Connecticut Travel

The historic Art Deco styled Warner Theatre located in downtown Torrington has just announced it’s new 2019-2020 Season that is presented by the Charlotte Hungerford Hospital. This season get ready to be entertained by five musicals on the main stage and five productions including the 8th annual International Playwrights Festival, in the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre.

The productions that will be produced on the Main Stage this season includes “THE FUNNIEST MUSICAL COMEDY IN AT LEAST 400 YEARS” TO BE ANNOUNCED JUNE 1 (November 2019)
JEKYLL & HYDE THE MUSICAL (February 2020) and Mel Brooks’ THE PRODUCERS (May 2020). The productions to be produced in the Nancy Marine Studio include WAIT UNTIL DARK (September 2019)
8th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL (October 2019), A CHRISTMAS CAROL (A Dramatic Solo Performance) (December 2019), DOGFIGHT (March 2020), and THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME (June 2020).

Season Subscriptions are now available. Season Subscribers get the BEST seats in the house at the BEST prices! Want to become a Subscriber? Call the Warner Box Office at (860) 489-7180! Tickets go on sale to the General Public in July. For more information https://www.warnertheatre.org/

The Hollister House Garden located in Washington Connecticut is a classic garden in the English manner with a loosely formal structure informally planted in generous abundance. Begun in 1979 by George Schoellkopf, the garden since that time has evolved under George’s direction into a unique synthesis of the formal and the natural, the right angles of paths, walls, and hedges melting seamlessly into the lush surrounding landscape, which forms a magnificent backdrop to the garden’s exuberant plantings. Since 1993 Gerald Incandela has contributed greatly to the garden’s development with his artist’s eye trained on redefining the surrounding landscape.

This year Hollister House Garden announces a series of art workshops for this season and special opening hours for artists and photographers.

A new two-day workshop, ‘For the Love of Roses’, a is scheduled for June 28-29th. A botanical drawing class, “The Stars of Summer: Clematis Rendered in Pan Pastel and Colored Pencil”, on July 11-12th, will be led by nationally recognized artist Jeanne Reiner. Later in the summer, Betsy Rogers-Knox will bring new life to beautiful garden favorites through her class ‘A Day with Daylilies’ held on August 2nd. For registration details visit https://hollisterhousegarden.org/events/categories/workshops/.

Hollister House Garden will welcome artists and photographers in the garden each Wednesday 8am-12pm from June 5th through August 28th. Both amateurs and professionals are invited to be inspired by the beauty of the garden in the morning light. Reservations are requested: a contact form can be found on the Hollister House Garden website under Special Events. A $5 per person donation is suggested.

Hollister House Garden, a non-profit corporation, is one of only 16 exceptional gardens currently designated a Preservation Project by the Garden Conservancy, whose mission is to identify and preserve important private gardens across America for the education and enjoyment of the public. Hollister House in 2010 achieved its prestigious listing on the National Register of Historic Places and the property was also named a Town Landmark Site by the Town of Washington.

Hollister House Garden is open to visitors through October 12th. Wednesday and Friday’s hours are 1-4PM and Saturdays 10-4PM. Private group visits are welcome weekdays by appointment only. Directions to the garden’s 300 Nettleton Hollow Road location are also available on the website.

The historic Art Deco styled Warner Theatre located in downtown Torrington has just announced it’s new 2019-2020 Season that is presented by the Charlotte Hungerford Hospital. This season get ready to be entertained by five musicals on the main stage and five productions including the 8th annual International Playwrights Festival, in the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre.

The productions that will be produced on the Main Stage this season includes “THE FUNNIEST MUSICAL COMEDY IN AT LEAST 400 YEARS” TO BE ANNOUNCED JUNE 1 (November 2019)
JEKYLL & HYDE THE MUSICAL (February 2020) and Mel Brooks’ THE PRODUCERS (May 2020). The productions to be produced in the Nancy Marine Studio include WAIT UNTIL DARK (September 2019)
8th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL (October 2019), A CHRISTMAS CAROL (A Dramatic Solo Performance) (December 2019), DOGFIGHT (March 2020), and THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME (June 2020).

