Category: Connecticut Travel

The dog days of August? Not in Kent! If your idea of fun is great sales, fabulous food, toe-tapping tunes and jaw-dropping vintage cars, Kent is the place to be the first weekend of August.

Running from Thursday, August 3 through Sunday, August 6 this year, the Festival is free and offers super-sized retail therapy as well as entertainment for the whole family. Special fun for kids will include a “National Clown Day” event on Saturday morning sponsored by the Kent Memorial Library and face painting at the Fife ‘n Drum Gift Shop on Saturday (all proceeds benefit Alzheimer’s Association’s CT Chapter.)
Kent’s unique and charming shops offer not-to-be-missed sales that include Heron American Craft Gallery, Rolling River Antiques, Main Street Antiques, Koblenz & Co. Antique & Estate Jewelry, The Covered Wagon Country Store, Bella Jewelers, the Fife ‘n Drum Gift Shop, Foreign Cargo, Terston Home Accents & Apparel, Sundog Shoe & Leather and Pantages Gems & Jewelry. NAPA Auto will have some great specials and savings on discontinued tools. The Painted Can will have discounts on Annie Sloan® products and the Chalk Paint® 101 workshop on August 6.

Fabulous food offerings include lunch and dinner specials and discounted prices on margaritas and draft beers at the Fife ‘n Drum Restaurant. Stop by 10 AM to 4 PM at Annie Bananie Ice Cream for breakfast sandwiches, burgers, & hot dogs and their Annual “Cheeseburgers in Paradise” on Friday evening. They will also have Sakura Blade and Tool Sharpening at the store each day of the festival from 10 AM to 4 PM.

St. Andrew’s Church will once again hold its Annual Tag Sale on Friday and Saturday at the Parish Hall. Early Bird Buying on Friday from 8:30 to 10:00 AM ($10 charge). No admission fee during regular hours on Friday and Saturday 10 AM to 4 PM.
Make sure to stop by the Kent Memorial Library for their Annual Book Sale and to purchase raffle tickets for a 1998 Porsche Boxster. The Chess Court will be alive with chess enthusiasts from amateur to experienced levels. Relax and stroll through the KML Gallery to view the exhibit featuring South Kent artist Linda Petrocine. The library also has public bathrooms available during library hours.

Vintage cars parade through town and park on the Kent Green on Saturday August 5 from 4:00 to 8:00 PM during Kent Car Cruise Night. Stop by to check out the cars and enjoy some music and great food.

Other happenings include the Kent Art Association’s Annual President’s Juried Show, and, on Saturday, right across the street, there will be a showcase of some local race cars and free popcorn & giveaways at NAPA Auto. Complimentary snacks and beverages to all visitors at the W. David Herman Gallery where they can view the work of local artist Steve Balkin.

Kent Yoga & Bodyworks will offer a big savings for first time students on their 9:30 AM yoga class on Friday the 4th and Saturday the 5th. $10 per class! Annie Bananie Ice Cream will offer Caricatures by Emily, Henna by Elyse, Charms of the Heart (pick a charm, create a bracelet) and Fascia Chocolate’s Sweet ‘n Salty Tasting.
Check out all the events – and the full array of great activities – as we get closer to the event on www.kentct.com or contact the Kent Chamber of Commerce at 860-592-0061.

Before the days of television and mass media, baseball had distinctly local roots. Passionate fans in small towns across the nation turned not to Yankees, Dodgers, or Red Sox for their baseball fix, but to their local semi-pro or minor league teams and the new exhibit presented by the Wilton Historical Society called Farm Team: 50 Years of Wilton Baseball explores these roots. The history of Wilton Baseball traces the story of the Farmers, Wilton’s quintessential small town baseball team, through approximately 20 photographs and objects related to the team.

Founded in 1921, the Farmers quickly became one of the most popular attractions in town. Crowds could reach up to 1,000 people, or roughly half the population of Wilton at the time. The Farmers played teams from as far away as Poughkeepsie, New York, and their games were front page news in The Wilton Bulletin. “I have to say, one of my favorite things about the Farmers is how much fun they had. There are some great stories about their wacky promotions, including donkey baseball,” said Nick Foster, exhibition curator.

