Tag: norwalk

Lorikeets Arrive at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk

This summer the The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk will welcome colorful exhibit of lorikeets that are native to the south Pacific. Visitors will step into a lush aviary to share a laugh and a squawk with beautiful tropical birds that will sip food right out of your hands !

Aquar.twolorikeets

“Lorikeets” will be open from May 25 through Sept. 2 on the Aquarium’s riverfront courtyard and will feature about a dozen varieties of lorikeets, which are colorful medium-sized parrots native to the south Pacific (SE Asia, eastern Australia, Polynesia). They’re naturally found in rainforests and woodlands, but also in wooded urban areas, where they primarily feed on the nectars of various blossoms and fruits.

Aquar.lorikeet_feeding

Visitors will be invited to purchase a small cup of nectar before you go into the exhibit, that will encourage the lorikeets to land on your hand, or your arm, or even your head to get to your nectar.

Lorikeets are specially adapted to their sweet diet through their specialized tongue. Tiny hair-like appendages called papillae form a U shape on the end of the tongue. When the tongue is extended, these papillae stand up like bristles on a brush, expanding the tongue’s surface area and allowing the birds to easily soak up nectar. Unique to lorikeets, these papillae have earned the birds the nickname “brush-tongued parrots.”

Aquar.lorikeet
Entry into “Lorikeets” will be free with Aquarium admission. There will be a small fee for the nectar cups.

For visitors with an aversion to close encounters with birds, viewing of the lorikeets will be possible from outside the aviary.

The Aquarium is located on 10 N. Water St. in Norwalk. FOR INFORMATION: Call (203) 852-0700 or go online to www.maritimeaquarium.org. For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

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Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum Announces New Season’s Events

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum will reopen its doors in April for an eventful Spring season. This season, the Mansion will highlight Victorian era technology, a cutting-edge art movement called Steampunk, and a nod to the Mansion’s beginnings with its annual Victorian Tea.

Lookwood Mathews Mansion
Lookwood Mathews Mansion

The Mansion will kick off the season with an Opening Night Gala & Exhibitions Preview on April 13, 2013 at 7:00pm. This black tie dinner will allow guests a sneak peak of the Mansion’s two new exhibits, What Is It? Technologies and Discoveries of the Victorian Era and Steampunk: Nature & Machine. The Gala includes a special presentation by history of technology luminary Steven Lubar, Professor of the Departments of American Studies, History, and History of Art and Architecture at Brown University.

What Is It? Technologies and Discoveries of the Victorian Era features 19th century technological and scientific marvels of the Mansion’s heyday that revolutionized the way people lived. The exhibit is made possible thanks to a grant from the Connecticut Humanities (CTH), a non-profit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities that funds, creates and collaborates on hundreds of cultural programs across Connecticut each year. CTH brings together people of all ages and backgrounds to express, share and explore ideas in thoughtful and productive ways. From local discussion groups to major exhibitions on important historical events, CTH programs engage, enlighten and educate. Learn more by visiting http://www.cthumanities.org. The exhibit opens to the public on April 17th and runs through October 6, 2013.

Herter Brothers Furniture LMM

Also in April, the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum presents an exciting short-term exhibit, Steampunk: Nature & Machine. At this, the first Steampunk exhibit in Fairfield County, visitors will catch a view of this bold new style, a neo-retro aesthetic that borrows imagery from the Industrial Revolution and Victorian eras and has influenced everything from literature and product design to fashion and fine art. The exhibit will feature the art of renowned Steampunk artists Bruce Rosenbaum, Katie Shima and Leslie Mueller. There will be an opening reception on April 25, from 6:00 – 8:00pm. The exhibit runs until June 15.

Rounding out the 2013 spring season is the Mansion’s Victorian Tea on Sunday, May 5 at 2:00pm. The family-friendly event features a formal English tea in the Mansion’s Rotunda, including a wide selection of desserts, sandwiches, the traditional scones and cream, as well as music and other entertainment. The Tea is sponsored by Cottages & Gardens Publications and King Industries.

LockwoodMansionEexteriorretouched

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is a National Historic Landmark located at 295 West Avenue in Norwalk. Tours will begin in April and are offered Wednesdays through Sundays, at noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., and 3 p.m.

For more information on tours and programs, visit www.lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, e-mail info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, or call 203-838-9799. For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com.

JanetLeave a comment

African Penguins Return to Maritime Aquarium At Norwalk through April 22

The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk is bringing back one of the most popular species it’s ever displayed: African penguins, who will waddle in for a celebratory encore exhibit through April 22, 2013.

Aquar.AfricanPenguin

African Penguins” will be open through April 22 in an outdoor exhibit on the Aquarium’s riverfront courtyard. It’s free with admission. The small colony of penguins will be on loan from the Leo Zoological Conservation Center in Greenwich (www.LEOzoo.org).

