24th Annual Associate Artist Exhibition & Wonders of Winter

Randie Kahrl  Cipollini Onions and Company

Lyme Art Association’s 24th Annual Associate Artist Exhibition of landscape, portrait, and still life paintings, as well as sculpture by Associate Artist members will be on view in the Association’s front galleries, and runs from January 22 through February 26. Wonders of Winter, which showcases winter scenes by members of all levels, will be on display in the Goodman gallery, and also runs from January 22 through February 26.
 
"The Annual Associate Artist Exhibition highlights the range, creativity, and excellence of our Associate Artist members. This exhibition includes a variety of subjects, media, and styles: paintings or sculptures that capture the range of human emotion, the beauty and grandeur of the Connecticut landscape, or the personal objects and surroundings of everyday life," states Jocelyn Zallinger, LAA’s Gallery Manager. “The Wonders of Winter exhibition in the Goodman Gallery celebrates the beauty of the winter landscape, its colors, textures, and dramatic lighting.”  
 
The opening reception for both exhibitions will be held on Sunday, January 31, from 1 pm to 3 pm at the LAA, 90 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, Connecticut. The 24th Annual Associate Artist Exhibition and Wonders of Winter are on view from January 22 through February 26.


About the Lyme Art Association
The Lyme Art Association was founded in 1914 by the American Impressionists and continues the tradition of exhibiting and selling representational artwork by its members and invited artists, as well as offering art instruction and lectures to the community. The Lyme Art Association is located at 90 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT, in a building designed by Charles Adams Platt and located within an historic district. Admission is free with contributions appreciated. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 10am to 5pm, or by appointment. For more information on exhibitions, purchase of art, art classes, or becoming a member, call 860-434-7802 or visit www.lymeartassociation.org.



 

A Cocoa Cabaret

Join Legacy Theatre for a delicious buffet and fun show featuring Stephanie Stiefel Williams in a hilarious role you will never forget! A Cocoa Cabaret is playing at the beautiful Woodwinds iBranford on January 31st at 1pm. For only $45 a ticket, audiences will enjoy a delicious meal and an entertaining and heartwarming
performance. Tell the winter doldrums to take a hike, and take advantage of this rescheduled date and time! In the meantime, enjoy your hot cocoa!

Click Here to Buy Tickets Now!

For over 100 years, the theater at Stony Creek has delighted generations from silent movies to a rare puppet museum and theater to community and professional live theater. The Legacy wishes to charmingly restore this historic building to produce on-going seasons of professional performances and training.

 A tremendous future is in store for the Stony Creek Theater:  Legacy is currently in discussions with theatre architects and theatre planners not only to restore the Puppet House, but also to outfit this historic building with a gorgeous theatre, fit to reflect its heritage as well as the vision The Legacy maintains- to be a premier Arts house for local artists and professional companies, and to ensure ongoing seasons of Legacy Rep Company's uplifting, inspiring, and challenging professional theatre and theatre training for all.

Project: Music Heals Us

Now in its second season, PROJECT: MUSIC HEALS US is a classical music concert series comprised of 11 concerts taking place throughout the 2015-2016 concert season (Sept-May) in the towns of Guilford, Madison, Branford, and Hamden, Connecticut: Five concerts in churches and six in hospitals and retirement homes.  There will be a performance on Friday, February 5 at 7pm at St. George Church on the Green, Guilford. A pre-show talk will begin at 6pm and a meet and greet the artists will take place immediately following the performance. Tickets are $20 general mission and $5 for students and will be available at the door the night of the performance.

The theme of this concert is Intimate Letters and will feature works by Strauss, Janacek and Schoenberg. 

CHURCH CONCERTS: formal chamber music and solo recital concerts in the beautiful old churches of Guilford and Madison, Connecticut, with performances by alumni from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Marlboro Music Festival, the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Perlman Music Program, and more. The series' roster of musicians includes both up-and-coming artists of this generation as well as their performing artist mentors. Additionally, these concert evenings feature 45-minute pre-concert lectures as well as post-concert receptions with Q&A with the musicians. 

