Treasure Books: Selections from the Caroline M. Hewins Collection of Children’s Literature, is an exhibition developed by guest curator Leonard Marcus, leading historian on American children’s books.  His highly acclaimed books include Golden Legacy: How Golden Books Won Children’s Hearts; Minders of Make-Believe; Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon; Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom; and The Wand in the Word.  Caroline Hewins came to Hartford in 1875 as librarian of the Hartford Young Men’s Institute, the predecessor to Hartford Public Library.  She held this position for 50 years and earned a national reputation as an imaginative, spirited, and dedicated leader, especially well regarded for her library work with children.

Hartford History Center, 3rd Floor

December through May, Tuesday through Saturday, 1:00-5:00 p.m.

Opening Reception

Hartford History Center, 3rd Floor

Sunday, December 6, 2:00-4:00 p.m.

Free tax assistance to households with annual incomes of $50,000.00 or less.  Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) assistance also is available.

2^nd Floor

Tuesdays, January 19 through April 13

Wednesdays, January 20 through April 14

Thursdays, January 21 through April 15

4:00-7:00 p.m. and

Saturdays, January 23 through April 10

10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

Call 211 Infoline or 860-695-6295 to make an appointment, or walk-in – first come, first served.

Appointments recommended.

Every year when the days are warm but the nights are still cold, IAIS holds its annual Maple Sugaring Festival.  Enjoy pancakes made by IAIS staff, local maple syrup, coffee and orange juice (served from 11am-1pm) and learn how local Native Americans traditionally made maple syrup.  Jim Dina will demonstrate the technique of collecting sap and boiling it down into syrup as he discusses its importance to Native American culture.  Children’s activities will run from 1-3 pm.   Call for advance tickets.  Program runs from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm.

Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and Connecticut Archaeology Center present

Winter Escapes & Adventures

The Natural History of Health, Mummy Dearest, Stem Cell Research, Special Tours, Ancient Technologies, The Anthropology of Drug Use, Behind the Scenes with MysteryQuest, Eighteenth Century Medicine, Stories in Stone, Scientific Illustration, Forensic DNA Analysis, and the Mysterious World of Lichens and Mosses are just a few of the program topics being offered this winter and spring by the Museum and Archaeology Center. Don’t miss out on exciting fieldtrips, workshops, family activities, field learning, and notable presentations this season.

For a full listing of programs and registration information, visit http://www.cac.uconn.edu/mnhcurrentcalendar.html or call 860.486.4460

The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and Connecticut Archaeology Center are part the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UConn

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Connecticut State Museum of Natural History & Connecticut Archaeology Ctr

March 13, 19, 20, 26 & 27, 2010 at 8:00pm
March 14, 21 & 28, 2010 at 2:00pm

Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Burt Shevelove & Larry Gelbart

“Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight!” Broadway’s greatest farce is light, fast-paced, witty, irreverent and one of the funniest musicals ever written - the perfect escape from life’s troubles. FORUM takes comedy back to its roots, combining situations from time-tested, 2000 year old comedies of Roman playwright Plautus with the infectious energy of classic vaudeville. 

The result is a non-stop laugh-fest in which a crafty slave (Pseudolus) struggles to win the hand of a beautiful but slow-witted courtesan (Philia) for his young master (Hero), in exchange for freedom. The title derives from the line that vaudeville comedians often used to begin a story: "A funny thing happened on the way to the theatre..."

This is an original Yale Peabody Museum exhibition that investigates West Nile virus and Lyme Disease. These two diseases are "vector-borne" -- that is, the pathogen is transmitted to humans by an arthropod, and in both cases a blood-sucking one! Giant models of a mosquito and a tick help explain the puzzle that is the transmission, detection and treatment of these diseases. The exhibition explores the differences between the viral and bacterial pathogens, when they arrived in Connecticut, and how our changing environment is increasing the incidence of both diseases. The exhibition is on view through April 25.

Meet the artists. See art in the making. Stroll the boardwalk of 20 studio artists showcasing an incredible variety of artwork including: realistic and abstract drawings, prints and painting; functional and decorative clay pieces; jewelry; photography; kinetic sculpture, mixed media; bronze sculpture; and chair seat weaving.

Open studio is every first Saturday of the month from February to November at 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information about Farmington Valley Arts Center artists, events, open studio, and educational programs, visit our website, www.artsfvac.org.

