Connecticut Travel

The City of Norwalk Parking Authority’s Maritime Garage Gallery unveils its new exhibit “Aqua” with an opening reception on April 13, from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. “Aqua” runs through July 8, 2016. The Maritime Garage Gallery is located within the Maritime Parking Garage at 11 North Water Street in South Norwalk, Connecticut.

The pieces in “Aqua” take their inspiration from water. Gallery curator Sooo-Z Mastropietro explains. “With the 71% of the earth’s surface covered with water, we are constantly reminded of the beauty, the magic, the strength, and the importance of this substance. These pieces represent water in it’s many forms, powerful yet fragile, peaceful yet tremendous, abundant yet scarce.” Exhibiting artists include Kathy Conway of North Haven, Karen Kalkstein of Stamford, Bronislava Slagle of Wilton, Steve Wallerstein of Norwalk, and Gregory Dolnikowski of Boston, among others.

The Maritime Garage Gallery is part of the Parking Authority’s “Art in Parking Places” initiative, an effort to support art in public spaces making Norwalk a more vibrant destination. The gallery is free and open to the public from 9:00am -5:00pm Monday through Friday. For more information, call 203- 831-9063, or visit www.norwalkpark.org/public-art

On Sunday, April 24, 2016, from 4:00pm – 6:00pm, world-famous, Rudy Pensa, guitar player, maker, collector, shop owner, and author comes to Pequot Library to talk about his extensive collection, his craft, and to play. This program is free and open to the public.

“About 38 years ago, Rudy Pensa opened a guitar shop on Manhattan’s 48th Street called Rudy’s Music Stop, which soon became a world-famous destination for guitarists seeking the finest vintage and new guitars. Pensa has also had a great sideline career as a guitar builder, crafting axes for the likes of Mark Knopfler, Peter Frampton, Lou Reed, and Lenny Kravitz.” – Guitar Aficionado

Rudy Pensa moved to New York from his native Argentina in 1975 and immediately found employment in a music store on 48th Street, New York’s famed Music Row. In 1978, Rudy married his fiancée, Fran, and a few months later the newlyweds opened a small guitar store on the second floor of an old building in the heart of 48th Street. It didn’t take long for Rudy to earn the respect of the music industry and to become well-known throughout the world as a trustworthy, knowledgeable purveyor of guitars. He is especially interested in archtop guitars and owns a sizable collection of archtops that were crafted by master luthiers of their day. Rudy is the author of the book, Archtop Guitars: The Journey from Cremona to New York. The book was the inspiration for the exhibition “Guitar Heroes” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2011. Rudy closed the store on 48th Street in August 2015 due to rising rent and imminent development of the area. SoHo is the new home of Rudy’s Music where Rudy and Fran are still at the helm of their “mom and pop” establishment. The couple lives in Westchester County, New York. Join other music, instrument, and guitar history lovers on Sunday, April 24 for this free program at Pequot Library.

Please visit www.pequotlibrary.org to learn more about this vibrant library, educational, arts and cultural institution. All classes and programs are open to everyone. For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

The Arts Desire, located at 97 Main Street in Torrington, CT, is hosting an art class fundraiser for Audubon Sharon on Thursday, April 21st from 6:30-8:30pm. Participants can join in for a fun evening of painting with friends and some of Audubon Sharon’s live birds will also be making a visit.

All art materials and aprons are provided; just bring your own beverage and snack as well as your enthusiasm! Leave with your very own beautiful canvas painting and the satisfaction knowing that some of the proceeds are benefitting Audubon Sharon’s programs and animals!

Participants will be painting a cheerful bluebird with spring blossoms background.
No art experience is necessary for this class.

An Arts Desire instructor will walk the class through the painting step by step in a fun and relaxing setting. Fee is $35 per person and space is limited. Please purchase your tickets online at www.theartsdesirect.com or contact Wendy at Audubon Sharon at (860) 364-0520 x105 or wmiller@audubon.org to register. If you register through Audubon, you can pay for your tickets at the door on the night of the event; please arrive a little early. Walk-ins are welcome the night of the program, but space availability is not guaranteed.

For more area information www.litchfieldhills.com

On April 20 from 10:30 a.m. to noon, kids are invited to learn about Litchfield’s architecture on foot!

The Litchfield Historical Society is inviting kids to walk around some of the town’s most historic buildings and sketch some of the architectural features. The Historical Society will hold two sessions of a walking tour that focuses on some of the town’s most historic buildings.

The first session will take place on Wednesday, April 20 from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. Another session will be held on Saturday, April 23 from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. For ages 8-15. $5 for members and $7 for non-members. Space is limited and registration is required. Payment is required at time of registration. Register online, call (860) 567-4501 or email registration@litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org

On April 22 the society is hosting a guided tour of the Tapping Reeve House and Law School at 1:30 p.m. Learn about the first law school established in America and about the students and social life of the school. This is an interactive tour that is fun for young and old alike.

