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Lacrosse – More Than Just A Game New Exhibition @ Institute for American Indian Studies

Lacrosse was originally played by eastern Native Americans and Canada’s First People. The Institute for American Indian Studies located at 38 Curtis Road in Washington Connecticut has just opened a fascinating special exhibition, “More Than a Game: The Story of Lacrosse,” that will be on view at the Institute through August 2022.

This well-researched exhibition touches on a variety of subjects, many of which are unexpected in light of the game many of us know today. Some of the most interesting aspects of the exhibition relate to the spiritual importance of lacrosse and how it connects to creation stories, the way they settle differences, and its continued social and communal significance.

This exhibition also explores the appropriation of lacrosse by Euro-Americans and Canadians. In the 1860’s Dr. George Beers of Canada wrote the first standardized rulebook for lacrosse in an attempt to “civilize” the game. By the 1890s, Native American communities were banned from participating in national competitions. This part of the exhibition includes documentation in the form of newspaper clippings and images that depict the history of lacrosse in popular culture and how it was interpreted.

More Than a Game also highlights how traditional lacrosse sticks evolved in North America. Several lacrosse sticks on display showcase the three major styles of Native American lacrosse and demonstrate the different regional interpretations of the game.

This exhibit touches on the relationship between lacrosse and Native communities today. It delves into the saga of the Iroquois Nationals, the only Native American athletic team
permitted to compete in international competitions. Don’t miss the exhibition’s video that shows Native Americans making wooden sticks in the traditional way and relating why it is important to the future of their culture. This exhibit can be summed up by a quote by Rex Lyons, Onondaga, “Lacrosse is part of the story of our creation, of our identity, of who we are. So when we play the game, we always say that there’s a simultaneous game going on in the Sky World and our ancestors are playing with us.”

The Institute for American Indian Studies is open Wednesday – Sunday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. and admission is $12 for adults, $8 for children 3-12, $10 for seniors, and members are free.

About Institute for American Indian Studies
Located on 15 acres of woodland acres the Institute For American Indian Studies preserves and educates through archeology, research, exhibitions, and programs. They have the 16th c. Algonquian Village, Award-Winning Wigwam Escape, and a museum with temporary and permanent displays of authentic artifacts from prehistory to the present that allows visitors to foster a new understanding of the world and the history and culture of Native Americans. The Institute for American Indian Studies is located on 38 Curtis Road, Washington, CT.

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Watch Future Olympians Soar in Salisbury’s 94th Annual JumpFest February 7,8, and 9, 2020

This will be the 94th year when ski jumpers and lovers of winter sports converge in Salisbury at Connecticut’s signature winter event, JumpFest. Ski jumping was introduced to this bucolic town in 1926 when a Norwegian farmer, Mr. Satre sailed off his barn; making ski jumping a winter tradition here ever since. This year, JumpFest is taking place on February 7, 8, and 9, 2020, at Satre Hill on Indian Cave Road in Salisbury. For updates and more information click here or info@jumpfest.org or www.jumpfest.org.

There are only a half a dozen ski jump facilities on the East Coast, with JumpFest being the southernmost location. Some of the best athletes will be here competing in an event that has launched many Olympians. As a matter of fact, three of the four men that participated in the Olympics at Sochi had something in common, they were all from the east coast, and they all participated at JumpFest.

For the Tri-State area and beyond, JumpFest offers a very special opportunity to watch these graceful athletes fly through the air — up close! The anticipation of watching competitors travel up to 200 feet through the air at more than fifty miles an hour and, guessing who is the fastest — and highest in real-time — is an unforgettable experience. It is so much fun to be part of the excitement! The crowds’ ring cowbells to cheer on their favorites and the jumpers take notice. The excitement reaches a crescendo when the slap of skis hits snow in a smooth landing with everyone hoping that this jump beats the Salisbury record, an impressive 231-foot jump.

Festival Schedule
JumpFest kicks off on Friday, February 7 at 6 p.m. with Target Jumping beginning at 7 p.m. Target Jumping is followed by the infamously fun Human Dog Sled Race, a crowd favorite that begins between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Teams of six participate, five pulling the sled and one riding. The sleds and costumes, of course, boggle the imagination! Trophies are awarded for the best in men’s women’s, mixed categories. Competitors navigate a .3-mile course through the snow. It’s all in fun, and teams can get very creative with both their costumes and sleds. Two large bonfires and warm food and beverages are available.