14th Annual Mandell JCC Hartford Jewish Film Festival The world comes to Hartford March 13-23, 2010 when the Mandell JCC’s 14th Annual Hartford Jewish Film Festival raises the curtain on a week on international romance, comedy, history, sports and fun for everyone…plus live concerts, parties, guest filmmakers and more. Thirty Hartford or Connecticut premiere films from eight countries over ten days in seven venues are presented with the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies and The Hartt School, University of Hartford. Get the hottest tickets in town, visit the festival website www.hjff.org or call the Box Office for a brochure or to order tickets: 860-231-6316.

Dawn Holder: The Idea of This Perfect Edenic Place

“The Idea of This Perfect Edenic Place” is a site-specific installation created for the ArtWalk Gallery by Dawn Holder. The upcoming exhibition will be a dynamic and fantastical garden set against the backdrop of the Hartford city-scape. The setting of the ArtWalk Gallery, with its expansive windows, hints at the complex relationship between the natural world and humanity's desire to cultivate it. The show will at first be installed with a minimal collection of porcelain and mixed-media plants and flowers. Throughout the course of the exhibition, the landscape will grow and change as the artist adds and constructs additional pieces, “planting” them in the garden.

The Silo Gallery at Hunt Hill Farm begins 2010 with an evocative and diverse range of themes for its Winter Exhibition.  The show’s opening reception will take place on Saturday, February 20th from 3 to 5 p.m. at 44 Upland Rd., New Milford, CT.  Abstract acrylic paintings by Frederick Velardi and Joyce Conlon willbe on display in The Silo’s main gallery.  Velardi, a specialist in color-field painting, will show his Jazz Series, while Conlon will exhibit her Fence Series, inspired by nature and the passing of time.  In the same gallery, figurative sculptor Anthony Antonios will put on view his series of classically executed plaster portraits.  In The New Talent Gallery the works of New Milford High School Art Studentswill be featured.  Gallery Talks by each of the displaying artists will take place on Sunday, March 7 at 2 p.m.  The entire exhibit will be on display through March 28.  The reception and exhibit are free and open to the public. 

Musical Masterworks, the Old Lyme-based producer of chamber music concerts featuring internationally renown artists, is pleased to announce that Hoffman Audi has generously agreed to sponsor the Student Rush program for the March 20th concert. Musical Masterworks' Student Rush program provides a limited number of free tickets to students with a valid ID card.
The concert features Stravinsky’s renown masterpiece, the Suite from L’Histoire du Soldat, along with the majestic Tchaikovsky Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello in A minor, Opus 50. The brilliant clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester will also join forces with superb pianist Gilles Vonsattel for a performance of Schumann’s Fantasy Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Opus 73.
Student Rush seating is limited. Requests will be honored on a first come, first served basis. To request tickets, please email Kristina White at kbjwhite@sbcglobal.net
 
 

Whimsically calling herself The Queen of Heavy Mental, Jana Stanfield describes her music as “psychotherapy that you can dance to.” Her song titles include: I’m Not Lost, I Am Exploring;  The Trick Is To Learn To Enjoy The Ride; If I Were Brave; Nothing I Can Do About It Now; and Please Help Me Buy Some Tupperware.  Tickets sold in advance.  Remaining tickets will be available at the door.  For details, go to www.jana2010.org

March 20, 2010 at 8pm!
Lisa Lampanelli is Comedy's Lovable Queen of Mean. Able to get away with saying anything, she is a cross between Don Rickles, Archie Bunker, and a vial of estrogen; she even won accolades from The King of All Media, Howard Stern, who described her as "a REAL funny broad."

Go deeper into the art of ensemble playing while honing your skills, exploring improvisation and arranging.

12:30-1:30pm

Explore classical and contemporary figure drawing techniques and approaches to developing the human form.Artists wishing to use time with the model without instruction may drop-in for $8 at 10:30am.

10am-12pm
 

1-3 pm

Aspiring and professional writers and artists gather
together to improve their skills and offer opportunities to have work published. Workshops, feedback, exercises and discussion are part of the meetings. Meetings are open to the public.