If you like baseball, don’t miss the lecture at 3 p.m. on April 24 on Louis Fenn Wadsworth that grew up in in Litchfield, and graduated from Hartford’s Washington College (today’s Trinity). He is the least known of baseball’s true fathers (apart from the false claims made for several others including Abner Doubleday and Alexander Cartwright).

In fact, Wadsworth is the man responsible for our game being nine innings with nine men to the side. No one knows his life story as John Thorn does, after thirty years of research into baseball’s earliest period. He published only the barest details in his Baseball Garden of the Eden (Simon & Schuster, 2011); in this lecture, Thorn unveils Wadsworth’s full story. This lecture is free of charge.

The Washington Art Association located at 4 Bryan Memorial Plaza in Washington Depor has announced a new art show called i “Made Realities – Real Solutions”. This is an exhibition of recent paintings by Neil Callander of Alabama, Russell Horton of Missouri and Marc Roder of Oregon, that will be on display through May 7th. The three painters were selected as winner of the Washington Art Association’s Second Annual Juried Exhibition by juror, William Bailey.

Neil Callander believes narrative is an innate and inescapable fact in a realist painting. Callender packs his paintings with cultural and personal references working toward a flexible narrative. As more details are added, the internal relationships get tighter, and more intricate. The act of viewing his paintings unlocks these complex internal relationships. Callender hopes by experiencing these dense paintings that slowly reveal their nature allow the viewer to cope with the pervasiveness of fast-talking, slick images of our media-riddled world.

A native New Englander, Russell Horton is currently living and working in Kansas City Metro area. His paintings convey a sense of profound solitude and contemplation looking out upon the vast expansive horizons. His most recent work explores the prairie lands of Kansas and the bottomlands near the Missouri River.
Horton’s landscapes are unpeopled allowing the viewer to contemplate the scene without distraction. Pump jacks, holding tanks, water towers and other structures gain exaggerated prominence in the stark openness. The unspoiled vista of American landscape tradition no longer exists here. This is not a criticism of how the land is being used but rather a critique of nostalgic rhetoric of the pristine.

His industrial street scenes are from a section of Kansas City, MO known as the West Bottoms. The abstract nature of the architecture, shipping containers and concrete overpasses are a departure point for further exploration of that world.

Marc Roder’s paintings reflect on processes of gathering and discarding, voyaging and exploration. His paintings are accumulations of human debris that replaces the presence of the figure and biological activity. Roder pursues a personal investigation of natural phenomena that are both powerfully material and curiously ephemeral at the same time. Depicting gems, icebergs, UFOs, he reveals something is there, we see it, it reflects light and embodies transformation and possibility – there is that moment when heaven and earth are bridged. Then it is gone, and the descriptions he records on canvas are what are left for the viewer to debate.

The Gallery hours are Tues. – Sat. from 10 am to 5 pm. For more information on Litchfield Hills www.litchfieldhills.com

Make it a Junior Ranger Saturday, April 16 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm with your neighbors at Weir Farm National Historic Site. Whether you’re looking to become a Junior Ranger, Take Part in Art to discover your inner artist, or have a relaxing Saturday outing, Weir Farm National Historic Site is the place to be. The Visitor Center, Weir House, Weir Studio, and Young Studio will officially open for the season beginning May 1 with regular hours of Wednesday – Sunday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Grounds are open year round, dawn to dusk.

Junior Rangers of all ages are encouraged explore Weir Farm National Historic Site with Junior Ranger Pond Packs, work as a team to solve puzzles in the Junior Ranger Letterboxing booklet, or discover your inner artists while sketching en plein air with Take Part in Art Kits. All are free and available at the Weir Farm National Historic Site Visitor Center.

Junior Ranger Day is the first of many opportunities this season to “Find Your Park” – a national movement to connect all Americans with their public lands before the National Park Service Centennial anniversary in 2016. As the only national park dedicated to American painting, Weir Farm National Historic Site is a fabulous reminder of how varied national parks can be. It is also an ideal place to inspire a new generation of park enthusiasts on Junior Ranger Day.

Be sure to bring your web-enabled devices and share your unique experience using #findyourpark and #WeirFarmNHS.
For more information: (203) 834-1896 or http://www.nps.gov/wefa. For more area information www.visitwesternct.com

About Weir Farm National Historic Site. Designed and preserved by artists, Weir Farm National Historic Site welcomes everyone to experience the power of creativity, art, and nature. Escape to the only national park dedicated to American painting and rediscover the beauty of light and color in everyday life.