Connecticut Travel

Franklin Street Works located in Stamford is hosting an exhibition that explores Feminist histories of cut-up and collage with works from 1967 to today in “Cut-Up: Contemporary Collage and Cut-Up Histories through a Feminist Lens,” curated by artist Katie Vida. This exhibition explores a multigenerational lineage of women artists who have pushed the boundary of cut-up techniques across media, including sculpture, video, sound art, painting, printed matter, and photography.

Including works from 1967-Present “Cut-Up” explores how collage and cut-up have informed the visual arts, literature, and experimental sound art. The exhibition also pays special attention to how the process of cutting apart and reordering language parallels an activist impulse to disrupt the status quo and develop new narratives that include marginalized voices and alternative visions. This skepticism and eschewing of “traditional” media is a feminist strategy that began with second wave feminist artists in the late 1960s. At that time these artists embraced newer media such as performance, film, text based works, and ephemeral sculpture, in part, to bypass patriarchal histories tied to more codified media like monumental sculpture and painting. New times and new voices embraced new media.

Through a layering of imagery, text, materials and sound, the artists in “Cut-Up” create tension by disrupting narrative and shattering expectations, often upending gallery goer expectations. The cut itself is the technology through which these artists address and manipulate language and image. Through an additive and/or reductive process of developing fresh visual and linguistic spaces the artists in this exhibition show a commitment to breaking apart what is seemingly codified to engage in alternative visions.

Exhibiting Artists: Ruth Anderson, Phyllis Baldino, Dodie Bellamy, Ofri Cnaani, Lourdes Correa-Carlo, Mayme Donsker, Heike-Karin Föell, Susan Howe, Jennie C. Jones, Alexis Knowlton, Carrie Moyer, Lorraine O’Grady, People Like Us, Sheila Pepe, Faith Ringgold, Mariah Robertson, Carolee Schneemann, Nancy Shaver, Meredyth Sparks, Cauleen Smith, Martine Syms, and Janice Tanaka.

For more information about Franklin Street Works www.franklinstreetworks.org and for more area event information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Time is running out to cast your vote in the 14th annual “Festival of Lighthouses Contest” at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk. The creative display of 22 large model lighthouses made by local artists, amateurs and students will close on Mon., Jan. 18.

There are two ways to vote through Jan. 18:

• Visit The Maritime Aquarium. At the Aquarium, the contest works like a juried art show except Aquarium guests are the jury. Visitors can follow the homemade beacons through the galleries and cast a vote for their favorite. The lighthouse that gets the most paper-ballot votes wins $1,500. There are cash awards for five runners-up too: $750 for second place, $375 for third; $300 for fourth; $225 for fifth; and $150 for sixth.

• Vote on Facebook. A separate “Facebook Favorite” tally is being taken on the social-media site, at https://a.pgtb.me/8LZNCN. Online voters can vote once every 24 hours. The lighthouse with the most Facebook votes wins $500. Plus, each day, one Facebook voter will be randomly chosen to receive a pair of tickets to The Maritime Aquarium. (You can only win once.)

Paper-ballot and “Facebook Favorite” winners will be announced Jan. 21.

Contestants this year are from near (Norwalk, Darien, Stamford and Bridgeport) and far (Monroe, West Haven and Shelton in Connecticut, and Cortlandt Manor, Katonah, White Plains, Yonkers, New Rochelle and Hartsdale in New York). Their lighthouses are made of everything from wood, paper and stone to playing cards, candies, fairy figures and paper cupcake liners.

Seeing – and voting for – the lighthouses at The Maritime Aquarium is free with Aquarium admission: $19.95 for adults, $17.95 for youths (13-17) & seniors (65+), and $12.95 for children ages 3-12.

For more details about Maritime Aquarium exhibits, IMAX® movies and programs, call (203) 852-0700 or go online to www.maritimeaquarium.org. For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

The Bruce Museum located on One Museum Dr. in Greenwich Connecticut has organized a new exhibition called Fierce and Fragile: Big Cats in the Art of Robert Dallet that will run through March 13, 2016. Best of all proceeds from this exhibit will benefit Panthera.

Interestingly, Hermès, the Parisian luxury house, and Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, have joined forces as leaders in their fields to mount this first ever major exhibition of the works of the master French animal painter Robert Dallet on the tenth anniversary of his death. The exhibition is a celebration of the beauty and allure of big cats and a call to protect their wild populations for generations to come. The paintings have been selected from Hermès’ own collection and from that of Dallet’s son, Frederic.

