From Danger to Dignity: The Surprising (and Convoluted) History of U.S. Abortion Politics
by Rhea Hirshman
Please join us for a public lecture, FROM DANGER TO DIGNITY: The Surprising (and Convoluted) History of U.S. Abortion Politics, by Rhea Hirshman, freelance writer and editor, and an adjunct professor of women’s and gender studies at UConn Stamford, 1:30pm, Thursday, March 31, LH-L109. Please reserve your seat on the museum's website, housatonicmuseum.org.
This lecture is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Of Woman Born, on view in Lafayette Hall, 2nd floor, through June 1, 2022.
For about the first century of our republic, various forms of abortion were widely practiced. However, by around 1880, most states had passed restrictive anti-abortion legislation. Then, another century later, the right to choose an abortion was recognized in Roe v. Wade — the culmination of two decades of both underground and public activism. How did that activism happen? Why does abortion remain a central issue in U.S. political discourse? And where will we go from here?
Rhea Hirshman is a freelance writer and editor, and an adjunct professor of women’s and gender studies at UConn Stamford. Deeply involved in women’s liberation activities including community education, reproductive rights advocacy, and the arts, she was recognized for her work by the Connecticut chapter of Veteran Feminists of America. She has been a visiting instructor at Yale and Wesleyan, founded a feminist bookstore in New Haven, does frequent public speaking and, for several years, wrote a gender issues column for the New Haven Register.
Recent developments in technology have made astrophotography, located at the confluence of scientific exploration and artistic process, accessible to all. In his presentation, Shannon Calvert explains how images of the universe are taken, including planetary and lunar objects, and deep sky objects, such as nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters. How has technology encouraged new ways of imaging and how does increasing light pollution threaten our access to the starry sky?
Shannon Calvert is a local professional photographer, graphic designer, and copywriter whose work can be found at www.hireimagination.com. He is president of the Westport Astronomical Society, a volunteer-run, non-profit organization dedicated to introducing new generations to the wonders of the night sky.
Westport Astronomical Society is open 8:00pm, every Wednesday (check Facebook for weather/clouds-related closure).
The Housatonic Museum of Art presents HBO’s three-part documentary, OBAMA: IN PURSUIT OF A MORE PERFECT UNION.
The documentary, produced by Kunhardt Films, chronicles the personal and political journey of President Barack Obama, as the country grapples with its racial history. Weaving together conversations with colleagues, friends, and critics, and interspersed with his own speeches and news interviews, the series begins with Obama’s childhood and takes us through his perspective as the son of a white mother from Kansas and an African father, his spiritual formation by a generation of Black leaders, and his hopes for a more inclusive America. Through the story of one man irrevocably bound to the history of a country, OBAMA: IN PURSUIT OF A MORE PERFECT UNION reflects on the country’s past and present national identity.
Streaming on social media started Saturday, November 7th!
Video Recording at the Housatonic Museum of Art (HMA), Bridgeport, Connecticut
In collaboration with the HMA's Little Liberia exhibit
Mark Bailey, artistic director, Kevin Sherwin, assoc. artistic director, Edson Scheid, concertmaster
The American Baroque Orchestra performs "Little Liberia: Music from their Front Porch," a program that brings together the history of Bridgeport's Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses with music of the 17th through 19th centuries, highlighting overlooked composers of African descent. The program is in partnership with the Housantonic Museum of Art, and their Little Liberia exhibit.
Little Liberia was a neighborhood in Bridgeport, Connecticut, settled in the early 19th century, comprising freed blacks, runaway enslaved persons from southern states, and individuals from Native American tribes in Connecticut. On the front porch of the houses that made up Little Liberia, community members discussed local politics, religion, and the latest developments in the town. The town became renowned in its time as a safe haven, projecting a global vision of equality in the 19th century and onward.
This program of online performances imagines the intersection between the free black community that built Bridgeport's Little Liberia in the early 19th century, and composers of African descent from America and abroad. The concert will include music and melodies from the historic Little Liberia community, as well as composers including Joseph Bologne (1745-1799), José Mauricio Nunes Garcia (1767-1830), Rafael Antonio Castellanos (1725-1791) and Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780), who was also the first person of African heritage to vote in a British election.
With Dad
is a short nonfiction film that documents the work of photographer Stephen DiRado, specifically during the period of his father’s mental decline and eventual death from Alzheimer’s Disease in 2009. The film includes interview footage of DiRado, footage of DiRado handling prints of his work, high-resolution digital scans of DiRado's work and contemporaneous digital video footage, shot by Stephen's brother, Chris.
Summer Spent
The film is a 2012, 40 minute documentary depicting DiRado's obsessive, work discipline and artist life connected to numerous people on the island of Martha's Vineyard for over 25 years. Most of the filming takes place in the town of Aquinnah, MA
Q&A With Director: Matthew Kaplowitz & Possibly Artist TBA
How far would you go to pursue your passion? At 87 years old, Hank Virgona commutes to his Union Square studio six days a week and makes art. Despite poor health, cancer, lack of revenue and obscurity as an artist, Hank is unrelenting in his quest to understand how life and art are the same.
Intro
Partner Sponsor
Next Week Film
Next Week Trailer
Nothing Changes Film
Nothing Changes Discussion
Curious Worlds, The Art & Imagination of David Beck
7:00pm Oct 16
69 min
Curious Worlds: The Art & Imagination of David Beck pulls back the curtain on the singular artist David Beck: a master sculptor, carver, and miniature architect who works in a fantastical genre all his own, creating intricate worlds that are alive with magical and brilliant observations.
A largely undiscovered genius, David Beck is known to a select group of collectors and curators. During his early, formative years in New York City Beck lived on the edge of destitution. Eventually he found gallery representation and established a following of enthusiasts who snap up his work as soon as it comes out. His pieces have been shown at the MET, the Guggenheim, and some of the world’s most prominent galleries. His work, "MVSEVM" was commissioned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where it is on permanent display. To the larger public, though, he is virtually unknown.
His intricate, kinetic sculptures might be objects from a dream – fanciful buildings and hollow animals containing detailed, often humorous, scenes that are rendered on a tiny scale. Indifferent to current fashions, Beck combines modern, popular, and classical influences in his own way.
Curious Worlds captures the artist at work in his studio and reflecting on his art. It is an intimate insight into what it takes to create a masterwork: extraordinary ideas, an almost eerie ability to focus on the work, and patience. Beck submits to the camera’s invasive scrutiny with a wit and charm that is both inviting and ambivalent. Ultimately, he comes across as the smartest, most creative artist you’ve never heard of.
Intro
Partner Sponsor
Next Week Film
Trailer 1
Trailer 2
Trailer 3
Curious Worlds Film
Curious Worlds Discussion
The Original
Little Fiel
A Day With Barkley Hendricks
The Original
7:00pm Oct 23
Q&A With Director & Artist: Richard McMahan
The multi-talented outsider artist Richard McMahan is on a quest to painstakingly re-create thousands of famous and not-so-famous paintings and artifacts in miniature. From well-loved Picasso and Frida Kahlo paintings to more obscure intricate Maori canoes, McMahan has mastered dozens of genres over 30 years of creating, and he's made most of it on a cluttered kitchen counter using recycled materials. McMahan is also the curator of a mini-museum with a collection that surveys the scope of humanity's visual record. Olympia Stone directs this surprising portrait of a most unusual artist. Genre: Short Documentary.
Followed By
Little Fiel
15:40 min Q&A With Director: Irina Patkanian
Little Fiel is a stop motion animation/documentary that is loosely based on the life story of Mozambican artist Fiel dos Santos who grew up during the 16-year civil war - another proxy war equipped and sustained by foreign super powers. Fiel created eight figures representing his father, mother, five brothers and sister from dismantled civil war guns. Three New York artists turned them into puppets and created immersive stop-motion animation, inspired by Fiel’s memories. “Little Fiel” tells a universal story of peaceful people who have been coerced, conscripted and enticed into killing each other. It is a personal act of resistance and hope.
Guns are not killers. They are pieces of metal that can be reassembled into anything, including a little boy, a bird or a rose. Just as they make them, we can unmake them, one by one.
Followed By A Day With Barkley Hendricks
19 min Q&A With Director: Paul Ewen
In 1967, my grandfather bought TWO by Barkley Hendricks. Barkley Hendricks is considered one of the great painters of the mid-to-late 20th century. At the time of this art purchase he was a student at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. The painting was a huge influence win me while I was growing up and mentaller the world to me. About forty years later I emailed Professor Hendricks and we started a correspondence.
One day I brought a camera crew to his house, asked him questions and was blown away by his house and what was inside. He mentioned to me, that day, that TWO was the first work that he felt he had fully completed.
For anyone who is interested in hearing a great artist discuss his work, life and creativity this is a film that you should watch.
Intro
Presented By
Next Week Film
The Light of the Fire Trailer
8000 Paperclips Trailer
Little Fiel Movie
The Original Discussion
Little Fiel Discussion
The Original Movie
The Original Discussion
A Day With Barkley Hendricks Movie
A Day With Barkley Hendricks Discussion
Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King
7:00pm Oct 2
62 min
Q&A With Director: Olympia Stone & Possibly Artist TBA
Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King engages the viewer in the work of sculptor and stop-action filmmaker Elizabeth King, who embarks on each new project by posing a single question to herself: “Can this be physically done?” Tracing King’s creative flow, curiosity and obsessive drive to solve the inevitable series of artistic and technical problems that arise in creating her disconcerting sculptures and animations, this documentary film explores King’s passion about the mind/body riddle, the science of emotion, the human/machine interface, and those things a robot will never be able to do. From studio to exhibition, and in conversations with fellow artists, curators and critics, the film asks what looking at and seeing one another means in an increasingly mediated world.