On Saturday, February 8, things warm up with a Junior Meet that is followed by the practice of participating jumpers from 11 a.m. to 12 noon. The Junior 20 to 30-meter competition begins at 1 p.m. It is thrilling to watch these Olympians in the making defy gravity and soar through the air with runs of 65 to 98 feet. Another tradition is the Snow Ball Dance taking place at the White Hart Inn with entertainment by the Steve Dunn Band. This is the perfect time to mingle with fellow sports lovers, bid at the silent auction, and take a chance on a raffle ticket that benefits the Salisbury Winter Sports Associations (SWSA) programs. The admission to the Snow Ball Dance is $15. The highly anticipated Eastern U.S. Ski Jumping Championships on Sunday, February 9 begins with practice at 11 a.m.; the competition begins at 1 pm. At this event, there are often Olympic hopefuls that display the tremendous coordination, skill, and grace that have what it takes to soar so far and so high with a smooth and successful landing. Make ski jumping history and be there to see if the Salisbury record is broken – perhaps a new contender for the Olympics! Even the most sedentary spectators will appreciate the extraordinary coordination and skill required to make this jump! Judging from past history, some of the competitors here will go on to the Olympics.

Details and More
Coffee, food, and hot chocolate will be available at all events. As this is an outdoor event, and it is winter, please dress warm – don’t forget your cowbell and cellphone for great photo opportunities! On Friday, February 7, the event ticket booth opens at 6 p.m. and admission is $15; on Saturday, February 8, the event opens at 10 a.m. and tickets are $15, on February 9 the event opens at 11 a.m. and tickets are $15. The Snow Ball Dance is $15 at the door. The Human Dog Sled Race entry is $25 on Friday, February 7 with the downloaded pdf.

Between events, there will be plenty of time to explore the charming town of Salisbury with its many intriguing shops and restaurants all within walking distance of Jumpfest. A highlight is an art show, The Wonders of Winter hosted by the Salisbury Association that includes art by 34 national and international artists showcasing sixty works of art in six locations including William Pitt/Sotheby’s International Realty, Sweet William’s Coffee Shop & Bakery and the White Hart Inn, all within walking distance of each other on Main Street, Salisbury. Many of the paintings are on sale with a portion of the profits going to the Salisbury Winter Sports Association youth skiing programs and ongoing facility improvement.

About Salisbury Winter Sports Association (SWSA)

It all began in 1926, when a gentleman named John Satre (Say-tree) showed off the sport he had learned in his native Norway with the unlikely feat of jumping from the roof of a shed while wearing skis. To everyone’s surprise, instead of crashing Satre soared through the air and glided to earth. It looked like fun and by the next summer, several neighbors had gotten together to begin building a proper takeoff and ski run. A former cow pasture became the landing area. On January 29, 1927, the club, the Salisbury Winter Sports Association (SWSA) held its first competition with a crowd of more than 200 spectators. This all-volunteer group has hosted several National Championships and, today continues to maintain Satre Hill, introduces young and old to the sport of ski jumping, and organizes the competitions.

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Through the Lens: Torrington Photographs 1870 – 1970 @ Torrington Historical Society

Photography takes an instant of time and captures that moment forever. Historical images bring us back to the time and place where they were taken, they are the essence of an areas’ cultural heritage. A new photography exhibition has just been mounted by the Torrington Historical Society that will be on display through October 31, 2019, called, Through the Lens: Torrington Photographs 1870-1970.

This exhibition focuses on the works of several local photographers, both professional and amateur, which are well represented in the Society’s collections. Included in the exhibition is the work of Christie Siebert, F.O. Hills, Sidney Jennings, and Thomas Wootton. Also featured in this exhibit are images from the Charles Harris Photo Album, acquired by the Society in 2018. The album features approximately 80 photographs of downtown Torrington from the late 1900s through the early 1930s.

The highlight of this exhibition is that many of the images have been recently acquired by the Torrington Historical Society and are on display for the first time. Visitors will find images that depict scenes of daily life that include downtown Torrington in the 1870s with its wooden buildings, dirt roads, and early factories. Other images give visitors a bird’s-eye views of Torrington; a turn of the 20th-century birthday party; O&G truck moving a small building along a north end street as neighborhood children look on, and photos of various businesses from the late 19th century through the 1970s.

The exhibition will be of special interest to photography buffs because of the variety of photography mediums on display. Original images, including albumen prints, glass-plate negatives, black and white prints, and color slides that were digitized and enlarged make it easy for visitors to study the fascinating details of these historic images.