HEALING CONCERTS: concerts played for patients in nursing homes, hospitals, and hospices, as well as for those who are incarcerated in prisons and those staying in homeless shelters. These concerts are shorter versions of the formal church concerts with much more discussion and interaction with the audience.

While Guilford and Madison ARE close enough to New York City to take advantage of the high quality of the arts available at Lincoln Center, our desire is to bring the highest caliber of classical music to a population unable to travel or for other reasons take advantage of the arts available in New York City. Studies have shown that art performances in hospital settings not only help create a peaceful healing environment, but also aid in the healing process itself; patients exposed to the arts require fewer drugs, spend less time in the hospital, and have improved mental health.

Because music really IS able to heal, both those that receive and those that create, the main goal of the series is to share this healing power with the underserved of the Connecticut Shoreline, especially the elderly, hospitalized, rehabilitating, incarcerated, and homeless. 

The story of Project: Music Heals Us all comes down to a shard of glass. It was December 5th, 2013, the night before a chamber music concert tour across Israel, and I had decided it was time to attack an ominous stack of dirty dishes that had been collecting in the sink for a few too many days. It was upon completion of this daunting task that, to my horror, a neatly-stacked (and sparklingly clean, I might add!) glass bowl decided to hop off the drying rack and shatter itself into a million little pieces into... my hand.

The ensuing months were a string of somewhat discouraging doctor's appointments and painful probings –  attempts to remove the glass shards from my left-hand middle finger. During this three month long and viola-less process, I moved out to Guilford, Connecticut, to live with my grandparents for a while. I also decided to sign up for a nursing aide course with the American Red Cross in New Haven, Connecticut.

Part of this course included a week-long residency in the Arden House Nursing Center in Hamden, Connecticut, in which all of the students were given the opportunity to work one-on-one with a number of patients. During this time, there was one very special patient with whom I just plain fell in love: her name is Ruth. When it was my turn to work with her for the first time, I was given a preparatory warning of, "She doesn't respond. She can't speak. She's difficult to work with. She can't understand you. She's stubborn…”  But, to my amazement, when I entered her room and sat with her for a few minutes to hold her hand, she looked right at me and asked, "Where are you from? Do you have a boyfriend?" and other such questions. That night I was on cloud nine as I shared the story with my grandparents back in Guilford! I could hardly wait to visit her again. The next day, as I sat with her again, I was overjoyed to hear her speak in short, but complete sentences.  On the last day of the residency, as the students each said our teary goodbyes to the patients, I made sure to save a few extra minutes for Ruth. It was here that the idea of Project: Music Heals Us was born: As I sat with her, I revealed that my alter-ego was that of a classical musician who lived in NYC and hoped very much to be playing the viola again soon - and I promised that when I COULD play again I would come back and play for her.

The next day, I called my mom and said, "I want to start a concert series. I think I want it to be called Project: Music Heals Us." And with that, we started planning Season One...

Why Guilford?Even though I grew up in Reno, Nevada, then studied at the Juilliard School, and now live in New York City, I feel very much like my second home is actually Guilford, Connecticut. Throughout my childhood, a portion of every summer was spent visiting my Granny and Grandad’s House on Fair Street. This tradition continued into my teen years, when I became a student of the Perlman Music Program and came to stay with my grandparents on my own each summer as I traveled on to Shelter Island, NY, for each session of summer music school. Then, as I entered college, it became my place of refuge from the craziness that is New York City when I made the big move from Reno. And now, although my grandparents have moved from their home of 50+ years to a Madison retirement home, Guilford will forever remain a family "haven" in my heart and mind.

"Giving back" to such a special town and community is an honor and a joy.

4th Annual Mardi Gras Gala to Benefit Shoreline Arts Alliance

Celebrate the centuries old tradition of Mardi Gras with the Shoreline Arts Alliance. The mission of the Shoreline Arts Alliance is to Educate, Encourage, Enrich and Engage its citizenry through arts, humanities, culture and heritage. The annual gala is February 6 at 6pm at the Guilford Yacht Club. For information or to purchase tickets click here.

