Category: Connecticut Travel

​Carole Peck’s Good News Cafe has announced a new art show by Katie Ré Scheidt who describes her painting style as “expressionism” and the empowerment of women. In this show, with the faces unseen, Katie’s subject is the woman’s body. Her nudes portray confidence, strength, vulnerability, and they certainly evoke emotion. Her use of color and strategic positioning of gesture bring a sense of fluidity of motion and transcending calmness. Katie admits she loves to “play and push color”. Her, loaded with paint, brushes and palettes are employed with intent and purpose.

Katie’s parents recognize her gift and gifted her with opportunity to go to Florence, Italy to study her craft. She was 16. Now mature in her talents, she believes, her classical training, at the Studio Cecil Graves, gave her the confidence to “lose her orderly self” and allow her oils on canvas to be “unrestrained, but not reckless” – Republican American.

Katie is not only an artist. She has two children, Madeline and Guther, and a loving husband which, after being witness to and surviving the 9/11 terrorist attacks on The World Trade Center, were her inspiration to leave her Wall Street position and settle into this beautiful life of a painter. Living in Roxbury, CT, Katie’s studio is her backyard. She has set up her studio in her barn. Called “The Fauve Barn”, it was originally the studio for Leonard Wisegard, a children’s book illustrator.

Another artist that is showing his work is Brien Coleman​ who uses scissors, glue, pens, and pigment to create his interesting pieces. Coleman applies magic markers for strategic color enhancement. Coleman’s theatrical compositions of cut-out ephemera provide thematic thrusts that combine with color and pattern to form each mysteriously evocative image. STRANGE MAGIC is the title of his latest book, much of which sprang from two actual double-sided books which were deconstructed and reconfigured.

Brien Coleman has shown his works in many publications (he was a long-time contributor to the EAST VILLAGE EYE), as installations at thematic downtown New York nightclub events (Mudd Club, Danceteria, et al), and galleries in NYC, Venice Beach, California, Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico, Chania (Crete), Greece, Amsterdam, Wynwood & Coconut Grove in Miami, Toronto, and most recently at “A Fall Gathering of Artists” in Litchfield, CT.

The Good News Café and Gallery is open from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, on Sunday from 12 noon to 10 p.m. and is closed Tuesday and open from 12Noon to 10pm Sundays.

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To get you in a holiday mood, the New England Carousel Museum located on 95 Riverside Ave. in Bristol is hosting the “Bizarre Bazaar, a holiday art and craft fair on November 19 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This is a juried show and sale of work by phenomenal artists and artisans handpicked by the Museum and one that you don’t want to miss especially if you are looking for unusual holiday gifts.

Expect to be dazzled as you wander among the work of artists and artisans at the Carousel Museum that will be displaying a variety of homemade crafts, amazing treats, and holiday gifts.

There will be two floors with over 50 exhibitors showcasing their unique gifts among the Museum’s holiday environment and gorgeous carousel horses.
As adults shop, there is plenty to do for the little ones. The Arts and Crafts Room of the Museum will be open for children and, “Amazing Magical Paul” will be back to create whimsical balloon animals !

Best of all, admission is only $1.00 with free carousel rides for children all day.

Only yesterday, it seems, one was hard-pressed to name more than a handful of successful women artists; now the list would be extensive, and the choices rich and varied. Although numerous recent exhibitions have featured women’s art, the collecting of art created by women has received scant attention. In fact, private collections are in the process of being dramatically transformed, shifting to focus on contemporary artists, women in particular.

The Bruce Museum’s new exhibition- Her Crowd: New Art by Women from Our Neighbors’ Private Collections will run through January 2, 2017. Greenwich and the nearby communities in Fairfield and Westchester counties are home to a number of the finest contemporary collections, and thus to some of the most exciting art by women being made today.

Her Crowd will offer the rare opportunity to see what some of America’s most influential collectors of contemporary art consider beautiful, important, and compelling. Themes specific to women continue to be of significance: motherhood, food, sexuality; beauty and its discontents; stereotypes of femininity and their undoing; intersections of gender and race. Equally important for Her Crowd is the current powerful resurgence of abstraction in its myriad forms: minimalist patterning, expressive mark-making, and painterly exuberance. Many artists represented in the show traffic in unexpected collisions: of the second and third dimension, of the carefully crafted and the found object, of the concrete and the immaterial.

Running the gamut from established figures to brilliant newcomers, the exhibition includes remarkable work by Yayoi Kusama, Kiki Smith, Betye Saar, Annie Lapin, Margaret Lee, Carol Bove, Dana Schutz, Jessica Stockholder, Jenny Saville, and Tara Donovan, among others. Her Crowd: New Art by Women from Our Neighbors’ Private Collections will offer a glimpse into the exciting interchange between contemporary artists and their passionate collectors.

The exhibition is co-curated by Kenneth E. Silver, New York University Professor of Modern Art and Bruce Museum Adjunct Curator of Art, and Mia Laufer, PhD candidate (Washington University in Saint Louis) and Zvi Grunberg Resident Fellow.

The Bruce Museum is located on One Museum Drive in Greenwich Connecticut and is open Tuesday – Sunday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Doors close 1/2 hour before closing and the last admission is at 4:30 p.m. For more area event information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

“A Christmas Story, the Musical”, will make a two performance stop at Waterbury’s Palace Theater on Friday evening November 18, at 8:00pm and Saturday November 19 at 2:00pm. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.palacetheaterct.org, by phone at 203-346-2000, or in person at the Box Office, 100 East Main St. Tickets begin at $45.