The Torrington Historical Society is located on 192 Main Street and is open Tuesday – Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For additional information visit their website.

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Be a Winner @ Norfolk’s Weekend in Norfolk Aug 2-4

On August 2, 3, and 4 everyone is a “winner” in Norfolk. Fun for all is the watchword in Norfolk, Connecticut during the town’s Fourth Annual three-day, town-wide festival, A Weekend in Norfolk, better known as WIN. https://weekendinnorfolk.org. Everyone’s invited to come with family and friends to enjoy more than 80 events—mostly free—that Norfolk’s organizations, businesses, and individuals will be putting on to welcome visitors to their town.

On Friday, August 2, take a tour to see the magnificent Tiffany stained glass windows at the Immaculate Conception Church and in the Battell Chapel. If you are in a romantic mood, head to the picturesque village green to get married or to renew your vows, the organizers of WIN have bouquets, ring bearers, and witnesses standing by on the Village Green. There are also artisan demos, and the opening reception for the Norfolk Artists & Friends 11th annual exhibition, plus concerts at Infinity Hall and the Yale Music Shed. For literary lovers, there is a celebration of Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday at the Norfolk Library. If you like nature and are strong of wind and sound of heart, enter in the hike the peaks challenge, which is a three-day, six peak hiking challenge organized by the Norfolk Land trust.

The pace picks up on Saturday, August 4, with continuing art events, a furniture making demonstration, tours of Tiffany Stained Glass Windows, and multiple concerts, including a free concert at the Music Shed. The Norfolk Farmers Market is celebrating the day with a variety of special events for young and old alike including chef demonstrations. If you are a history buff, don’t miss a walk through Norfolk’s Industrial past with historian, Richard Byrne. On this walk, you will learn about the once thriving mills and factories on the Blackberry River. The popular kids’ fire hose water soccer event will take place from 12 noon to 3 pm. The day winds down with a Taste of the Town from 5 pm to 7 pm at the Manor House, and Family Fun Night at the Botelle School from 6 pm to 10 pm that will feature a DJ, field games, an outdoor movie, and food for sale. If just music is more your style there is a Debussy, Strauss and Shubert Concert at Yale Music Shed from 8 pm to 10 pm.

Sunday, August 5, is no time to go home—there are more tours including the Whitehouse (former Stoeckel Mansion), samples of a getaway day at Mountain View Green Retreat, Tiffany Stained Glass Window tours, farm tours, and an open house at the Norfolk Country Club with the chance to see its famed 9-hole golf course. In addition to the music and art shows, there will be a hot dog eating contest, a demonstration of fly tying and casting on the green, and a 5K- trail run.
For up to the minute information on WIN, Weekend In Norfolk, visit https://weekendinnorfolk.org for details.

JanetLeave a comment

Walls of Color: The Murals of Hans Hofmann at the Bruce Museum

This spring and summer the Bruce Museum located on One Museum Drive in Greenwich will be awash in the vibrant hues of
Abstract Expressionist Hans Hofmann.

Walls of Color: The Murals of Hans Hofmann, is the first ever exhibition to focus on the artist’s varied and under-appreciated public
mural projects that will be on view at the Bruce Museum through September 6. The show will then travel to The Patricia
and Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL (October 10, 2015 to January 3, 2016), and to the Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (January 22 to April 10, 2016).

Awakening Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) Awakening, 1947 Oil on canvas, 59 ¼ x 40 ¼ in. Private Collection Photograph by Paul Mutino Works by Hans Hofmann used with permission of the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust
Awakening
Hans Hofmann (1880-1966)
Awakening, 1947
Oil on canvas, 59 ¼ x 40 ¼ in.
Private Collection
Photograph by Paul Mutino
Works by Hans Hofmann used with permission of the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust

A towing figure among the New York School painters and one of the most important teachers and theoretician of the Abstract
Expressionist movement, Hans Hoffman is well known for his dynamic approach to color. The centerpiece of Walls of Color: The Murals of Hans Hofmann will be nine oil studies by Hofmann,each seven feet tall, for the redesign of the Peruvian city of Chimbote. This was Hofmann’s extraordinary collaboration, in 1950, with Catalan architect José Luis Sert – the man who designed the
Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair in 1937, for which Picasso’s great mural Guernica was conceived. Although never realized, this visionary project was to include a huge mosaic wall – a freestanding bell tower in the town center – designed by Hofmann, which would incorporate not only his own highly evolved notions of Abstract Expressionist visual dynamics, but also forms symbolic of traditional Peruvian culture, religion and history.

