Discovering the “New World”: Maps & Sea Charts from the Age of Exploration

There is a time honored fascination with maps and sea charts. The new exhibition at the Bruce Museum is featuring maps to be admired… not for navigation!
This exhibition features more than thirty maps and charts dated between 1511 and the 1757. The maps — woodcuts or metal-plate engravings, many with original hand-applied color — represent Renaissance-period attempts by European ateliers to edify their clientele by revealing our “new” hemisphere and its approaches, as discoveries and claims came ashore from those daring enough to pack their sea bags and head for the unknown.

Today, we live in routine harmony, with cartography: on television and the Web; in newspapers, books and magazines. Satellite maps signify weather; detail maps illustrate locales of crucial events; GPS screens send us, often correctly, to new locales. On land, at sea, and in the air—digitized geography helps deliver goods and people everywhere, often without human intervention.

It was not always so. More than five hundred years ago, two European empires began daringly (and competitively) seeking the most efficient seaborne routes to the riches of Arabia and The Orient—Spain sailing west; Portugal sailing east. Mapmakers back home (nearly all landlubbers happy to sit by the fire) scrambled to gather the latest explorers’ reports to enable them to draw up-to-date maps, print them as separate sheets, and sell them largely to the wealthy as bound atlases—massive compendia that glorified leather-filled libraries and enriched cultural reputations.

But much of the news sent home was erroneous, owing to imperfect navigation, honest misreadings of reality, or deliberate misrepresentations. (As he wandered around the Caribbean Sea, for example, Columbus believed he had found India.) Altogether, these factors make historic “New World” maps a fascinating study in geographic and human progress—and occasional regression.

The Bruce Museum is open Tuesday – Sunday 10 am – 5 pm, Doors close 1/2 hour before closing, and the last admission is at 4:30 pm. For additional information call 203-869-0376 or visit https://brucemuseum.org.

For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

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February at the Ridgefield Theatre

The Ridgefield Theater located on 109 Danbury Road in Ridgefield has planned a series of exciting shows in February sure to chase away the winter blues.

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On Valentine’s Day weekend, Living Colour will perform on Feb. 13 at 8 pm. Living Colour took home their first of several Grammy Awards, as “Cult” won Best Hard Rock Performance at the 1989 ceremony. During the 1980s, rock had become completely segregated and predictable, the opposite of the late ’60s/early ’70s, when such musically and ethnically varied artists as Jimi Hendrix, Sly & the Family Stone, and Santana ruled the Earth. But bands such as New York’s Living Colour helped break down the doors by the end of the ’80s, leading to a much more open-minded musical landscape that would eventually pave the way for future bands.

Chris Botti takes the stage on Feb. 14 for a Valentine’s Day Gala that will include raffle prizes such as jewelry courtesy of Addessi Jewelers, Driver for an evening with dinner and Playhouse concert tickets courtesy of BMW of Ridgefield and a year of beauty courtesy of Adam Broderick Salon & Spa. Chris Botti, earned so many superlatives in his career, it may be best to put it simply: the cat can play. Trumpeter Chris Botti brings his superb musicianship, his killer band and his on-stage generosity to The Playhouse stage for one night of can’t-miss musical thrills.

In 2013, Botti won the Grammy Award in the Best Pop Instrumental Album category. He was also nominated in 2008 for his album Italia, and received three nominations in 2010 for the live album Chris Botti In Boston. Four of his albums have reached the No. 1 position on the Billboard jazz albums chart.Moving effortlessly from jazz to pop and in between – Chris Botti may spend more than 300 days on the road every year, but every concert is special!

For kids, there will be a performance on Feb. 21 at 11 am and 2 pm of The Little Engine that Could. Based on the classic book by Watty Piper. Little Blue Engine dreams of someday leaving the train yard to pull the big cars on the main line track. But can she convince Big Silver that she is worthy of being a main line engine? Back to reprise its sold-out premiere season, ArtsPower’s dynamic, song-filled adventure portrays Watty Piper’s timeless tale about hard work, determination, and the meaning of true friendship.