Intro
Partner Sponsor
Next Week Film
Next Week Trailer
Double Take Film
Double Take Discussion
Actually Iconic: Richard Estes
7:00pm Sept 25
68 min
Q&A With Director: Olympia Stone
Intro
Partner Sponsor
Next Week Film
Next Week Trailer
Actually Iconic Film
Actually Iconic Discussion
Coming Spring 2020. Richard Estes is an icon of the photorealist movement yet he has humbly avoided media attention over his long career. “Actually, Iconic: Richard Estes" invites viewers into Estes’ world with unprecedented access to the artist and his masterpieces. Through intimate discussions of his technique and inspirations, and interviews with leading curators and critics this delicate portrait does more than just explore Estes’ pioneering genius; it humanizes it.
The Housatonic Museum of Art is pleased to present the Connecticut Film Fest’s Series
The Cardboard Bernini
Q&A With Jimmy Grashow follows screening
The Cardboard Bernini examines the work and life of artist James Grashow as he builds a giant cardboard fountain inspired by the work of the famous baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
James Grashow is an artist who has built—among many other things—giant 15 foot tall fighting men, a city and an ocean using paper mache, fabric, chicken wire and cardboard. More recently, he has begun making sculptures entirely out of corrugated cardboard and twist ties.
Several years ago, while visiting the home of his art dealer, Allan Stone, he stumbled across some of his giant fighting men that had been put outside due to lack of space. They were disintegrating. Although it was deeply painful and shocking for him to see his work like that, it was also surprisingly beautiful. He felt that he was seeing the full arc of his artistic enterprise before him—including its end.
So, Grashow challenged himself to embrace the “backend” of his process, and decided to build a giant cardboard fountain—a Grashow “Bernini.” From its conception, he intended this work to be put outside to disintegrate. Work on the fountain began in 2007 and was completed in 2010. This film documents this process from the start to finish.
Grashow’s “corrugated fountain” premiered indoors on June 11, 2010 at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia, to great acclaim. After shows in New York City and Pittsburgh, he finally installed the fountain outdoors at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, CT on April 1, 2012. It was there for a total of six weeks, after which time Grashow took his degraded cardboard masterpiece to the dumpster: “Ashes to ashes, mush to mush.”
This film is an intimate glimpse of an artist at work on what he considers his “final epic.” We follow Grashow as he asks what is the point of art and creation? What is the connection between creation and destruction? And, ultimately, what is the point of our lives in the face of our mortality?
“The Collector,” followed by a question and answer session with director Olympia Stone. The Collector explores the 46-year career of Allan Stone, the famed New York City gallery owner and art collector. Producer and director Olympia Stone reveals her father’s compulsive collecting genius while telling the parallel story of his lifelong journey through the art world from the 1950s to 2006.
Intro
Partner Sponsor
Next Week Film
Trailer 1
Trailer 2
The Collector Film
The Collector Discussion
Archived List of Featured Films
The Cardboard Bernini - Q&A With Jimmy Grashow
77 min
The Cardboard Bernini examines the work and life of artist James Grashow as he builds a giant cardboard fountain inspired by the work of the famous baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
James Grashow is an artist who has built—among many other things—giant 15 foot tall fighting men, a city and an ocean using paper mache, fabric, chicken wire and cardboard. More recently, he has begun making sculptures entirely out of corrugated cardboard and twist ties.
Several years ago, while visiting the home of his art dealer, Allan Stone, he stumbled across some of his giant fighting men that had been put outside due to lack of space. They were disintegrating. Although it was deeply painful and shocking for him to see his work like that, it was also surprisingly beautiful. He felt that he was seeing the full arc of his artistic enterprise before him—including its end.
So, Grashow challenged himself to embrace the “backend” of his process, and decided to build a giant cardboard fountain—a Grashow “Bernini.” From its conception, he intended this work to be put outside to disintegrate. Work on the fountain began in 2007 and was completed in 2010. This film documents this process from the start to finish.
Grashow’s “corrugated fountain” premiered indoors on June 11, 2010 at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia, to great acclaim. After shows in New York City and Pittsburgh, he finally installed the fountain outdoors at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, CT on April 1, 2012. It was there for a total of six weeks, after which time Grashow took his degraded cardboard masterpiece to the dumpster: “Ashes to ashes, mush to mush.”
This film is an intimate glimpse of an artist at work on what he considers his “final epic.” We follow Grashow as he asks what is the point of art and creation? What is the connection between creation and destruction? And, ultimately, what is the point of our lives in the face of our mortality?
The Collector explores the 46-year career of Allan Stone, the famed New York City gallery owner and art collector. Producer and director Olympia Stone reveals her father’s compulsive collecting genius while telling the parallel story of his lifelong journey through the art world from the 1950s to 2006. Viewers are taken on an extraordinary path inside one man’s obsessive submersion in art and its influence on the artists, art dealers and family members with whom he worked and lived.
“To say that the house is full is perhaps an understatement: as the camera pans from wall to wall, from ceiling to floor, it stops at paintings by Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Barnett Newman and Wayne Thiebaud; sculptures by César, Arman, John Chamberlain, James Grashow and David Beck; a tribe of African fetish pieces. The only bare spots are the paths that link the endless rooms, like trails hacked through a nearly impenetrable jungle.”
– KATHRYN SHATTUCK, The New York Times, February 10, 2007
Directors: Dan Makara - Redding CT Frank Borres - Bridgeport CT
Irwin - Feisty nonagenarian Irwin Hasen recounts his colorful life in the NYC Boxing industry and as a pioneer comic book illustrator for DC Comics on features such as Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, & Wildcat. He reached nationwide stardom in the 1950's with his newspaper strip DONDI , even appearing in the 1957 feature film. A lifelong New Yorker, Irwin's bubbly tales of wine, women & song, will have you dancing in your seats!
A Story In Stone presents a brief history of French Lithographer Fernand Mourlots' introduction of Stone Lithography to America, the process used by Picasso, Matisse, Chagall and Toulouse-Lautrec to reproduce some masters of their work. American artist James Reed was one of the first to work with New York Mourlot printers first hand. Reed went on to establish Milestone Graphics in Bridgeport, Ct., where he's printed for local & nationally recognized artists.
Actually Iconic: Richard Estes
Q&A With Director: Olympia Stone
Actually Iconic: Richard Estes
7:00pm Sept 25
68 min
Q&A With Director: Olympia Stone
Coming Spring 2020. Richard Estes is an icon of the photorealist movement yet he has humbly avoided media attention over his long career. “Actually, Iconic: Richard Estes" invites viewers into Estes’ world with unprecedented access to the artist and his masterpieces. Through intimate discussions of his technique and inspirations, and interviews with leading curators and critics this delicate portrait does more than just explore Estes’ pioneering genius; it humanizes it.
Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King
Q&A With Director: Olympia Stone
Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King<
7:00pm Oct. 2
82 min
Q&A With Director: Olympia Stone & Possibly Artist TBA
Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King engages the viewer in the work of sculptor and stop-action filmmaker Elizabeth King, who embarks on each new project by posing a single question to herself: “Can this be physically done?” Tracing King’s creative flow, curiosity and obsessive drive to solve the inevitable series of artistic and technical problems that arise in creating her disconcerting sculptures and animations, this documentary film explores King’s passion about the mind/body riddle, the science of emotion, the human/machine interface, and those things a robot will never be able to do. From studio to exhibition, and in conversations with fellow artists, curators and critics, the film asks what looking at and seeing one another means in an increasingly mediated world.
Nothing Changes: Art For Hank's Sake
Q&A With Director: Matthew Kaplowitz
7:00pm Oct 9
74 min
How far would you go to pursue your passion? At 87 years old, Hank Virgona commutes to his Union Square studio six days a week and makes art. Despite poor health, cancer, lack of revenue and obscurity as an artist, Hank is unrelenting in his quest to understand how life and art are the same.
Curious Worlds - The Art and Imagination of David Beck
Q&A With Director: Olympia Stone
7:00pm Oct 16
69 min
Curious Worlds: The Art & Imagination of David Beck pulls back the curtain on the singular artist David Beck: a master sculptor, carver, and miniature architect who works in a fantastical genre all his own, creating intricate worlds that are alive with magical and brilliant observations.
A largely undiscovered genius, David Beck is known to a select group of collectors and curators. During his early, formative years in New York City Beck lived on the edge of destitution. Eventually he found gallery representation and established a following of enthusiasts who snap up his work as soon as it comes out. His pieces have been shown at the MET, the Guggenheim, and some of the world’s most prominent galleries. His work, "MVSEVM" was commissioned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where it is on permanent display. To the larger public, though, he is virtually unknown.
His intricate, kinetic sculptures might be objects from a dream – fanciful buildings and hollow animals containing detailed, often humorous, scenes that are rendered on a tiny scale. Indifferent to current fashions, Beck combines modern, popular, and classical influences in his own way.
Curious Worlds captures the artist at work in his studio and reflecting on his art. It is an intimate insight into what it takes to create a masterwork: extraordinary ideas, an almost eerie ability to focus on the work, and patience. Beck submits to the camera’s invasive scrutiny with a wit and charm that is both inviting and ambivalent. Ultimately, he comes across as the smartest, most creative artist you’ve never heard of.