There would have been no Farmers team without Charlie Orem (1882 – 1973), owner of Orem’s Dairy and later Orem’s Diner. Orem, along with Johnny Knapp and Charlie Myers, founded the team as a way to bring in customers for Orem’s businesses. Orem built a baseball diamond on a piece of his farm land, soon named Orem’s Field, where the team would play its home games. Fans in attendance were encouraged to buy concessions from the dairy and diner located next to the field. The team, sensibly named the Farmers after their founder and home field, remained in Wilton, in one form or another, until 1970, with only a small break during World War II.

The Wilton Historical Society is located on 224 Danbury Road in Wilton. For more information visit their website.

Ever wonder what goes into learning an instrument, composing the music, or choosing to become a professional player? Each summer, Litchfield Jazz Festival offers audience members the chance to meet festival stars up close to hear their personal stories and learn what shaped their lives in music.

The Festival’s Artist Talks are led by Frank Alkyer, Publisher of Down Beat Magazine, the world’s largest-distribution jazz magazine. DownBeat is a long- time sponsor of Litchfield Jazz Festival and Frank a well-informed, personable and witty interviewer. The talks take place in the intimate Student Stage Tent, and ticketholders are invited free of charge.

This year’s guest artists are clarinetist Ken Peplowski and saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa. Ken headlines the Saturday August 5th lineup with his Benny Goodman Tribute, featuring Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar, Joe Locke, vibes, Nicki Parrott, bass, Euhud Aherie, piano, and Matt Wilson, drums. His Artist Talk is scheduled for Saturday at 6:30 immediately before his set at 7:45.

The festival’s founder Vita Muir first met Ken on The Jazz Cruise, a popular straight-ahead music voyage in which he plays a key role when he is not touring the world. Muir applauds Ken’s teaching philosophy “My goal,” he says, is to get students to learn how to teach themselves and to learn how to bring out their own best qualities. After all, jazz is about individuality—first you learn the rules, and then you break them. I would like to think of myself as a lifelong student!”

On Sunday afternoon at 3:30 Frank Alkyer will be talking with Rudresh Mahanthappa. Rudresh is appearing on the fest at 4:45 with his Indo-Pac Coalition. A renowned saxophonist/composer and second-generation Tamil-American, his music blends progressive jazz and South Indian classical music in a fluid, forward-looking form. He has won many awards and polls, including the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and numerous first places for alto sax performance from Down Beat and the Jazz Journalists. He was appointed last year as the first Director of Jazz at Princeton University.

Litchfield Jazz Festival is sponsored in part by DownBeat Magazine, National Endowment for the Arts, Les Paul Foundation, NEFA, Republican American, Crystal Rock, Steinway, Telefunken, and the Wyndham Southbury. For a full list of sponsors, please visit www.litchfieldjazzfest.com.

No holds barred! Fun for all is the watchword in Norfolk, Conn., this coming August 4, 5 and 6 during the town’s three-day, town-wide festival, A Weekend in Norfolk. Everyone’s invited to come with family and friends to enjoy the more than 75 events—mostly free—listed on its website, http://weekendinnorfolk.org.

On Friday, boat builder Schuyler Thomson will be demonstrating the art of the wooden canoe, two churches will be offering afternoon tours of their magnificent stained glass windows and the town’s first selectman will be performing weddings and vow renewals on the village green (by appointment). Then there are artisan demos, a guided wildflower walk and a show by Sandglass Puppet Theater, opening receptions for three weekend-long art events and a quilt show, plus concerts at Infinity Hall and the Yale Music Shed.

The pace picks up on Saturday, with continuing art events and more concerts, including an open rehearsal at the Music Shed and live outdoor performances by Emily Victoria and Soul Case. The Norfolk farmers market is celebrating Kids’ Day with a variety of special events, a pie sale to benefit the Congregational church and a special surprise event starting at 11:00 a.m. Also for kids, there will be games on the green, a painting workshop, nature weaving and tie-dyeing, and water polo with fire hoses. The evening will be crowned with family games and an outdoor movie at Bottelle School, in addition to concerts at Infinity Hall and the Music Shed.

Sunday is no time to go home—there are historic house tours, garden tours, more stained glass window tours, another concert, the curling club open house, three farm tours, an art workshop for adults, more demos and art shows, fly tying and casting on the green, outdoor music by Ben Waller and others, a photo show opening and a discussion with author Karin Roffman about her new book on poet John Ashbery.
We didn’t mention everything—the World War I exhibition at the historical society museum, the Hike-the-Peaks challenge, all the artisan demos, the Alfredo Taylor lecture and more—or that many events are multi-day affairs.