Educating visitors on where penguins live may be one of the first basic goals of the exhibit. None of them live at the North Pole, or with Eskimos or polar bears. Some species do live in Antarctica. But many penguins can be found in warmer climates of the southern hemisphere, like African penguins in South Africa and several species that live up the western coast of South America, all the way to the equator and the Galapagos Islands. The African penguins – whose conservation status is listed as endangered – will help call attention to Africa’s troubled coastal environments, which receive far less conservation protection than the continent’s inland savannahs, plains and jungles.

African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) stand about two feet tall and weigh 8 pounds. They’re recognizable by the black stripe that loops up across their chest and their pink “eyebrows.” The pink “eyebrows” actually are an adaptation that helps them to survive in a warmer habitat like South Africa – or Norwalk. The “eyebrows” are featherless patches with lots of blood vessels underneath. When a penguin gets too hot, these patches get brighter as the penguin circulates more blood there to dissipate body heat.

African penguins also have evolved shorter feathers because, unlike Antarctic species, they do not face extreme cold.

The previous penguins exhibit at the Aquarium was open from February 2009-December 2010. For more details about The Maritime Aquarium’s exhibits, programs and IMAX movies, go to http://www.maritimeaquarium.org or call (203) 852-0700.

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Step Into Art™ at Stepping Stones Museum for Children

Have your kids ever wanted to curate their own gallery, create a self portrait at a designated computer station, take part in an art hunt through an exhibit and let their imaginations run wild by creating as many different images as possible at the three-dimensional Pattern Puzzle? Now through May 12 kids can do all this and more by literally stepping inside the framework of famous paintings and experience art in Framed: Step into Art™, at Stepping Stones Museum for Children in Norwalk located on 303 West Ave. For information www.steppingstonesmuseum.org or 203-899-0606. For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Step Into Art™ photo credit: Minnesota Children’s Museum
Step Into Art™
photo credit: Minnesota Children’s Museum

Kids enter the special exhibit by stepping through an over-sized frame and instantly become immersed in the worlds created by well-known artists. Each work is re-created as a three-dimensional, sensory, walk-in environment that includes a print of the artist’s original work, as well as important facts about the artist’s life and painting style.

There are four featured paintings in this bi-lingual exhibit that provides a different cultural experience for participants. Dinner for Threshers by Grant Wood for example teaches children about rural life at the turn of the century. Kids can tend to a chicken and eggs, prepare a meal in the kitchen, set the dining table, enjoy a noontime dinner, and mix and match the farmers’ patterned shirts. The detail the featured painting provides includes theme of patterns, the farmers’ tan lines and the hour of the meal.

John Singer Sargent’s Camp at Lake O’Hara Minnesota Children’s Museum
John Singer Sargent’s Camp at Lake O’Hara Minnesota Children’s Museum

At the popular Camp at Lake O’Hara visitors are transported to the Canadian Rockies circa 1916 to the John Singer Sargent’s Camp at Lake O’Hara. Children can climb inside a tent and explore camping gear like Sargent would have used. After cooking a pretend meal over the campfire, kids can tell stories around the fire and arrange items in a magnetic frame to show what a painting of today’s campsite may look like.

The Big Chicken by Clementine Hunter is a salute to Louisiana’s most famous female artist and folk art icon that creates imaginary animals like Hunter’s “goosters” by mixing body parts. Children and adults can load the cart in this exhibit with cotton, climb behind the reins of the giant rooster and take their load to town.

Big Chicken by Clementine Hunter Minnesota Children’s Museum
Big Chicken by Clementine Hunter Minnesota Children’s Museum

Travel south of the border when visiting Corn Festival by Diego Rivera through this work from the Court of Fiestas in the Ministry of Education Building in Mexico City. Kids will have fun exploring a rendition of one of Rivera’s frescos while adding their own whimsical flourishes such as flowers and ribbons of “corn husks” to the flower tower and on a miniature building’s mural.

About Framed: Step Into Art™
Framed: Step Into Art™ was created by the Minnesota Children’s Museum for the members of the Youth Museum Exhibit Collaborative (YMEC): Bay Area Discovery Museum, Boston Children’s Museum, Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, Children’s Museum of Memphis, Long Island Children’s Museum, Minnesota Children’s Museum and Stepping Stones Museum for Children. The exhibit is sponsored locally by Xerox Foundation.

About Stepping Stones Museum for Children
Stepping Stones Museum for Children is an award winning, private, non-profit 501 (c)(3) children’s museum committed to broadening and enriching the lives of children and families. For more information about Stepping Stones, to book a field trip or schedule a class, workshop or facility rental call 203-899-0606 or visit www.steppingstonesmuseum.org. The museum is open daily 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

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January Events at Stepping Stones Museum for Children

At the Stepping Stones Museum for Children, the new year begins with the final days of the show titled Native Voices: New England Tribal Families that will end on January 6th. This unique exhibit is an introduction to Native Americans living in New England today. By visiting five different communities from northern to southern New England, visitors learn about Native American traditions and how modern families balance contemporary life with preservation of important cultural identities through stories and songs. Free with museum admission.