The Original
Little Fiel
A Day With Barkley Hendricks
The Original
7:00pm Oct 23
Q&A With Director & Artist: Richard McMahan
The multi-talented outsider artist Richard McMahan is on a quest to painstakingly re-create thousands of famous and not-so-famous paintings and artifacts in miniature. From well-loved Picasso and Frida Kahlo paintings to more obscure intricate Maori canoes, McMahan has mastered dozens of genres over 30 years of creating, and he's made most of it on a cluttered kitchen counter using recycled materials. McMahan is also the curator of a mini-museum with a collection that surveys the scope of humanity's visual record. Olympia Stone directs this surprising portrait of a most unusual artist. Genre: Short Documentary.
Followed By
Little Fiel
15:40 min Q&A With Director: Irina Patkanian
Little Fiel is a stop motion animation/documentary that is loosely based on the life story of Mozambican artist Fiel dos Santos who grew up during the 16-year civil war - another proxy war equipped and sustained by foreign super powers. Fiel created eight figures representing his father, mother, five brothers and sister from dismantled civil war guns. Three New York artists turned them into puppets and created immersive stop-motion animation, inspired by Fiel’s memories. “Little Fiel” tells a universal story of peaceful people who have been coerced, conscripted and enticed into killing each other. It is a personal act of resistance and hope.
Guns are not killers. They are pieces of metal that can be reassembled into anything, including a little boy, a bird or a rose. Just as they make them, we can unmake them, one by one.
Followed By A Day With Barkley Hendricks
19 min Q&A With Director: Paul Ewen
In 1967, my grandfather bought TWO by Barkley Hendricks. Barkley Hendricks is considered one of the great painters of the mid-to-late 20th century. At the time of this art purchase he was a student at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. The painting was a huge influence win me while I was growing up and mentaller the world to me. About forty years later I emailed Professor Hendricks and we started a correspondence.
One day I brought a camera crew to his house, asked him questions and was blown away by his house and what was inside. He mentioned to me, that day, that TWO was the first work that he felt he had fully completed.
For anyone who is interested in hearing a great artist discuss his work, life and creativity this is a film that you should watch.
Directors: Dan Makara - Redding CT Frank Borres - Bridgeport CT
30 min Q&A. (120 min block) followed by a Q&A with director of both films: Bentzi Avtzon
“The Light of Fire”
33 min.
After a sudden fire destroys his studio together with forty years of his work, American-Israeli artist, Yoram Raanan, begins painting again. But as startling images he's never painted before emerge from the work, he and his family begin to realize how different everything has become.
8000 Paperclips
60 min
When Israeli artist and TED Fellow, Raffael Lomas turned 50, he knew he wanted his new work to have meaning. So when he learned about a group of South Sudanese children who had been raised in Israel and were then deported to South Sudan, he jumped at the chance to go make art with them and “see what would happen.”
What happened was that over the course of several days during the summer vacation of 2014, Raffael and the students built a house made out of 8000 paper clips – 8000 points of connection - symbolizing the meaning of home. But he also learned the children’s complex stories and heard tales of their arduous journeys – escaping the horrors of war, fleeing militias, crossing borders under fire. The connections he forged with them would mark the beginning of a longer quest to make the “project count.”
Feeling that the children’s deportation was still an open wound, Raffael brought the house sculpture back to Israel to afford the children a way to look back and connect to those they had left behind. With an exhibition of the sculpture in Tel Aviv and a skype call, the children are able to traverse space and time and connect to the people who had once been part of their home.
That event led to more connections – and Raffael begins to think about how to forge a connection between the Abayudaya, the Jewish community of Uganda, and the South Sudanese refugees who are Christians but once lived in Israel and speak Hebrew. If the refugee students can teach the Jewish children Hebrew, then perhaps they can earn a living? And what else can an art object do for the children? Raffael travels back to Kampala to take the South Sudanese students to meet the Abayudaya and sends the house off on a journey to meet the art world. As the sculpture travels, maybe it can accrue more meaning , create awareness about the plight of refugees, and make their humanity tangible. Maybe it will even sell and imagine what that money could do for the kids!
In a complex and layered story, 8000 Paper Clips explores the value of art, Raffael’s own history with depression and struggle, and what humans need – no matter their national status. It follows a group of extraordinary young people as they overcome adversity and build hope for their future – with the support of a team of people whose hearts they have touched.
When resources are limited and the need is great – what is the real value of art? No matter how much Raffael tortures himself with that question, ultimately it is the children who are best able to answer it.
With Dad
is a short nonfiction film that documents the work of photographer Stephen DiRado, specifically during the period of his father’s mental decline and eventual death from Alzheimer’s Disease in 2009. The film includes interview footage of DiRado, footage of DiRado handling prints of his work, high-resolution digital scans of DiRado's work and contemporaneous digital video footage, shot by Stephen's brother, Chris.
Summer Spent
The film is a 2012, 40 minute documentary depicting DiRado's obsessive, work discipline and artist life connected to numerous people on the island of Martha's Vineyard for over 25 years. Most of the filming takes place in the town of Aquinnah, MA
Directors: Dan Makara - Redding CT Frank Borres - Bridgeport CT
Feisty nonagenarian Irwin Hasen recounts his colorful life in the NYC Boxing industry and as a pioneer comic book illustrator for DC Comics on features such as Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, & Wildcat. He reached nationwide stardom in the 1950's with his newspaper strip DONDI , even appearing in the 1957 feature film. A lifelong New Yorker, Irwin's bubbly tales of wine, women & song, will have you dancing in your seats!
“A Story In Stone”
Directors: Dan Makara - Redding CT Frank Borres - Bridgeport CT
Stone Lithographer: James Reed from Milestone Graphics Bridgeport
A Story In Stone presents a brief history of French Lithographer Fernand Mourlots' introduction of Stone Lithography to America, the process used by Picasso, Matisse, Chagall and Toulouse-Lautrec to reproduce some of master their work. American artist James Reed was one of the first to work with New York Mourlot printers first hand. Reed went on to establish Milestone Graphics in Bridgeport, Ct., where he's printed for local & nationally recognized artists.
“The Light of Fire” and “8000 Paperclips”
7:00pm Friday, October 30
“The Light of Fire”
Directors: Dan Makara - Redding CT Frank Borres - Bridgeport CT
33 min.
After a sudden fire destroys his studio together with forty years of his work, American-Israeli artist, Yoram Raanan, begins painting again. But as startling images he's never painted before emerge from the work, he and his family begin to realize how different everything has become.
“8000 Paperclips”
60 min
When Israeli artist and TED Fellow, Raffael Lomas turned 50, he knew he wanted his new work to have meaning. So when he learned about a group of South Sudanese children who had been raised in Israel and were then deported to South Sudan, he jumped at the chance to go make art with them and “see what would happen.”
What happened was that over the course of several days during the summer vacation of 2014, Raffael and the students built a house made out of 8000 paper clips – 8000 points of connection - symbolizing the meaning of home. But he also learned the children’s complex stories and heard tales of their arduous journeys – escaping the horrors of war, fleeing militias, crossing borders under fire. The connections he forged with them would mark the beginning of a longer quest to make the “project count.”
Feeling that the children’s deportation was still an open wound, Raffael brought the house sculpture back to Israel to afford the children a way to look back and connect to those they had left behind. With an exhibition of the sculpture in Tel Aviv and a skype call, the children are able to traverse space and time and connect to the people who had once been part of their home.
That event led to more connections – and Raffael begins to think about how to forge a connection between the Abayudaya, the Jewish community of Uganda, and the South Sudanese refugees who are Christians but once lived in Israel and speak Hebrew. If the refugee students can teach the Jewish children Hebrew, then perhaps they can earn a living? And what else can an art object do for the children? Raffael travels back to Kampala to take the South Sudanese students to meet the Abayudaya and sends the house off on a journey to meet the art world. As the sculpture travels, maybe it can accrue more meaning , create awareness about the plight of refugees, and make their humanity tangible. Maybe it will even sell and imagine what that money could do for the kids!
In a complex and layered story, 8000 Paper Clips explores the value of art, Raffael’s own history with depression and struggle, and what humans need – no matter their national status. It follows a group of extraordinary young people as they overcome adversity and build hope for their future – with the support of a team of people whose hearts they have touched.
When resources are limited and the need is great – what is the real value of art? No matter how much Raffael tortures himself with that question, ultimately it is the children who are best able to answer it.
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Available For A Limited Time: IRWIN
A Story In Stone
Intro
Presented By
Next Weeks Film
Actually Iconic
Irwin Feature
A Story In Stone Feature
Irwin Discussion
A Story In Stone Discussion
Available For A Limited Time:
The Cardboard Bernini Film
Intro
Presented By
Next Weeks Film
The Collector Trailer
Cardboard Bernini Feature Film
Post Film Discussion
Exceptional Art-Inspired Friday Film Series Opens September 4, Presented by Housatonic Museum of Art, Curated by Connecticut Film Festival
Looking for a good movie? Each Friday, beginning September 4, you can enjoy an exceptional online, art-inspired film series presented by the Housatonic Museum of Art (HMA) and curated by Connecticut Film Festival.
From the comfort of your own couch, you can enjoy “Friday Night Flicks,” feature-length films, or a group of short-form films, plus post-film discussion or Q&A with the filmmakers or subjects of the film. All films go online at 7pm from September 4th through November 6th. Visit www.HousatonicMuseum.org for film links. Housatonic Museum of Art presents the Connecticut Film Festival’s series schedule:
September 4: “The Cardboard Bernini,” followed by Q&A with Jimmy Grashow. The film examines the work and life of artist James Grashow as he builds a giant cardboard fountain inspired by the work of the famous baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The film documents the construction of Grashow’s monumental fountain built entirely in cardboard and intended to be placed outside to have the rain and elements wash it away. Produced and directed by Olympia Stone.
