and noon each Tuesday for a cup of coffee and a chat with their neighbors.

MIXMASTER is a comprehensive exhibition dedicated to uncovering and celebrating the diverse talents of its artist members who are based in New England and the Tri-State region.

Gordon Parks: Homeward to the Prairie I Come

Opening Celebration January 19

January 19, 2025 – March 30, 2025Homeward to the Prairie I Come showcases the work of Gordon Parks (1912-2006), a pioneering photographer, poet, filmmaker, musician, and composer. After becoming LIFE Magazine’s first Black staff photographer in 1948, Parks captured diverse images of life in the 20th century. Paired with his lesser-known works of poetry, this exhibition positions Parks within the history of art and provides a catalogue of his wide-ranging interests beyond documentary photography.

Visit the Makerspace for a chill winter crafternoon! Relax, listen to music, and hang out with your friends as you make a project inspired by the season. We’ll have supplies for a few projects available, or you can use the materials from the art wall to create your own! Grades 6-12.

Registration is required.

Visit us at: https://www.gunnlibrary.org/calendar/winter-crafts-for-teens/