Visit the Weekend in Norfolk website, weekendinnorfolk.org, for details by special interest or by day and time, and be sure to come the first weekend in August (August 4, 5 and 6). You’ll have all the fun you imagined and more

The Mattatuck Museum located on the Green (144 West Main Street) in Waterbury has announced the opening of two new exhibitions. Winslow Homer: American Life 1857-1875 and Passing By: Laure Dunne will be celebrated with an opening reception on Sunday, July 30 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public. Docent-led tours of both exhibits will be available beginning at noon.

About Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer: American Life 1857-1875 features approximately 100 prints from illustrated weeklies and journals by American Master, Winslow Homer. The works were selected from a gift of engravings recently donated to the Mattatuck Museum by Fairfield collector David Jones and his wife Ann. This group of engravings will be complemented by several paintings on loan from Connecticut institutions including Yale University Art Gallery, Wadsworth Atheneum and New Britain Museum of American Art. This overview of Homer’s rich career as an illustrator will be presented thematically. It will reflect the concerns of a nation during a period of significant social and political change. Subjects addressed include the Civil War, domestic and daily life in the 19th century, the changing role of women, popular entertainments and the outdoors.

Winslow Homer will be complemented by several public programs during the run of the exhibition, including a Lunch & Learn – “An American Icon: Winslow Homer – A Personal Interpretation” – with Professor Dorothy Keller and an evening reception entitled “Homer in Nature” with David Davison.

About Laure Dunne

MIXMASTER winner Laure Dunne will also open her new exhibition of photography, Passing By, on July 30. This exhibition of 25 photos includes shots from Oregon, Maine, New York and Connecticut. Thematically organized between two subjects, trains and trees, Dunne’s clear, clean aesthetic is evident in these compositionally strong and dramatic images.

About the Mattatuck Museum of Art
Located in the heart of downtown Waterbury’s architectural district, the Mattatuck Museum is a vibrant destination, known locally and regionally as a community-centered institution of American art and history. For more information on all of the Museum’s programs, events, and exhibits visit the website at mattmuseum.org or call (203) 753-0381.

This summer marks the 20th anniversary of Tea for Two Hundred held in Washington Connecticut on 63 River Road on August 12. This garden party benefit is held in the beautiful gardens of the Washington home of Mr. Gael Hammer and Mr. Gary Goodwin. Revel in an afternoon of delicious food, wine and dancing to the music of the legendary “Beehive Queen” Christine Ohlman.

Shop the fabled Silent Auction and bid on fabulous trips, dining experiences and spa packages. Participate in the beloved hat contest featuring guest judge Laura Daly, world renowned milliner.

Honorary Chair is Sheila Nevins, an American television producer and the President of HBO Documentary Films. She also has a new book that made it to the New York Times best-seller list. “You Don’t Look Your Age… and Other Fairy Tales,” (Flatiron Books).
Dress code is summer white attire. This garden party benefit will be held in the beautiful gardens of the Washington home of Mr. Gael Hammer and Mr. Gary Goodwin.

This year the Gunn Historical Museum and Interfaith Aids Ministry will benefit from this event. To register: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07ee0s0tdifa37512f&oseq=&c=&ch=

About the Gunn Historical Museum
Founded in 1899, the Gunn Historical Museum is a non-profit organization with a mission to educate the public about the history of Washington, Connecticut and to preserve the town’s history and culture. The Museum is located in a 1781 colonial home situated on the Washington Green. The museum has received national awards for its exhibits, conducts original research and creates educational programs for children, adults and seniors.

About Tea for Two Hundred
In 1998 Gael Hammer, along with Ted Hine and John Trainor, instituted Tea for Two Hundred as a memorial to Gael’s partner Timothy Mawason and as a way to raise funds for AIDS awareness and other charities in western Connecticut. This year the proceeds will benefit the Gunn Historical Museum and Interfaith AIDS Ministry of Greater Danbury.
Now in its 20th year, the event held at the beautiful gardens of Mr. Hammer and Mr. Goodwin is widely considered one of Litchfield County’s major social events of the season and draws hundreds of participants. Tea for Two Hundred has generated net proceeds approaching $1 Million for area organizations.
Photo: Rural Intelligence