September 11:“The Collector,” followed by a question and answer session with director Olympia Stone. The Collector explores the 46-year career of Allan Stone, the famed New York City gallery owner and art collector. Producer and director Olympia Stone reveals her father’s compulsive collecting genius while telling the parallel story of his lifelong journey through the art world from the 1950s to 2006.
September 25:“Actually Iconic: Richard Estes,” followed by Q&A with director Olympia Stone. Richard Estes is an icon of the photorealist movement yet he has humbly avoided media attention over his long career. “Actually, Iconic: Richard Estes" invites viewers into Estes’ world with unprecedented access to the artist and his masterpieces. Through intimate discussions of his technique and inspirations, and interviews with leading curators and critics this delicate portrait explores Estes’ pioneering genius.
Caption For Photo Left:Photorealist movement artist Richard Estes at work in his studio, a shot from the film “Actually, Iconic: Richard Estes" by director: Olympia Stone.
October 2:"Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King” followed by Q&A with director: Olympia Stone. Enter the world of sculptor and stop-action filmmaker Elizabeth King, who embarks on each new project by posing a single question to herself: “Can this be physically done?” This documentary explores King’s passion about the mind/body riddle, the science of emotion, the human/machine interface, and those things a robot will never be able to do. From studio to exhibition, and in conversations with fellow artists, curators and critics, the film asks what looking at and seeing one another means in an increasingly mediated world.
October 9: “Nothing Changes: Art For Hank’s Sake.” How far would you go to pursue your passion? At 87 years old, Hank Virgona commutes to his Union Square studio six days a week and makes art. Despite poor health, cancer, lack of revenue and obscurity as an artist, Hank is unrelenting in his quest to understand how life and art are the same.
October 23:“Curious Worlds: The Art & Imagination of David Beck.” This film pulls back the curtain on artist David Beck: a master sculptor, carver, and miniature architect who works in a fantastical genre all his own, creating intricate worlds that are alive with magical and brilliant observations. His pieces have been shown at the MET, the Guggenheim, and some of the world’s most prominent galleries. His work, "MVSEVM" was commissioned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where it is on permanent display. To the larger public, though, he is virtually unknown.
Caption For Photo Right:Myopic Sheet Music, a work presented in miniature by master sculptor artist David Beck in the film, “Curious Worlds: The Art & Imagination of David Beck.”
October 30:“The Original” followed by Q&A with director and artist, Richard McMahan, and “Little Fiel,” followed by Q&A with director Irina Patkanian. Outsider artist Richard McMahan is on a quest to painstakingly re-create thousands of famous and not-so-famous paintings and artifacts in miniature. From well-loved Picasso and Frida Kahlo paintings to the more obscure, McMahan has mastered dozens of genres over 30 years. “Little Fiel” is a stop motion animation/documentary loosely based on the life story of Mozambican artist Fiel dos Santos who grew up during the 16-year civil war. Fiel created eight figures representing his family from dismantled civil war guns. Three New York artists turned them into puppets and created immersive stop-motion animation, inspired by Fiel’s memories.
November 6: ‘With Dad” followed by Q&A with director & photographer Stephen DiRado and the film, “Summer Spent.” The short nonfiction film “With Dad” documents the work of photographer Stephen DiRado, specifically during the period of his father’s mental decline and eventual death from Alzheimer’s Disease in 2009. The film includes interview footage of DiRado, high-resolution digital scans of DiRado's work and contemporaneous digital video footage. “Summer Spent” is a 40-minute documentary depicting DiRado's obsessive, work discipline and life connected to people on Martha's Vineyard for over 25 years.
“We are pleased to provide online access to these exceptional films that spotlight art and artists,” said Robbin Zella, Director of Housatonic Museum of Art. “Some post-film discussion will be live, offering the audience an opportunity to engage with the creators, and films by Olympia Stone have a special connection to HMA, as we have many remarkable works in our collection that were donated by the Allan Stone Gallery.”
The Connecticut Film Festival’s (CFF) mission is to excite, encourage, and teach, but most of all to connect audiences in ways that truly ignite creativity and imagination. CFF provides screenings statewide to tens of thousands of Connecticut’s citizens and tourists. Hosting films in multiple markets throughout the state creates an opportunity for a greater number of viewers to attend while also providing an excellent opportunity for the independent and international film industry to showcase to a large and diverse audience. CFF and its weekly event, FilmFest52, exhibits entertaining and thought-provoking visual stories with an independent point of view to inspire audiences to create change locally, globally, or in their personal lives./p>
You’re invited to join us for programs related to the exhibition, The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography, on view from Wednesday, March 6 through Friday, August 2, 2024. All events are free and open to the public. Support provided by CT Humanities.
Tour of Little Liberia Exhibition with Maisa Tisdale
Wednesday, February 28th from 12pm-1pm
Free and open to the public
Lafayette Hall, CT State Housatonic (900 Lafayette Blvd)
Did you know that Bridgeport was once called Little Liberia?
Learn about this seafaring community of free people of color established in the 1800s. From a luxurious resort hotel for wealthy Blacks to the city’s first free lending library, Little Liberia was a prosperous and thriving community. Hear from Maisa Tisdale, the Executive Director of the Mary and Eliza Freeman Center, who will explain the history and continued importance of Little Liberia.
This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Meet in Lafayette Hall Room L-108 for lunch.
Opening Reception for “The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography”
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 from 3:30pm-5:30pm
Tours at 4pm and 5pm
Burt Chernow Galleries
Snow date: Thursday, March 7, 2024 from 3:30pm-5:30pm
You're invited to the opening of the exhibition, “The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography," on Wednesday, March 6, 2024 from 3:30pm-5:30pm in the Burt Chernow Galleries at the Housatonic Museum of Art. The show showcases a selection of artworks by the famed American photographer, Walter Iooss. On view from March 6, 2024 to August 2, 2024, the exhibition is organized into thematic sections that explore the various ways that photographs capture heroic moments, contribute to legendary myths of greatness, and tell authentic stories of athletic struggle and uplift.
The exhibition is curated by Kathryn Leann Harris and Douglas Stark of Interpreting Sports with key loans from the Collection of the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Connecticut. Support provided by CT Humanities.
The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For questions, contact Jennifer Reynolds-Kaye at or 203-332-5052.
Opening Reception for “The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography”
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 from 3:30pm-5:30pm
Tours at 4pm and 5pm
Burt Chernow Galleries
Snow date: Thursday, March 7, 2024 from 3:30pm-5:30pm
You're invited to the opening of the exhibition, “The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography," on Wednesday, March 6, 2024 from 3:30pm-5:30pm in the Burt Chernow Galleries at the Housatonic Museum of Art. The show showcases a selection of artworks by the famed American photographer, Walter Iooss. On view from March 6, 2024 to August 2, 2024, the exhibition is organized into thematic sections that explore the various ways that photographs capture heroic moments, contribute to legendary myths of greatness, and tell authentic stories of athletic struggle and uplift.
The exhibition is curated by Kathryn Leann Harris and Douglas Stark of Interpreting Sports with key loans from the Collection of the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Connecticut. Support provided by CT Humanities.
The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For questions, contact Jennifer Reynolds-Kaye at or 203-332-5052.
Save the Date:
Hidden Gems
Opening Wednesday, September 13, 2023 at 3:30pm
Burt Chernow Galleries, Housatonic Museum of Art
“From the Concrete I Rose”
Opening Thursday, June 15, 2023 at 5:30pm
Burt Chernow Galleries, Housatonic Museum of Art
This series supports the important educational programs and special exhibitions that the HMA offers to its students, faculty and staff, and greater community. Tickets are $50 and include hand-crafted appetizers, drinks, free parking, and lively conversation. It’s a wonderful way to support the HMA while enjoying an evening on the town.
All events are from 5:30pm – 7:00pm; check the dates below for location. Click the button below to purchase tickets using a credit card.
If you have any questions, please email Jennifer Reynolds-Kaye at or call 203-332-5052.
Date:Tuesday, March 28 from 5:30pm – 7:00pm Speaker’s Name: Manon Gaudet Title Making Sovereignty: Native American Tourist Art at the Housatonic Museum of Art Location: Elizabeth Fray Galleries, Beacon Hall
Manon Gaudet is a PhD Candidate in the History of Art at Yale University. She studies nineteenth and twentieth-century North American art, with a particular interest in the ongoing impacts of settler colonialism and intercultural exchange. Her dissertation critically examines how a land-based, property logic permeates twentieth-century visual culture and how settler artists and designers upheld and visually reproduced the dispossession of Indigenous land.
Prior to Yale, she received an MA in Art History from Carleton University and a BA with Honours from the University of Alberta. Her professional experience includes internships at the Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum and work with the Carleton University Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Alberta. Her writing has been published in Third Text, Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art, and Border Crossings magazine. Her research has been supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art, The Decorative Arts Trust, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, among others.
Date:Wednesday, April 12 from 5:30pm – 7:00pm Speaker’s Name: Dr. Cheryl D. Miller Title: Painting By Design Location: Performing Arts Center, Lafayette Hall, HCC
Dr. Cheryl D. Miller is recognized for her outsized influence within the graphic design profession to end the marginalization of BIPOC designers through her civil rights activism, industry exposé trade writing, research rigor, and archival vision. Miller is a national leader of minority rights, gender, race diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion advocacy in graphic design.
She is founder of the former Cheryl D. Miller Design, Inc., NYC, a social impact design firm; she is a designer, author, educator, trade writer for PRINT Magazine and Communication Arts Magazine, and theologian. She is a decolonizing design historian.