Opening on January 21 is a show titled Framed: Step into Art™ that was produced by the Minnesota Children’s Museum for the members of the Youth Museum Exhibit Collaborative (YMEC). This exhibit allows you to enter the framework of famous paintings and experience art like never before. Art viewers become art as they physically enter a scene and are encouraged to interpret, express and connect with art. They can ride a giant chicken attached to a wagon, set up a camp in the Canadian Rockies, prepare dinner for a group of hungry farmers. They can become an art gallery director, selecting and exhibiting art in their own gallery, as well as explore the exhibit through Art Hunt Cards.

January’s Around the World program focus’s on India. Stepping Stones takes children and parents to 12 different places around the globe, bringing the culture and its people to life. Now in its fourth year, the Around the World Performance Series presents professional artists, musicians, dancers, storytellers and youth performers representing a variety of cultures and traditions.

In its first year, the Museum’s quarterly Accessibility Day program proved to be so popular that they are now offering it on a monthly basis. Accessibility Day falls on Jan. 12 from 9 am – 11 am and offers free admission for families of children with special needs.

On Wednesday, January 16 parents are invited to the Parent Zone from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm where they will learn simple techniques to help their children with numbers, estimation and describing and comparing shapes. This is a parents only workshop. Free childcare for children 3 and older. Free dinner included. Limited space. Registration is required.

On January 25 the Stepping Stones Museum Presents the Story Book Pajama Party from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The event will consist of a compelling reading the tale in front of a large screen showing the pages in the book for all to see. After the story, the reading is brought to life when children meet the storybook character (bring your camera). There will also be a hands-on craft activity and a musical parade featuring the storybook character. Dinner is available for purchase in the museum’s cafe.Members $10/person, Non-members $12/person. Tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable. Space is limited, registration recommended.

Stepping Stones Museum for Children is located at 303 West Avenue, Norwalk, CT, exit 14 North and 15 South off I-95. Museum hours are Monday-Sunday from 10 am-5 pm. Admission is $15 for adults and children and $10 for seniors. Children under 1 are free. To learn more visit steppingstonesmuseum.org or call 203 899 0606.

For regional information visit www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com.

JanetLeave a comment

Puppet Show at Stepping Stones Museum For Children

For most people, developing a handcrafted puppet show from scratch is not something that you do in your spare time. After all, putting together a high-quality, entertaining children’s show is a daunting, time-consuming process. However, Alan Louis is not like most people.

Louis, the Public Programs Manager at Stepping Stones Museum for Children, has had a nearly 30-year career in puppetry. There isn’t a type of puppetry he has not performed with: shadow puppets, hand puppets, rod puppets, marionettes – even larger-than-life-sized puppets in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Louis has performed with a variety of touring companies, taught puppetry workshops in the United States and Eastern Europe and spent a decade as the Education Director for the Center of Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. Needless to say, Louis knows a high-quality puppet show when he sees one and he definitely knows what it takes to bring one to the stage.

After attending a puppet festival in New York last December, Louis was inspired to start working on a production of The Frog Prince that has grown into an awe-inspiring and magical production of The Frog Prince and Other Tales. Created exclusively for Stepping Stones Museum for Children, four classics of children’s literature will come alive on November 10th when this enchanting puppetry spectacle debuts at the Museum.

The enduring tales of kindness, determination and loyalty will be performed with beautifully handcrafted puppets and scenery. These tales of fantasy and imagination are sure to provide an unforgettable children’s theater experience. Each 40 minute performance is followed by an art of puppetry demonstration and question and answer session with the puppeteers.

The show is free with museum admission; however, seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. This is a limited engagement with performances scheduled from November 10th through December 14th. For more information and performance times, visit www.steppingstonesmuseum.org/frogprince.

About Stepping Stones Museum for Children
Stepping Stones Museum for Children in Norwalk, Conn., is an award-winning, private, non-profit 501(c)(3) children’s museum committed to broadening and enriching the lives of children and families. Located on five acres in Mathews Park, the LEED Gold certified museum encompasses five hands-on galleries, state-of-the-art Multimedia Gallery, Family and Teacher Resource Center, cafe and retail store.

Stepping Stones is located at 303 West Avenue, exit 14N or 15S off I-95 in Norwalk. Museum hours are Monday – Sunday, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm. Admission is $15 for adults and children. Children under 1 are free. To learn more, call 203 899 0606 or visit www.steppingstonesmuseum.org.

JanetLeave a comment