Season Subscriptions are now available. Season Subscribers get the BEST seats in the house at the BEST prices! Want to become a Subscriber? Call the Warner Box Office at (860) 489-7180! Tickets go on sale to the General Public in July. For more information https://www.warnertheatre.org/

The Sharon Historical Society & Museum has opened the next exhibit in Gallery SHS, of contrasting works by the two local artists KARIN WEXLER and INGRID FREIDENBERGS at the Sharon Historical Society & Museum Art Gallery through July 12.

Karin’s work is inspired by the rhythms and patterns of nature. Working in oils on large canvases, she begins each painting with a color scheme that dictates the mood or expression of the painting. The works hint at an observed landscape or seascape but are abstracted to capture not the physical reality but a fleeting moment in time, a mood, a feeling. A thirty-year resident of Sharon, Karin’s paintings are informed by her private practice in Healing Arts and Feng Shui.

Ingrid, a Lakeville resident, has exhibited her work in numerous solo and juried exhibitions. Born in Latvia during the Second World War, she has made sense of a shattered world by constructing collages of fragments of fabric, images and found objects that are both formally beautiful and evocative of the past. Working here on a very small scale and in what the New York Times called “the most exquisite and sensitive layering of found materials,” Freidenbergs’ jewel-like works invite close contemplation.

Both artists invoke memories – of landscape or a mysterious past – to create works of great sensitivity by employing color, texture, and form, albeit on very different scales. A portion of all purchase proceeds will support the Sharon Historical Society & Museum’s mission.

Gallery SHS is located in the Sharon Historical Society & Museum at 18 Main Street in Sharon, CT. Museum hours are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from noon to 4:00 PM, Saturday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM and by appointment. For more information and directions to Gallery SHS, call (860) 364-5688 or email director@sharonhist.org. For additional information about the Sharon Historical Society & Museum, visit www.sharonhist.org.

In honor of the Strawberry Moon that will shine brightly in the sky this June the Institute for American Indian Studies on 38 Curtis Road in Washington Connecticut is holding a Strawberry Moon Festival on June 15 from 12 noon to 4 pm.

Early Native Americans didn’t track time by using the Julian or Gregorian calendar. For millennia, many Native American communities kept track of time by observing the change of seasons by following the lunar full moon cycle. American Indians named each full moon cycle after activities or events that they associated with that time of year that reflected the season. Colonial Americans adopted some of the Native American full moon names and applied them to their own calendars. These descriptive names are still in use today.

The Algonquin’s of Connecticut named June’s full moon the “Strawberry Moon” because of the red strawberries that began to ripen at this time of year. This is the most colorful of all full moons because things are lower in the sky. The shallow arc of the June full moon means moonlight must travel through more of the earth’s atmosphere, which filters out all the colors of the moon’s spectrum except the oranges and yellows. Best of all no telescopes are needed, just look up!

It is difficult for most of us to resist a perfectly ripe strawberry; which is one of the most popular fruits in the world. There are ten varieties of strawberries that differ in flavor, size, and texture and yet all of them have the same heart shape and leafy green cap. To fete the strawberry, that has a long history in Native Culture, the Institute for American Indian Studies is hosting the Strawberry Moon Festival on June 16 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., a delicious celebration not to be missed! This year the Strawberry Moon will be 100% illuminated on Monday, June 17, 2019.

To celebrate the Strawberry Moon, the Institute for American Indian Studies has organized games, food, and stories that honor the importance of this season to Native American culture. Strawberries have been used for centuries as medicine, in cuisine, and ceremonially by Native Americans. Strawberries generally represent life and good health.

At the Strawberry Moon Festival, visitors of all ages will enjoy traditional Native American Music, and stories told by a traditional Native American Storyteller. These stories are life lessons that teach the importance of giving thanks to the bounty of the Earth. A highlight of this event will be samplings of complementary food such as strawberry tea and strawberry bread made from locally grown fruit. Special activities for children are planned from 12 noon to 4 p.m. There will be live music from 1 p.m. to 3 pm.

The cost of this event is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $6 for children.