The history of Mardi Gras dates back to Pagan spring and fertility rituals long before Christianity.  Once Rome adopted Christianity, society transferred these rituals into a season of excess prior to Lent, the 40 days of fasting and penance between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.  This tradition of Mardi Gras spread with Christianity across Western Europe.  Where did colors of purple, green, and gold or the ornate masks originate?

Mardi Gras is synonymous with New Orleans, so it makes sense that the colors we associate with the celebration were established in New Orleans in 1872.  The first New Orleans’ king of Mardi Gras, so named Rex, was the Grand Duke Alexis, Alexandrovich Romanoff of Russia.  The colors of his house were purple, representing justice, green representing faith and gold representing power.

The tradition of masks, however, has a much longer history.  In the 12th century, a Venetian tradition of “Carnevale” started with the victory against the religious ruling power of Northern Italy, Ulrich II of Aquileia.  It is said that the Venetians danced in the streets and in San Marco Square.   This festival became the official holiday to celebrate the change in rule during the Renaissance and lasted until 1797.  The masks were worn as a way to hide one’s true identity and therefore, were a symbol of freedom to be worn not only during festivals, but in day to day Venetian life.

When Carnevale was outlawed by the King of Austria, the ruling power of Northern Italy in 1797, the wearing of masks was also outlawed completely.  During the 19th and 20th centuries, the masquerades were re-introduced at private feasts to signify artistic creations.  Today, approximately 3 million tourists a year flock to Venice for Carnevale.  One of the most important events is the contest for la maschera piu bella (the most beautiful mask) which is judged by a panel of international costume and fashion designers.

Each year, The Shoreline Arts Alliance’s largest fundraiser, the Mardi Gras Gala, pays tribute to the history of this tradition.  The Gala will be celebrating its 4th year and has incorporated New Orleans Jazz music, beads, mask wearing, a parade with its own King Rex, Queen, Captain and Royal Court.  The 2016 Gala will feature a culinary experience with caterer  Gourmet Galley.  The Alliance has added a new twist by incorporating its own beautiful mask contest.  On January 6th, Coastal Connecticut Magazine hosted  Carnavale, the kickoff to the Mardi Gras season and Gala.  Mask were handed out that night to be decorated and entered into a contest.  The Alliance will have judges and a winner will be selected the night of the Gala.

Funds raised during Carnavale and the Gala will be put towards finding the Shoreline Arts Alliance a permanent home.  The organization works out of a tiny space in Guilford and is currently in negotiations with the Town of Madison to establish a Cultural Arts Center at The Academy School.  The Mardi Gras Gala is just one example of how the Shoreline Arts Alliance connects 24 towns with history, culture and art.

Saybrook Stage presents Deathtrap

The Saybrook Stage Company is excited to return to The Kate January 14 - 17 with Deathtrap – both a thriller and a comedy. An ingeniously constructed play it masterfully combines gasp-inducing thrills with spontaneous laughter. This rare combination will have you scared at one moment and laughing seconds later. Set in a comfortable Connecticut home; a once successful playwright is struggling to overcome a dry spell which has resulted in a string of failures and a shortage of funds. He comes across a brilliant thriller written by a young writer and borrowing from his devious machinations as an author of thrillers, an insane plan is hatched to end his drought. The once-popular writer is prepared to go to any length to improve his fortunes which provides the twists and turns and sudden shock that keeps audiences spellbound until the very last minute.

Deathtrap is one of the great popular Broadway successes having won eight prestigious awards when it opened in 1978 including the Tony Award for Best Play. It ran for almost five years and almost 1,800 performances. The rare combination of comedy and suspense make it a favorite even today-almost forty years since it first opened. For tickets click here.


The Saybrook Stage Company was founded as a non-profit corporation dedicated to providing quality liveTheater on the Connecticut Shoreline at the Katherine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center. Saybrook Stage welcomes actors of all levels and abilities – and anyone who genuinely loves the arts – to come together and share in the experience that only live theater can provide. The actors that have been part of The Saybrook Stage Company to date have varied backgrounds and "day jobs" from teachers, artists and homemakers to lawyers, business people and judges. The Company looks forward to producing many more quality productions at the beautiful venue of The Kate and continuing to thrive in this wonderful, artistic region of Connecticut.