6_Apartment Sketch

Although now nearly forgotten, Hofmann also created two huge public murals in Manhattan. In 1956, for the developer William Kaufman, and in collaboration with the noted pioneer modernist architect William Lescaze, Hofmann created an astonishing, brilliantly colored mosaic mural, wrapped around the elevator bank in the main entrance hall of the office building at 711 Third Avenue. Two years later, in 1958, commissioned by the New York City Board of Education, Hofmann created a 64-foot long and
11-foot tall mosaic-tile mural for the High School of Printing (now the High School of Graphic Arts Communication) on West 49th Street.
These large scale stunning works will be brought back to life at the Bruce Museum via varied painted studies, mosaic maquettes, photos, and ephemera – as well as studies for a mural for an unrealized New York apartment house of the same period – which will show Hofmann’s working methods.

5_Sketch 711

A scholarly catalogue has been created for the exhibition, with a foreword from the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust, and essays by Curator Kenneth Silver and Mary McLeod, Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University. Public programming planned for the exhibition includes the 2015 Bob and Pam Goergen Lecture Series, with lectures by Curator Kenneth E. Silver on Tuesday, May 5; Stacey Gershon, principal at Stacey Gershon Fine Art/MLG Art Advisory on Thursday, June 11; and Mary McLeod, Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, Columbia University, on Thursday, June 25. All lectures will be held at the Museum and will begin at 7:30 p.m.

About the Bruce Museum
The Bruce Museum is a museum of art and science and is located at One Museum Drive in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm; closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for students up to 22 years, $6 for seniors and free for members and children less than five years. Individual admission is free on Tuesday. Free on-site parking is available and the Museum is accessible to individuals with disabilities. For additional information, call the Bruce Museum at (203) 869-0376 or visit the website at http://brucemuseum.org. For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

JanetLeave a comment

John Funt and Gerald Incandela to show at Five Points Gallery

Five Points Gallery, located in Downtown Torrington, will open a new exhibition “John Funt and Gerald Incandela at Five Points” on Thursday, May 28th. The show will run through June 27 and will be open Thursdays through Sundays from 1-5 p.m. Five Points Gallery is free and open to the public. An opening reception will take place on Friday, May 29 at 6 p.m. and an artist talk with occur on Friday, June 12 at 6 p.m. The public is encouraged to attend both events, which are sponsored by Burlington Construction.

John Funt Waterfall
John Funt Waterfall

John Funt studied art with sculptor Rhys Caparn at the Dalton School in New York and with painter Joseph Slate at Kenyon College in Ohio. He has had solo exhibitions at Nelson Macker Fine Art, Morgan Lehman Gallery, James Graham and Sons and the Norfolk Library. Funt has worked as an event designer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a Designer and Display Director for Tiffany & Company but for the past decade, has devoted himself full-time to painting.

Commenting on Funt’s work, The New Criterion wrote: “John Funt turns the dynamics of landscape around.” Another review from The New Yorker described his work as follows: ” The wide-screen format announces representational intent; the jewel-like undertones and simplified forms reveal the fundamental decorative impulse.”

Incandella Card
Incandella Card

Gerald Incandela is an American artist, born in Tunisia. Incandela received a philosophy degree in 1969, then moved to Paris where he studied art history. In 1974, Gerald Incandela began to photograph and soon after learned photographic printing. He is recognized for his unique photographic process, by which he conceptually merges drawing and photography. During the course of developing the large format, black and white prints, Incandela selectively applies developer and fixer on paper with a brush as to reveal and animate selected elements of the captured image.

His work is in numerous collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Incandela has had numerous solo exhibitions in the United States and abroad and has also taken part in numerous group exhibitions. In his recent body of work, Gerald Incandela has transitioned from drawing with the photographic medium to painting with it. The tones and colors are the result of the action of regular light oxidizing the silver in the paper before fixing the image. It is not a tinted or colored silver print and therefore not “mixed media”. Each one is unique because Incandela applies selectively the solutions onto the paper instead of immersing the paper evenly in the solutions.

Five Points Gallery is located at 33 Main Street, Torrington, CT. Hours are Thursdays through Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. The gallery is also open by appointment. For more information please visit www.fivepointsgallery.org.

For more event information www.litchfieldhills.com

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