Based on the classic 1983 movie, A Christmas Story, The Musical chronicles young and bespectacled Ralphie Parker as he schemes his way toward the holiday gift of his dreams, an official Red Ryder® Carbine-Action 200-Shot Range Model Air Rifle (“You’ll shoot your eye out kid!”). An infamous leg lamp, outrageous pink bunny pajamas, a maniacal department store Santa, and a double-dog-dare to lick a freezing flagpole are just a few of the distractions that stand between Ralphie and his Christmas wish. Chock-full of delightful songs and splashy production numbers, A Christmas Story, The Musical, following its smash hit Broadway run, has proudly taken its place as a perennial holiday classic for the whole family.

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About the Palace Theater

The Palace’s primary purpose is to revitalize the Greater Waterbury community through the presentation of the performing arts and educational initiatives in collaboration with area cultural and educational institutions. Its mission is to preserve and operate the historic Palace Theater as a performing arts center and community gathering place that provides a focal point of cultural activity and educational outreach for diverse audiences.
For more information, visit: http://www.palacetheaterct.org.

Some of the tiniest creatures of the ocean emerge on the biggest IMAX® movie screen in Connecticut with “Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean” at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk and will show at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily through Feb. 16, 2017, on the Aquarium’s six-story screen.

It’s narrated by acclaimed oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, and pairs perfectly with a new 3,000-gallon coral reef exhibit – featuring more than 40 species of wildly colorful fish – that opened Sept. 6 in the popular Connecticut family attraction.

Filmed over three years in vibrant marine environments from the Bahamas to Fiji, the first IMAX® movie directed by Jean-Michel Cousteau provides a compelling new look at a secret world within the ocean that is perhaps the biggest story of all – that the smallest life in the sea is the mightiest force on which we all depend. In gorgeous underwater sequences, audiences are introduced to over 30 species of animals – some no bigger than one inch long – and witness behaviors captured for the very first time, thanks to new filming technologies in ultra-HD 5K, slow motion, macro, and with motion control.

“Secret Ocean” magnifies – in the IMAX format, by thousands of times – the unique adaptations and ecological roles of such creatures as sea hares, Christmas tree worms, arrow crabs, basket stars, cleaner shrimp and clownfish. These animals may go unseen by divers and don’t get their own weeks on “Animal Planet,” yet they are vital to the health of a reef system.

“Since the 1940s, the Cousteau family has been deeply connected to the water. Several generations have grown up with our Calypso adventures, which revealed to the public what was a totally unknown world at that time,” Jean-Michel Cousteau said in a statement.

“Thanks to the new technology developed specifically for us, I immediately understood that this was a revolution in underwater filming that would allow us to capture a whole new range of behaviors I had never before witnessed in my 69 years of diving. ‘Secret Ocean’ takes us one step further in the discovery of the ocean in a way my father, Jacques Cousteau, could have only imagined.”

Diving alongside marine biologist Holly Lohuis, Cousteau provides a new view of the underwater world that will leave audiences in awe of the beauty and diversity of the oceans – the source of all life on our planet – and inspire an even stronger desire to protect what they have seen for the first time, or re-discovered along the journey.

“Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean” is produced by Ocean Futures Society & 3D Entertainment Films, and distributed worldwide by 3D Entertainment Distribution. It was written by Pamela Stacey. Gavin McKinney served as director of photography. Dr. Richard Murphy was the chief scientific advisor. The original musical score was written and performed by Christophe Jacquelin.

One IMAX movie is included with admission to The Maritime Aquarium, which is $22.95 for adults, $20.95 for youths (13-17) and seniors (65+), and $15.95 for children (3-12). Kids under 3 get in for free. Learn more about the IMAX movies (even view trailers), exhibits, programs, study cruises and special events – and purchase advance tickets – at www.maritimeaquarium.org. For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

The Institute for American Indian Studies located on 38 Curtis Road in Washington Connecticut has planned a wide variety of events for November and December that will be fun for the entire family from learning how to create a fire to shopping for Indian arts and crafts.

November begins with a friction fire workshop on Saturday, November 12 from 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm. Participants will learn the way the way Native American people created fire by using only what nature provides. Andrew Dobos and Deneen Bernier of Three Red Trees School of Natural Living will guide participants through the process of making fire by friction using the bow and drill method. Each participant will leave with their own set of fire making tools. This is a physical skill; kneeling, bending and safe use of a knife are required. Pre registration for this event is required and the fee is $20 for members and $25 for non members.

Also on November 12 from 6 pm to 8 pm there will be a full moon walk. Participants will navigate by moonlight through the Institute’s replicated Algonkian village and surrounding woods with traditional lanterns through hemlocks, witch hazel and oaks. The journey will conclude by relaxing around the campfire. The fee is $12 for members and $15 for non members.

On November 13 from 12 noon to 2 pm there will be a traditional ceremony in the outdoor village in honor of Veteran’s Day. Participants and visitors are invited to a light lunch after the ceremony.

The Winter Indian Arts & Crafts Market begins on the weekend of November 26 and 27 and continues on December 3 and 4 and December 10 and 11. Visitors are invited to shop for one-of-a-kind holiday gifts from local Native American crafters, jewelers, and artists. This is the perfect time to to meet and buy directly from the artists while learning about contemporary Native American art and cultures. Gourds, pottery, jewelry, rattles, artwork, and flutes are just some of the items that will be offered. The market is open from 10 am to 4 pm on Saturdays and from 12 noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

On December 11 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. the Institute is hosting Artifact Identification Day. Visitors are invited to join the conversation as Director of Research & Collections, Lucianne Lavin, Ph.D., identifies and provides interesting commentary about your local stone objects and Native American cultural items. This event is included in the regular museum admission of: $8 Adults; $6 Seniors; $5 Children; IAIS Members Free.

To sign up for a monthly newsletter on Litchfield Hills and Fairfield County visit www.litchfieldhills.com