The show will feature approximately 60 of the artist’s paintings, drawings, and sketches, illustrating the eight big cat species: tiger, lion, leopard, cheetah, cougar, jaguar, snow leopard and clouded leopard. True to Dallet’s passion as a wildlife naturalist, the exhibition offers an in-depth look at the science and biology of the big cats while examining the conservation challenges the animals face today. Offering a cross-disciplinary approach that brings together art, design, and science, this exhibition provides a visual framework for a powerful conservation message. The exhibition will launch at the Bruce Museum and is scheduled for an international tour throughout Europe and Asia in 2016 – 2017.

Thanks to a collaboration between the Bruce Museum and Hermès of Paris, general admission will be free from January 10 – March 13, 2016, during regular gallery hours. By waiving admissions, the Bruce and Hermès illustrate their commitment to the understanding and appreciation of art and science to a greater audience.

For more area information on Fairfield County www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

The Greenwich Historical Society is hosting a film on Thursday, January 21 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Vanderbilt Education Center on 39 Strickland Ave. in Cos Cob. Imagine that it is the fourth year of the American Revolution, and conflict is raging. Not only are Americans at war with the English, but they are at odds amongst themselves. Mary Silliman’s town of Fairfield, Connecticut, and her own family are no exception. Her neighbors are divided between those still loyal to the King of England and those fighting for independence.

Mary is in conflict with her husband Selleck, a fierce patriot and prominent state’s attorney, for prosecuting old friends and neighbors and harshly applying revolutionary justice. She struggles through the war to manage a farm and its finances, entertain officers, and house refugees, but when Selleck is kidnapped and held for ransom, she is also required to set a dangerous plot in motion to win his freedom.

Mary Silliman’s War offers a seldom-depicted female, civilian perspective on the day-to-day hardships wrought by the American Revolution. The award-winning film directed by Stephen Surjik, is based on Joy Day Buel and Rich Buel Jr.’s book The Way of Duty, with materials taken from Mary’s diary and letters exchanged with Selleck during his imprisonment, many now archived with the Silliman family papers at Yale University.

For more information on what to do and see in Fairfield County http://www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Five Points Gallery, located at 33 Main Street in Downtown Torrington, will open a new show on January 7, 2016 which will run through February 6, 2016 and is titled In and Of the Land, Part II.

The show will feature the work of thirteen artists working in various media including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, pastel and print. Ann Finholt is the guest curator for this exhibition. Featured artists are: Martha Armstrong, Andrew Buck, Joseph Byrne, Henry Finkelstein, Susan Bogle Finnegan, Bryan Nash Gill, Margaret Grimes, Jilaine Jones, Ruth Miller, Sondra Peron, Marjorie Portnow, Peter Ramon and Matt Weber.

The opening reception for In and Of the Land, Part II will be held on Friday, January 8th from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. On Friday, January 22nd at 6 pm, there will be a curatorial conversation between Ann Finholt, the exhibit’s Guest Curator and Judith McElhone, Executive Director of Five Points Gallery. The public is invited to attend both events, which are free. Regular gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday from 1-5 p.m.

For more information on Litchfield Hills visit www.litchfieldhills.com

Debuting new telescopic lens viewing equipment and building updates, FirstLight Power Resources, the operator of the Shepaug Hydroelectric Power Station in Southbury, will open the Shepaug Bald Eagle Observatory December 19. The observatory will be open on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. through March 13, 2016.

Over 30 years in operation, the Shepaug Bald Eagle Observatory has hosted more than 150,000 visitors from all over the U.S. and the world. This observatory provides families, bird enthusiasts, and nature lovers a unique opportunity to see the eagles in their natural habitat.

“This is a great place to watch these raptors fish and hunt alongside other birds and water fowl such as red-tailed hawks,” said Howie Person, Plant Manager for the Shepaug Station. “We’ve made some significant improvements to the observatory and invested in all new equipment this year, so we hope to see many people come out.”

Specialists will be on-site with high-powered telescopes to help visitors see the eagles in action and to answer questions about America’s national symbol. Visitors are encouraged to dress warmly and to bring binoculars if possible to augment use of onsite telescopes.

All are welcome and admission is free of charge, but advance reservations are required. To make reservations individuals, families, and groups can go online at http://www.gdfsuezna.com/shepaug/ and click “Book Now”. FirstLight will be hosting a celebration in early-January to rededicate the facility and showcase its newest improvements.

FirstLight is a subsidiary of GDF SUEZ Energy North America, which manages a range of energy businesses in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, including electricity generation and cogeneration, natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) distribution and sales, and retail energy sales and related services to commercial and industrial customers. GDF SUEZ Energy North America is a part of the international energy group ENGIE. For more information, please visit www.gdfsuezna.com.

For more area information www.litchfieldhills.com