Comedy rounds out the month with a performance on Feb. 28 at 8 pm by Paula Poundstone. Over the span of her remarkable career, Paula Poundstone has amassed a list of awards and accolades that stretch the length of a great big tall guy’s arm. Poundstone is recognized as one of Comedy Central’s 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time and has won an American Comedy Award for Best Female Standup Comic. In 2010, Poundstone was one of a select group voted into the Comedy Hall of Fame. As a member of NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me, she is now heard in 5 million homes across the country as she matches wits with some of the country’s leading pundits.
For ticket information: http://ridgefieldplayhouse.org

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February Fun at Beardsley Zoo

There is a new big cat exhibit at the Beardsley Zoo this winter. Petya, an 8 year old Amur Tiger recently joined the Zoo from the Indianapolis Zoo. Amur tigers are an endangered species, and we participate in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Program for these animals. Petya joins Naka, the Beardsley Zoo’s 9-year-old female Amur tiger. It is refreshing and fun to watch Petya play in the snow.

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On February 14 in honor of Valentine’s Day, the Beardsley Zoo is offering a 15% discount on admission to everyone that is wearing red, a sweet deal indeed.

The annual Asian New Year Festival is taking place at the Zoo at 12 noon on February 21. Come and celebrate the Year of the Sheep and check out the Zoo’s goats while you are visiting! There will be special stories, crafts, a children’s parade and many more fun activities. The snow date is Feb. 28.

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For more information about the Beardsley Zoo located on 1875 Noble Ave in Bridgeport, visit www.beardsleyzoo.org. For area event information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com.

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Rick Shaefer Draws the Line at Housatonic Museum of Art

The Housatonic Museum of Art presents Rick Shaefer: Drawing the Line on view in the Burt Chernow Galleries, 900 Lafayette Blvd., Bridgeport, CT, from February 12 through March 27, 2015 with a reception open to the public on February 12 from 5:30-7:00 pm. The Burt Chernow Galleries are free and open seven days a week. Visit the website, www.HousatonicMuseum.org for gallery hours.

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Drawing is essential to the training of an artist. It is the most direct medium between the artist and his observations, thoughts, feelings and experiences—serving both as a record and as a revealer of truth. Drawing is both a cognitive and manual process that provides the foundation for painting, sculpture and architecture. Fairfield artist Rick Shaefer’s monumental, breath-taking drawings offer viewers an adventure in looking with his technically precise and visually poetic drawings of animals and nature.

At first glance, it is clear that Shaefer has more than a passing acquaintance with works of art across time. Of all the masters he has studied, it is Albrecht Durer that has influenced him most. In the 16th century, the natural world of animals and plants had become the focus of scientific and cultural interest as explorers returned from far-flung places carrying examples and illustrations of exotic new species. One of Durer’s best known pen drawings, Rhinoceros, 1515, demonstrates the artist’s fascination with recording the curiosities and wonders of the world. Paradoxically, Shaefer’s own African Rhinoceros, beautifully rendered in rich charcoal on vellum, comes full circle by documenting what now may be the waning days of these magnificent beasts.

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Shaefer’s trees, crowned with leaves or barren and in varying states of decay, are densely detailed and sensitively modeled through the use of tonal gradations. Majestic oaks and tangled vines allow the artist to mine the sculptural properties of a charcoal line, expressing not only what he observes but how he feels. A dramatic narrative unfolds before the eye, compelling the viewer to travel along through the light and into the shadows.

And, like the rhinoceros, these powerful and confident drawings circle around a common theme: the effects of human activity on nature. Climate change specifically could lead to the massive destruction of forests as well as the extinction of countless species. Global warming has led to the increase of forest fires as well as a proliferation of pests and diseases. Rick Shaefer: Drawing the Line looks to the rich tradition of drawing in order to explore the critical issues of our time.