Dr. Miller has an MS in Communications Design from Pratt Institute and a BFA in Graphic Design from Maryland Institute College of Art, completed Foundation Studies at Rhode Island School of Design, and has a Doctor of Humane Letters from: Vermont College of Fine Arts, 2020 and a Doctor of Fine Arts from MICA-The Maryland Institute College of Art 2022, The RISD-Rhode Island School of Design 2022 and a MDiv from Union Theological Seminary. In 2021 she was an AIGA Medalist “Expanding Access,” a Cooper Hewitt “Design Visionary” awardee, an Honorary IBM Design Scholar, “Eminent Luminary and The One Club Creative Hall of Fame Inductee 2022.”
A recipient of countless awards, she is dedicated to visual arts advancement. The Cheryl D. Miller Collection at Stanford University is her legacy professional firm’s archive, including her memoir research and manuscripts. The collection features D&I initiatives, corporate communications developed for Fortune 500 corporations, and corporate communications for national African American organizations, developed post-Civil Rights Era, 1974–1994. She is further archiving, The History of Black Graphic Design In North America, collected at both Stanford University and The Herb Lubalin Center, Cooper Union.
She is an activist, decolonizing graphic design professor, lecturer, and revisionist historian. She is Professor of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Communication Design, Art Center College of Design, Distinguished Senior Lecturer in Design at the University of Texas–Austin, E.W. Doty Fellow 2021, and adjunct professor at Howard University. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Vermont College of Fine Arts and the President’s Global Advisory Board of Maryland Institute College of Art.
Date: Tuesday, May 2 from 5:30pm – 7:00pm Speaker’s name: Eric March Title: Sketching in the Sculpture Garden Location: HCC Courtyard Rain location: African sculpture in Atrium of Lafayette Hall
Eric March is a painter and draftsman whose work explores the formal possibilities of realism with themes of urban life, urban environments, and narrative-often through dense multi-figural compositions. Eric earned his BFA at Indiana University and continued his studies in New York City with Andy Reiss and at the Art Students League. He has had solo shows in New York City and New Haven, CT. His paintings are featured in permanent exhibitions at Indiana University, Yal e New Haven Hospital at 150 Sargent Drive and at Cornell Scott Hill Health Center. Honors include a New Have Arts Council Grant, Queens Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant, the Provincetown Dune Shack Residency, and the Hudson River Fellowship. Eric served as the Department Head of the Painting and Drawing Department at the National Academy School in NY in 2014-15. He currently teaches at the Art Students League (NYC) and Creative Arts Workshop (New Haven). He lives in New Haven with his wife and two boys and has a studio in Erector Square.
You’re invited to the Black History Month Celebration of the Arts at Housatonic Community College! Join us for tours highlighting African American artists, art and poetry by Shanna Tanika Melton, music by Pastor Denny, poetry and dance by Connect Us, and a performance by Rising Starz Dance Studio. The event is free and open to the public; RSVP requested through Eventbrite.
You’re invited to join us for programs related to the exhibitions, The Practice of Democracy: A View from Connecticut and The Bridgeport Portrait Project, on view from Tuesday, January 17 through Friday, February 24, 2023. All in-person events are in the Burt Chernow Galleries; free & open to the public.
Student Docent Tours | Every Tuesday and Wednesday at 12:30pm starting on Tuesday, January 24
Guest Lecture | Thursday, February 9 from 12:30-1:30pm
Slums in the Sky: How Photography Killed Mass Social Housing
In 1972, a failing public housing complex in St. Louis called the Pruitt-Igoe was dynamited, marking the beginning of the end of the utopian project of living better together. Yet the kinds of photography that helped indict projects like the Pruitt-Igoe pictured consequences, not causes of failure, thus discrediting public housing before it could be more fairly evaluated.
This lecture will consider the ways in which photography has shaped discourses of home and community in the postwar world, imagining also the ways in which images might revive affordable housing projects in future.
Sarah Churchill, PhD Candidate at Drew University and Adjunct Instructor of Art History at Housatonic Community College
Workshop | Wednesday, February 15 from 5-7pm
The Intersections of Food Sovereignty & Social Justice
Join us for a Social Justice Workshop focusing on community food security in Bridgeport. Find out how you can get involved locally, learn about the history of Black leaders in the food justice movement and get creative with an interactive zine making session!
Dune Bryant (they/them) & Buggz Majewski (they/them), Green Village Initiative
Virtual Program | Thursday, February 16 from 7-8pm
Exhibition Discussion, The Practice of Democracy: A View from Connecticut
Presented in partnership with Public Humanities at Yale and the Regional Plan Association
Join us for a conversation with Elihu Rubin and Melissa Kaplan-Macey on the current exhibition, The Practice of Democracy: A View from Connecticut. This site-specific immersion examines how justice, equality and power appear in our built environment – our cities and neighborhoods, the places we call home. Register here: http://bit.ly/3XvnVsa
Melissa Kaplan-Macey, Vice President, State Programs & Connecticut Director at the Regional Plan Association
Elihu Rubin, Associate Professor of Urbanism at the Yale School of Architecture with a secondary appointment in American Studies
The Housatonic Museum of Art presents HBO’s three-part documentary, OBAMA: IN PURSUIT OF A MORE PERFECT UNION.
The documentary, produced by Kunhardt Films, chronicles the personal and political journey of President Barack Obama, as the country grapples with its racial history. Weaving together conversations with colleagues, friends, and critics, and interspersed with his own speeches and news interviews, the series begins with Obama’s childhood and takes us through his perspective as the son of a white mother from Kansas and an African father, his spiritual formation by a generation of Black leaders, and his hopes for a more inclusive America. Through the story of one man irrevocably bound to the history of a country, OBAMA: IN PURSUIT OF A MORE PERFECT UNION reflects on the country’s past and present national identity.
Streaming on social media started Saturday, November 7th!
Video Recording at the Housatonic Museum of Art (HMA), Bridgeport, Connecticut
In collaboration with the HMA's Little Liberia exhibit
Mark Bailey, artistic director, Kevin Sherwin, assoc. artistic director, Edson Scheid, concertmaster
The American Baroque Orchestra performs "Little Liberia: Music from their Front Porch," a program that brings together the history of Bridgeport's Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses with music of the 17th through 19th centuries, highlighting overlooked composers of African descent. The program is in partnership with the Housantonic Museum of Art, and their Little Liberia exhibit.
Little Liberia was a neighborhood in Bridgeport, Connecticut, settled in the early 19th century, comprising freed blacks, runaway enslaved persons from southern states, and individuals from Native American tribes in Connecticut. On the front porch of the houses that made up Little Liberia, community members discussed local politics, religion, and the latest developments in the town. The town became renowned in its time as a safe haven, projecting a global vision of equality in the 19th century and onward.
This program of online performances imagines the intersection between the free black community that built Bridgeport's Little Liberia in the early 19th century, and composers of African descent from America and abroad. The concert will include music and melodies from the historic Little Liberia community, as well as composers including Joseph Bologne (1745-1799), José Mauricio Nunes Garcia (1767-1830), Rafael Antonio Castellanos (1725-1791) and Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780), who was also the first person of African heritage to vote in a British election.
FREE screening will take place online on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22nd - 24th
Celebrate Earth Day this year with an award-winning film: The Biggest Little Farm. With breathtaking cinematography, captivating animals, and an urgent message to heed Mother Nature’s call, the film provides a vital blueprint for better living and a healthier planet. Presented by Housatonic Museum of Art, the FREE screening will take place online on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22nd - 24th.
The Biggest Little Farm chronicles the eight-year quest of John and Molly Chester as they trade city living for 200 acres of barren farmland and a dream to harvest in harmony with nature. Through dogged perseverance and embracing the opportunity provided by nature's conflicts, the Chesters unlock and uncover a biodiverse design for living that exists far beyond their farm, its seasons, and our wildest imagination.
“This poignant nature documentary follows the Chesters’ journey to return to the land and run an organic, biodynamic farm. As viewers, we get a front row seat to the ups and downs of agricultural life and a new appreciation for the ecosystems that farms establish,” said Robbin Zella, Director, Housatonic Museum of Art.
The film is part of a virtual Earth Day Celebration presented by Housatonic Community College. A special thanks to Connecticut Film Festival for organizing this screening, and to Pitney Bowes, Avangrid, and Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company for their support of Housatonic Community College’s STEAM programs and Earth Day presentation.
STEAMfest Movies
Lost & Found - Short Film Animation
Lost & Found is a stop motion short film that tugs at the heartstrings. A clumsy crochet dinosaur must unravel itself to save the love of its life.
7mins / Australia / 2018
The dialogue-free film, which follows a knitted dinosaur who must unravel himself to save the love of his life, was written by Slabe and produced by Lucy J. Hayes.
The film has screened at a number of festivals around the world including Berlinale, where it made its premiere, as well as locally at Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and CinefestOz.
In Australia, Lost & Found has already won a number of significant awards, including the AACTA Award for Best Animated Short; Short Film Production of the Year at the Screen Producers Australia Awards; and Best Animation and the Major Award at the AWGIE Awards. Internationally, the film is also currently in contention for the Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject.
Directors: Bradley Slabe, Andrew Goldsmith
Screenplay: Bradley Slabe
Producer: Lucy Hayes
Awards: AACTA Award for Best Short Animation, Screen Producers Australia Awards for Short Film Production of the Year
Cast: Maria Angelico, Marc Gallagher
Two Balloons
Two adventurous lemurs navigate their dirigibles halfway around the world to a place where happenstance and fate threaten to disrupt their reunion.
Director: Mark C. Smith is a filmmaker from Portland, Oregon. He has produced the films North, Denmark and A House, A Home. As a cinematographer Mark spent many years filming winter expeditions in North America and South America. He is the co-author of two photography books, Osterlandet and The Powder Road. Two Balloons is Mark’s first animated film.