Visitors to the Museum from February 27 through April 25, 2010, will have the rare opportunity to witness the creation of a major museum diorama, one day at a time. It is an evolving exhibition featuring the work of Peabody and New Haven area scientists and artists in addition to that of the master Wilson. Dioramas combine three-dimensional foreground material with a curved background wall and domed ceiling to tell the story of an ecosystem. They are brought to life by the artists who create them. James Perry Wilson was a master of this unique art as this exhibition will reveal.

Norooz, celebrated in Iran and Afghanistan, marks the New Year and centers around the Haftsinn table.  This table setting usually features seven key items, each beginning with the letter "s", that represent the seven creations.  Learn more when you visit the Haftsinn table on display at the Downtown library.

Ayurveda, the "science of life", teaches us how to live in harmony with the rhythms of the day and  the seasons of the year and of our lives. Karen Tyson from Passaflora in New Hartford, will discuss Spring seasonal eating from a doshic,  Ayurvedic perspective,  as well as highlighting some lifestyle practices and herbs that can make this seasonal transition easier on our bodies. Spring is a natural time to lighten up, after the heavier eating of Winter---however, some of us do get imbalanced in Spring.  For those of us who do, these practices are even more beneficial. Karen will have bulk herbs and proprietary teas from Passiflora, appropriate to this season, available for sale, donating 20% of the proceeds for the day to Urban Oaks.

Featuring 40 works ranging from landscapes of Southwest China's countryside to strong and intense self portraits from China´s densely ethnic Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, Connecticut College, Shain Library, Charles Chu Asian Art Reading Room, 270 Mohegan Avenue, New London, free and open to the public during library hours, visit http://www.conncoll.edu/Libraries/hours.html for hours, (860) 439-2581

Beverly Chomiak, lecturer in Physics and Environmental Science, will lead an exploration of the Connecticut College Arboretum navigating off the trails with a map and compass, no charge, registration required, call 860-439-5020, meet 9:00 am at Connecticut College Arboretum Garage, 46 Gallows Lane, New London.

An extravaganza of hand-crafted masks, original stories, and stilt dancing by New England’s virtuoso mime will take place Saturday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the Bruyette Athenaeum at Saint Joseph College.    Advance tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for senior citizens and $12 for children. Day of event, tickets are $30 for adults, $20 for seniors and $12 for children.

A captivating adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale classic, with dramatic choreography, elaborate scenery and a cast of 43 Mystic Ballet dancers from around the world and the community. Hiroko Maehara as Arial, Wagner dos Santos Silvas as Prince Eric, Aleksander Subotic as King Triton, and Anna Papaxanthos as Sebastian. Part of Mystic Ballet's Dance-Me-A-Story series, children may meet dancers after performance. Pre-show talk with choreographer.

The Windham Textile and History Museum hosts "Dollhouses: A Miniature World" through June 13th. 

Museum Hours: Fri., Sat., Sun. 10:00 - 4:00

All-Star Driver, Connecticut's leader in driver education, is offering hands-on demonstrations on the dangers of impaired driving to schools, parent groups and local prevention organizations. These presentations are FREE of charge, in an effort to raise awareness on the dangers of underage drinking during the month of April, Alcohol Awareness Month.

Gene Bertoncini is one of the pre-eminent jazz guitarists’ active today. His fluid technique and lyricism have won him international praise and accolades as the “Segovia of jazz” and recently Gene was just nominated as the best jazz guitarist of the year (08) by the New York Jazz Press Association An eloquent and versatile improviser, Bertoncini has been heard with an extraordinary range of jazz greats, including performances and recordings with Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, Wayne Shorter, Hubert Laws, Paul Desmond among others, as well as such distinguished singers as Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Nancy Wilson, Vic Damone, and Eydie Gorme. A prolific and popular studio musician, Bertoncini honed his professional chops as a member of the Tonight Show band during Johnny Carson’s tenure, and he has worked with composers and arrangers such as Lalo Schifrin and Michael Legrand and has performed with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Jazz guitarist and composer Tosh Sheridan, a New London-area native native, shares the stage with his mentor, Gene Bertoncini. Tosh earned his Bachelors of Arts degree in Jazz Composition from Berklee College of Music in 1998, and a Masters in Jazz Performance form City College of New York. Tosh performs regularly in New York City and throughout the tri-state area. A Kitchings Productions presentation.