For area event information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

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Valentine’s Day in Southport

Love is in the air in the small coastal town of Southport Connecticut, especially at the Pequot Library! To get ready for Valentine’s Day, the Pequot Library, located on 720 Pequot Ave. is offering a kids’s candy making workshop on February 13 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Kids, grades K-8 will learn how to make professionally looking chocolate treats to use as a Valentine’s Day dessert. The workshop will also teach kids how to create a beautiful gift box to present their goodies in .

On Valentine’s Day, the Southport Library is hosting the Opera Singers Initiative with a special Valentine’s Day theme from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. At this very special event, Young Artists New York City Opera Singers perform works celebrating love! Opera Singers Initiative is committed to providing classical singers with the critical skills and support they need to build a sustainable and successful career in the arts. They provide career development, mentoring, and performance opportunities for emerging professional classical singers. This program is free and open to the public.

Steps away from the Pequot Library is the very romantic Delmar Hotel and Restaurant. This elegant hotel offers its guests 44 individually-designed luxurious rooms and suites and a full service spa. Once inside the uniquely decorated lobby with its custom designed furnishings, antique marble floors, museum-quality art and French limestone hearth, the stage is set for an unforgettable Connecticut escape. Check their website out for special deals and packages at http://www.delamarsouthport.com.

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Hidden History of Litchfield Hills at Kent Historical Society

The Kent Historical Society and Kent Memorial Library will present local author and prominent educator Peter Vermilyea as he discusses and signs his new book “Hidden History of Litchfield County” on Sunday, February 8, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. at the Kent Town Hall. In the event of inclement weather, the snow date is Sunday, February 22, 2015 at 2:00 p.m.

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In his book and presentations, Vermilyea uncovers abundant clues all around us, and shares them with audiences and readers throughout the region. His curiosity takes him all over the local landscape, and he constantly turns up instances of history that still linger, if you open your eyes to see them.

Stonewalls and graveyards summon numerous stories from Vermilyea. He points out weed-choked railroad tracks that crisscross the county, in Kent and beyond, and brings our attention to a ruined cinderblock bunker in Warren that was once a crucial radar station during the Cold War. He reminds us of a catastrophic fire that devastated Winsted in 1908, forcing residents to flee the Odd Fellows boardinghouse in fear of their lives. In Bantam, art deco chairs made by the Warren McArthur Corporation were so appealing and comfortable that the War Department ordered bomber seats from the company during World War II. Vermilyea explores these and other juicy tales from the history of Litchfield County, Connecticut.

A resident of Litchfield, Mr. Vermilyea teaches history at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village, Connecticut, and at Western Connecticut State University. A graduate of Gettysburg College, he is the director of the student scholarship program at his alma mater’s Civil War Institute. He is a member of the Litchfield Historical Society Board of Directors. He is the author or editor of three books and more than a dozen articles and maintains the Hidden in Plain Sight blog. In fact, the book grew from Vermilyea’s fascinating blog, which can be found at http://www.hiddeninplainsightblog.com. “Hidden History of Litchfield County” boasts five-star reviews on Amazon, with such comments as, “extremely well-written and impressively researched,” and “it is amazing how many remnants of the nation’s past the author has uncovered…”

Vermilyea’s lecture will be particularly geared to Kent and its citizens, but everyone will want to attend. A long-time friend of both the Kent Historical Society and Kent Memorial Library, Vermilyea made ample use of the society’s archives in researching this book. Readers will find a handsome acknowledgement to the Kent Historical Society’s Curator, Marge Smith, on page 8.

His book, “Hidden History of Litchfield County” will be available for purchase at the lecture by local bookstore House of Books. There will be a reception following the presentation. The program is free and open to the public. Donations are suggested and welcome. To register, please call 860-927-4587 or 860-927-3761, email assistant@kenthistoricalsociety.org or kmlinfo@biblio.org or register at the Library at www.kentmemoriallibrary.org and click on the events calendar.

For area information www.litchfieldhills.com

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