How to Make Stop Motion Videos
Credit: Science Filmmaking Tips
Stop Motion Animator
Credit: Academy Originals
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
Daniel Alderson (Fantastic Mr. Fox, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls), takes viewers behind the scenes to show what he does as a stop motion animator.
Head of Puppetry
Credit: Academy Originals
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
Georgina Hayns (Coraline, ParaNorman), takes viewers behind the scenes to show what she does as the head of puppetry.
Top 10 Stop-Motion Animation Movies
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
Exceptional Art-Inspired Friday Film Series Opens September 4, Presented by Housatonic Museum of Art, Curated by Connecticut Film Festival
Looking for a good movie? Each Friday, beginning September 4, you can enjoy an exceptional online, art-inspired film series presented by the Housatonic Museum of Art (HMA) and curated by Connecticut Film Festival.
From the comfort of your own couch, you can enjoy “Friday Night Flicks,” feature-length films, or a group of short-form films, plus post-film discussion or Q&A with the filmmakers or subjects of the film. All films go online at 7pm from September 4th through November 6th. Visit www.HousatonicMuseum.org for film links. Housatonic Museum of Art presents the Connecticut Film Festival’s series schedule:
September 4: “The Cardboard Bernini,” followed by Q&A with Jimmy Grashow. The film examines the work and life of artist James Grashow as he builds a giant cardboard fountain inspired by the work of the famous baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The film documents the construction of Grashow’s monumental fountain built entirely in cardboard and intended to be placed outside to have the rain and elements wash it away. Produced and directed by Olympia Stone.
September 11:“The Collector,” followed by a question and answer session with director Olympia Stone. The Collector explores the 46-year career of Allan Stone, the famed New York City gallery owner and art collector. Producer and director Olympia Stone reveals her father’s compulsive collecting genius while telling the parallel story of his lifelong journey through the art world from the 1950s to 2006.
September 25:“Actually Iconic: Richard Estes,” followed by Q&A with director Olympia Stone. Richard Estes is an icon of the photorealist movement yet he has humbly avoided media attention over his long career. “Actually, Iconic: Richard Estes" invites viewers into Estes’ world with unprecedented access to the artist and his masterpieces. Through intimate discussions of his technique and inspirations, and interviews with leading curators and critics this delicate portrait explores Estes’ pioneering genius.
Caption For Photo Left:Photorealist movement artist Richard Estes at work in his studio, a shot from the film “Actually, Iconic: Richard Estes" by director: Olympia Stone.
October 2:"Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King” followed by Q&A with director: Olympia Stone. Enter the world of sculptor and stop-action filmmaker Elizabeth King, who embarks on each new project by posing a single question to herself: “Can this be physically done?” This documentary explores King’s passion about the mind/body riddle, the science of emotion, the human/machine interface, and those things a robot will never be able to do. From studio to exhibition, and in conversations with fellow artists, curators and critics, the film asks what looking at and seeing one another means in an increasingly mediated world.
October 9: “Nothing Changes: Art For Hank’s Sake.” How far would you go to pursue your passion? At 87 years old, Hank Virgona commutes to his Union Square studio six days a week and makes art. Despite poor health, cancer, lack of revenue and obscurity as an artist, Hank is unrelenting in his quest to understand how life and art are the same.
October 23:“Curious Worlds: The Art & Imagination of David Beck.” This film pulls back the curtain on artist David Beck: a master sculptor, carver, and miniature architect who works in a fantastical genre all his own, creating intricate worlds that are alive with magical and brilliant observations. His pieces have been shown at the MET, the Guggenheim, and some of the world’s most prominent galleries. His work, "MVSEVM" was commissioned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where it is on permanent display. To the larger public, though, he is virtually unknown.
Caption For Photo Right:Myopic Sheet Music, a work presented in miniature by master sculptor artist David Beck in the film, “Curious Worlds: The Art & Imagination of David Beck.”
October 30:“The Original” followed by Q&A with director and artist, Richard McMahan, and “Little Fiel,” followed by Q&A with director Irina Patkanian. Outsider artist Richard McMahan is on a quest to painstakingly re-create thousands of famous and not-so-famous paintings and artifacts in miniature. From well-loved Picasso and Frida Kahlo paintings to the more obscure, McMahan has mastered dozens of genres over 30 years. “Little Fiel” is a stop motion animation/documentary loosely based on the life story of Mozambican artist Fiel dos Santos who grew up during the 16-year civil war. Fiel created eight figures representing his family from dismantled civil war guns. Three New York artists turned them into puppets and created immersive stop-motion animation, inspired by Fiel’s memories.
November 6: ‘With Dad” followed by Q&A with director & photographer Stephen DiRado and the film, “Summer Spent.” The short nonfiction film “With Dad” documents the work of photographer Stephen DiRado, specifically during the period of his father’s mental decline and eventual death from Alzheimer’s Disease in 2009. The film includes interview footage of DiRado, high-resolution digital scans of DiRado's work and contemporaneous digital video footage. “Summer Spent” is a 40-minute documentary depicting DiRado's obsessive, work discipline and life connected to people on Martha's Vineyard for over 25 years.
“We are pleased to provide online access to these exceptional films that spotlight art and artists,” said Robbin Zella, Director of Housatonic Museum of Art. “Some post-film discussion will be live, offering the audience an opportunity to engage with the creators, and films by Olympia Stone have a special connection to HMA, as we have many remarkable works in our collection that were donated by the Allan Stone Gallery.”
The Connecticut Film Festival’s (CFF) mission is to excite, encourage, and teach, but most of all to connect audiences in ways that truly ignite creativity and imagination. CFF provides screenings statewide to tens of thousands of Connecticut’s citizens and tourists. Hosting films in multiple markets throughout the state creates an opportunity for a greater number of viewers to attend while also providing an excellent opportunity for the independent and international film industry to showcase to a large and diverse audience. CFF and its weekly event, FilmFest52, exhibits entertaining and thought-provoking visual stories with an independent point of view to inspire audiences to create change locally, globally, or in their personal lives./p>
Lachell Workman - The History of Bridgeport Public Housing
March 5, 2020 530 PM
Lachell Workman, will engage with the history of housing in Bridgeport, CT spanning from the work of the Freeman Sisters during the mid-1800's tying into the history of public housing in Bridgeport. Utilizing two automatic slide projectors Workman will perform a series of choreographed movements that respond to the projected images of the following housing projects, many of which have since been demolished in the city of Bridgeport: Father Panik Village, The Greene Houses, Marina Village, and P.T. Barnum Apartments. Following the performed movements she will transition to being seated on a scaffold and invite 4 selected guests to recall memories of living in these housing projects.
Please join us for a Conversation with Artist Rachel Owens
February 29, 2020 @ 2:00 PM
Join Us Saturday, February 29th at 2 PM in the Burt Chernow Galleries For a Conversation with Artist Rachel Owens in the Burt Chernow Galleries.
This event is FREE and Open to the Public
Please join us for an evening of musical improvisation with musician Laura Ortman
February 20, 2020 @ 5:30 PM
Laura Ortman will engage the scaffolded sculptures of Rachel Owens’ exhibit by playing violin, Native American instruments and digital effects.
Location: the Burt Chernow Galleries.
This event is free and all are welcome!
Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) is a Brooklyn, NY composer, musician and artist. She produces solo albums, live performances and film/art soundtracks and frequently collaborates with artists in film, music, art, dance, multi-media, activistism and poetry, such as Tony Conrad, Jock Soto, Raven Chacon, Nanobah Becker, Okkyung Lee, Martin Bisi, Caroline Monnet, Michelle Latimer, Raphaele Shirley and Martha Colburn. Ortman’s notable performances include venues at the The National Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of Modern Art, The Kitchen, MoMA P.S. 1, Centre Pompidou, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, SF MoMA, CBGB’s, St. Marks Church, Dia Art Foundation, amongst countless other established and DIY venues in the US, Canada and Western Europe. In 2008 she founded the Coast Orchestra, an all-Native American orchestral ensemble, and in 2019 she participated in the Whiney Biennial.
December 4th Artist Talk With Joseph Saccio at HMA
On Wednesday, December 4th join artist Joseph Saccio for an exclusive walk through of his current solo exhibition: “In a Dark Wood, Wandering,” at the Housatonic Museum of Art. During this free event, which begins at 11am, Saccio will share his artistic process and his interests in mythology, nature and the journey though bereavement.
Over the course of thirty years, this artist has created large-scale sculptures that draw on classical mythology and religious narrative to create primal, emotional and fantastical works of art that explore loss, grief, and resilience.
Using wood, natural materials and found objects, the ambitious career survey exhibition features to reflect this New Haven-based artist’s feelings about loss and rebirth. While the artwork is frequently dark and pensive, the mood is often lightened by humor through the placement of brightly colored materials.
“Saccio’s work reminds of the natural cycle of life tempered with humor and surprise; utilizing the power of myth and religious narrative he brings us through the dark and into the light,” said Robbin Zella, Director of the Housatonic Museum of Art. “Time spent in the galleries with him will allow you to contemplate your own experiences with sorrow and resilience.”
Saccio’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibits throughout Connecticut, including Mercy Gallery, Silvermine Art Center, Parachute Factory, Erector Square Gallery, Choate Mellon Art Center, Jon Slade Ely House, Bruce S. Kershner Gallery, and Gallery of the Institute Library.
The Housatonic Museum of Art is located in Lafayette Hall on the Housatonic Community College campus, located at 900 Lafayette Blvd in Bridgeport, CT. The exhibition will be on view through Saturday, December 14, 2019.
The Housatonic Museum of Art would like to thank sponsors The Werth Family Foundation and Elizabeth Fray with additional support from The Housatonic Community College Foundation and Housatonic Community College.
This exhibition has been organized by the Housatonic Museum of Art and includes an exhibition catalog with a critical essay by Barbara O'Brien, Independent Curator and Critic.
The Housatonic Museum of Art is home to one of the premier college art collections in the United States. The museum’s collection offers the opportunity to view works that span the history of art from the ancient to the contemporary, and is on continuous display throughout the 300,000 square foot facility. Visit www.HousatonicMuseum.org to learn more.
Mock Public Art Project
Call for Artists
Deadline: December 16, 2019
ABOUT THE PROJECT:
Winning design receives $500.00
This project will exist as a model or blueprint ONLY and will be on display in the Museum Atrium in conjunction with the exhibit by sculptor Rachel Owens.
Project Details:
Rachel Owens is inviting area artists to design a new work of art for Bridgeport’s Seaside Park to commemorate the history of Little Liberia, a historic community located in the South end of Bridgeport. This neighborhood was settled by free people of color and was called “home” by its most famous residents, Mary and Eliza Freeman.
Artists and Designers are invited to submit their proposals which can address topics such as gender or racial inequities, the environment or the inclusion of new monuments or memorials that address erasure from the historical record or conversely, long-overdue recognition for the “anonymous.”
Proposal should be delivered as a PDF no larger than 25 MB to
Please include:
Contact Information: Name, email, website, phone number
Artist’s Statement, no more than 500 words
-this should describe your past practice and how it relates to this project
Project Description, no more than 500 words
Up to 3 images describing proposed project and site
-include: size, materials, any other pertinent information
10 images of previous work
How will you utilize the case: Model/ video/ drawings etc.
Winner will be informed by January 10 of the panelists decision and will have until February 2 to complete the contents of their Chernow Gallery Case
(Case size is: 36” WIDE x 36” DEEP x 14” HIGH)
Contact:
The Prospect: A Public Art Proposal
Click to enlarge
In conjunction with Rachel Owens’ upcoming exhibition at the Housatonic Museum of Art, will be hosting a mock competition for a prospective new artwork in Bridgeport’s Seaside Park. Owens’ exhibition weaves together the story of the Mary and Eliza Freeman houses, the natural landscape of the coastal area, and PT Barnum’s legendary exhibits.
In accordance with Owens’ exhibition themes which address the natural, architectural, cultural, historical, social/political and environmental context of the site, the proposal may focus on women’s rights, the history of Little Liberia, sea level rise and resiliency as well as other social and political issues that affect this diverse community.
A one-day workshop will be held on Thursday, October 3 from 7-9 PM in Room 109, Lafayette Hall. In the workshop, we will discuss a brief history of Public Art, the monuments that are currently located in Bridgeport, and how to develop a proposal. All Bridgeport area artists and designers are invited to apply.
The winner of the competition will receive $500 to further develop the proposal, build a small model of the proposed sculpture and have the prospective artwork featured in a case near the Burt Chernow Galleries during the run of Owens’ exhibition. Female identifying and artists of color are encouraged to apply.
Art Activist and Founder of The Spoon Movement to Speak at Housatonic Community College
By Laura Roberts
On Wednesday, September 18, 2019 from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., global game-changer Fernando Luis Alvarez, and founder of The Spoon Movement, will present, “Demanding Accountability Through Art Activism, Passion and Fearlessness,” in Housatonic Community College’s Beacon Hall, Room BH-214. The free lecture is open to HCC and Gateway Community College students, the public and the media.
Alvarez, who is the producer of the widely-acclaimed Opioid: Express Yourself! art show and director of Alvarez Gallery, will share his risk-taking art activism strategy behind the guerrilla installations that continue igniting global awareness of the opioid epidemic while demanding accountability by the architects of this crisis.
“I am honored and excited to share my art activism, specifically, The Spoon Movement with attendees. The hundreds of thousands of victims of the opioid epidemic and their families deserve to be heard and those involved in creating and exacerbating this crisis brought to justice beyond civil suits,” says Alvarez.
Those interested in attending the free lecture can RSVP on The Spoon Movement’s Facebook event page. To learn more about The Spoon Movement, please log on to thespoonmovement.com.
A Westport Historical Society & Freeman Center fundraiser for The Mary & Eliza Freeman Center for History and Community (A 501 c 3 nonprofit)
A generous donor will match all donations!
A Night of Theatre at the Bijou
A Benefit for the Historic Mary & Eliza Freeman Houses and Center
Thursday, May 30th, 7:30 pm
A JOURNEY
Musical One-Woman Show Written & Performed by Kimberly Wilson
Bridgeport’s Mary & Eliza Freeman Center for History and Community and the Westport Historical Society partner once again to present a benefit presentation of “A JOURNEY: Musical One-Woman Show” – to support the Freeman Center’s restoration of the historically significant Mary & Eliza houses and its programs. All proceeds will be matched by a generous donor, so please come and bring your friends.
Theatre seating is $20. Table seating (for 2,3, and 4) is $30 per person. Patron Tickets are $65.00 per person, and include a pre-theatre reception catered by Trattoria ‘A Vuccella (cash bar) from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Donors may select theatre seats or table seating.
“A JOURNEY: Musical One-Woman Show” is an intricate look at the Black experience told through the eyes of the Black woman and performed by one woman, professional actress and singer Kimberly Wilson. Westport resident, Ms. Wilson skillfully tells of the struggles and influence of Black womanhood with strength, dignity and pride and in perfect lockstep with the history of the United States. The Show brings to life 8 historical African-American women, including Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, African Queen, a Slave girl and introducing - Bridgeport’s own Mary Freeman (1815-1883), whose historic 1848 home still bears witness to the storied, free, Black and Paugussett settlement - Little Liberia (circa 1822).
For Tickets & Information: Call the Mary & Eliza Freeman Center (203) 612-7769 or visit our website www.freemancenterbpt.com
Housatonic Museum of Art will host a project launch and brainstorming session for sculptor Rachel Owens project,
Life on the Other Side of the Cracked Glass Ceiling-Bridgeport
PLEASE JOIN US FOR A BRAINSTORMING SESSION
Housatonic Museum of Art will host a project launch and brainstorming session for sculptor Rachel Owens project,
Life on the Other Side of the Cracked Glass Ceiling-Bridgeport
Tuesday, October 16, 2018 from 11am to 1pm
Beacon Hall Events Center
Students and the Community will gather to brainstorm the ways in which this project can work to engage Bridgeport in meaningful conversation in order to create a public program together. Centering on the Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses, a series of sculptures incorporating glass casts of the front porch of Mary's house will be activated through public discussions and performances developed by, and pertinent to, Bridgeport's diverse neighborhoods.
The Freeman Houses are the oldest standing structures owned and built by people of color in Connecticut, and even more importantly, by unmarried women at a time when women were not allowed to own property. These buildings are all that remain of the radical, multi-ethnic community, Little Liberia, a place that was founded as a model of equity. This project seeks to revive that model.
THE collection at Housatonic Museum of Art will set the scene for a sophisticated and challenging scavenger hunt in the stunning and newly designed Housatonic Community College. Using your wits and keen tracking skills, pit yourself against other players for a unique and professionally crafted scavenger hunt.
WHILE hunting, enjoy decadent desserts and smart cocktails at our Sips and Sweets Faire with fun activities, live music and a fabulous silent auction.
Join in the excitement as the Housatonic Museum of Art brings the ART to LIFE in this thrilling scavenger hunt and fundraising event.
Gallery Talk with Curator D. Dominick Lombardi on March 23, from 1:30pm to 2:30pm. This event is free and the public is welcome to attend.
True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport
Human Rights Panel Discussion: OUT of the SHADOWS
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (January 18, 2018) On Thursday, February 8th the Housatonic Museum of Art will present the program, Human Rights Panel Discussion: Out of the Shadows, offering a powerhouse collection of experts on urgent human rights issues. Moderated by Fatima Sabri, a young Afghan leader for women’s equality, the panel includes experts and advocates for social justice, LGBTQ equality, breaking the cycle of domestic violence and the rights of women and children. These noted panelists have dedicated themselves to bringing global awareness to the suffering and the injustice of sex trafficking, the practice of female genital mutilation, and children forced to serve as soldiers.
The panel includes Brian K. Sibley, S. Bear Bergman, Hans Neleman, Debra A. Greenwood, Ann Weiner and Congressman Jim Himes. The discussion takes place at 2pm in the Events Center in Beacon Hall at the Housatonic Community College, located at 900 Lafayette Blvd. in Bridgeport. For additional details visit: www.HoustatonicMuseum.org or contact executive director Robbin Zella at (203) 332-5052.
John R. Wright, historian and illustrator, will discuss how literature and film have framed our image of pirates in popular culture. The talk will explore the facts, myths and Golden Age romance of pirates.
Thursday, November 16 @ 6:30 pm in the Burt Chernow Galleries
Mr. Wright is a graduate of Parsons School of Design/The New School. After working for several years as an illustrator and art editor for various publications, he turned his attention towards history. He was Director of the Miller House in White Plains, New York and Education Coordinator at Van Cortlandt House Museum in the Bronx. He is currently the Director at the Thomas Paine Cottage Museum in New Rochelle, New York.
True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport
Who hasn’t dreamed of unearthing buried treasure? Lost gold mines of the Old West might be far-removed and sunken ships difficult to reach… but according to legend and the historical record, vast riches might be secreted in Connecticut’s own Gold Coast: Fairfield County. From pirates to gangsters to a forgotten treasure map, author Michael Bielawa will share his original research highlighting some of Bridgeport’s mysterious lost caches.
Tuesday, Oct 3 at 7PM in Beacon Hall Room 145
Michael J. Bielawa is an award winning author and poet. For years Mike has been fascinated with New England legends and folklore. He has journeyed throughout the Northeast researching the subject. During his travels Michael has visited New England ghost towns, uncovered secret rooms, searched for pirate treasure and, not too long ago, reported a UFO over Woodbury, Connecticut. Bielawa’s supernatural work has appeared in FATE Magazine, The Dead of Night, Hermes’ Crossing, and in London’s Fortean Times. His book, Wicked Bridgeport (published by The History Press) won the first annual New England Paranormal Literary Award in 2012. Another of Bielawa’s examinations concerning weird coastal Connecticut, entitled Wicked New Haven, documents the Elm City’s paranormal heritage, and has received excellent reviews. Bielawa celebrated New Haven's famous 17th century "Phantom Ship” when he produced and directed the 4-story-tall illuminated art installation, “The Persistence of Legend.” You may have seen him on WTNH, Channel 8’s, Connecticut Style and Good Morning Connecticut or heard him on any number of radio programs, including NPR, WABC-AM, WPLR, and WICC.
In addition, Mike has served as special consultant to The Fairfield Museum and History Center and as guest curator for The Barnum Museum. He has lectured about American hero Jackie Robinson for the NEA in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and moderated discussions throughout Connecticut for the Connecticut Humanities Council. One of his favorite presentations honors Kate Hepburn’s summers in Stratford. He is honored to appear throughout Connecticut in order to share and preserve New England legends and folklore.
Join us for a murder-mystery cocktail party and fundraiser.
We would like to thank our sponsors:
“We are dedicated to being everything a community bank should be – every day and in every way”Ann Weiner
True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport
True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport with author Michael Bielawa
Award-winning author and historian Michael Bielawa, an authority on New England legends and folklore, will deliver two lectures at the Housatonic Museum of Art in connection with its newest pirate-inspired exhibition, Scrolls.
On Tuesday, September 19th at 7pm, Bielawa will deliver a fascinating lecture entitled, “Pirates, Buccaneers and Mooncussers of the Connecticut Coast.” While the Connecticut shore might seem far removed from the palm trees and turquoise bays associated with buccaneers, in reality, Long Island Sound was a hive of 17th and 18th century pirate villainy. Join author Michael Bielawa for a fascinating examination of some of history's most infamous freebooters who visited and may have buried treasure right here in Connecticut.
In his lecture “True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport” Bielawa will astonish the audience with tales of the shocking criminal underbelly of Connecticut’s largest city. From pirates to gangsters to a forgotten treasure map, Michael Bielawa will share his original research highlighting some of Bridgeport's mysterious lost caches! The lecture will take place on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 7pm.
Both lectures will take place in BEACON HALL, RM 145, located on the campus of Housatonic Community College, 900 Lafayette Blvd, Bridgeport, CT.
Housatonic Museum of Art Gallery Talk with Curator of Body & Soul Exhibition
The public is invited to a gallery talk with Ben Ortiz, curator of the Housatonic Museum of Art’s newest exhibition, Body & Soul
Attendees will engage directly with the works of art and Ortiz will discuss his passion for collecting art and tell stories behind each work. The talk takes place at the museum located at HCC, 900 Lafayette Blvd., Bridgeport, on Thursday, October 20 at 5:00 pm. There is no charge for attendance.
The Body & Soul exhibition is a collection of prints, paintings, photographs and sculpture with an emphasis on works by Latin American art. Local, regional and national artists are also represented in this compilation of 50 works of figurative art representing diverse art periods, art movements, mediums and techniques. The collection was donated to the museum by Mr. Ortiz and Victor P. Torchia in honor of Mr. Ortiz’s brother, John Eloy Ortiz (1966-2008), who would have celebrated his 50th birthday this year. The exhibition remains open through October 23, 2016.
Mr. Ortiz attended Housatonic Community College, and previously held the position as Curator at the Housatonic Museum of Art. During his tenure he recognized the rapid growth of the Hispanic population in Bridgeport and celebrated their contributions to the arts. His lifelong passion for collecting art began at age 12, when he was drawn to purchase an etching on paper at a Bridgeport tag sale for 50 cents. The work turned out to be created by Edith Nankivell (1896-1962), an American etcher and painter who exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Boston during the 1930s and 1940s, and the piece will be included in the exhibition.
Gallery Talk with Curator D. Dominick Lombardi
Gallery Talk with Curator D. Dominick Lombardi on March 23, from 1:30pm to 2:30pm. This event is free and the public is welcome to attend.
True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport
PIRATES: Fact & Fiction
John R. Wright, historian and illustrator, will discuss how literature and film have framed our image of pirates in popular culture. The talk will explore the facts, myths and Golden Age romance of pirates.
Thursday, November 16 @ 6:30 pm in the Burt Chernow Galleries
Mr. Wright is a graduate of Parsons School of Design/The New School. After working for several years as an illustrator and art editor for various publications, he turned his attention towards history. He was Director of the Miller House in White Plains, New York and Education Coordinator at Van Cortlandt House Museum in the Bronx. He is currently the Director at the Thomas Paine Cottage Museum in New Rochelle, New York.
True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport
Who hasn’t dreamed of unearthing buried treasure? Lost gold mines of the Old West might be far-removed and sunken ships difficult to reach… but according to legend and the historical record, vast riches might be secreted in Connecticut’s own Gold Coast: Fairfield County. From pirates to gangsters to a forgotten treasure map, author Michael Bielawa will share his original research highlighting some of Bridgeport’s mysterious lost caches.
Tuesday, Oct 3 at 7PM in Beacon Hall Room 145
Michael J. Bielawa is an award winning author and poet. For years Mike has been fascinated with New England legends and folklore. He has journeyed throughout the Northeast researching the subject. During his travels Michael has visited New England ghost towns, uncovered secret rooms, searched for pirate treasure and, not too long ago, reported a UFO over Woodbury, Connecticut. Bielawa’s supernatural work has appeared in FATE Magazine, The Dead of Night, Hermes’ Crossing, and in London’s Fortean Times. His book, Wicked Bridgeport (published by The History Press) won the first annual New England Paranormal Literary Award in 2012. Another of Bielawa’s examinations concerning weird coastal Connecticut, entitled Wicked New Haven, documents the Elm City’s paranormal heritage, and has received excellent reviews. Bielawa celebrated New Haven's famous 17th century "Phantom Ship” when he produced and directed the 4-story-tall illuminated art installation, “The Persistence of Legend.” You may have seen him on WTNH, Channel 8’s, Connecticut Style and Good Morning Connecticut or heard him on any number of radio programs, including NPR, WABC-AM, WPLR, and WICC.
In addition, Mike has served as special consultant to The Fairfield Museum and History Center and as guest curator for The Barnum Museum. He has lectured about American hero Jackie Robinson for the NEA in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and moderated discussions throughout Connecticut for the Connecticut Humanities Council. One of his favorite presentations honors Kate Hepburn’s summers in Stratford. He is honored to appear throughout Connecticut in order to share and preserve New England legends and folklore.
Join us for a murder-mystery cocktail party and fundraiser.
We would like to thank our sponsors:
“We are dedicated to being everything a community bank should be – every day and in every way”Ann Weiner
True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport
Award-winning author and historian Michael Bielawa, an authority on New England legends and folklore, will deliver two lectures at the Housatonic Museum of Art in connection with its newest pirate-inspired exhibition, Scrolls.
On Tuesday, September 19th at 7pm, Bielawa will deliver a fascinating lecture entitled, “Pirates, Buccaneers and Mooncussers of the Connecticut Coast.” While the Connecticut shore might seem far removed from the palm trees and turquoise bays associated with buccaneers, in reality, Long Island Sound was a hive of 17th and 18th century pirate villainy. Join author Michael Bielawa for a fascinating examination of some of history's most infamous freebooters who visited and may have buried treasure right here in Connecticut.
In his lecture “True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport” Bielawa will astonish the audience with tales of the shocking criminal underbelly of Connecticut’s largest city. From pirates to gangsters to a forgotten treasure map, Michael Bielawa will share his original research highlighting some of Bridgeport's mysterious lost caches! The lecture will take place on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 7pm.
Both lectures will take place in BEACON HALL, RM 145, located on the campus of Housatonic Community College, 900 Lafayette Blvd, Bridgeport, CT.
In His Words
In His Words
A celebration of Male Poets
Thursday, November 6, 2014
8:00pm to 9:00pm
Free Admission
Featuring Chief, Iyaba Ibo Mandingo, Face, Kayo,
Abiodun Oyewole of The Legendary Last Poets
Download the flyer by clicking on the image below.
Women Discuss Successful Careers at Housatonic Community College
Three successful women will discuss their career journeys and commitment to the community on Thursday, April 28 at 12:30 p.m. in the HCC Burt Chernow Gallery at LaFayette Hall.
The Rev. Bernadette Hickman-Maynard is Pastor of the Bethel AME Church and is a social activist.
Mary-Jane Foster, J.D., is provost of University Relations at the University of Bridgeport and was former Mayoral Candidate for the City of Bridgeport, and the former owner of the Bridgeport Blue Fish baseball team.
Dr. Estela Lopez is the interim Provost for the Connecticut State University and Community College system. Dr. Lopez is a recognized leader in higher education.
The panel is presented by the HCC Women’s Center. Dr. Linda Wolfson, Director of the Women’s Center says, “We want to keep inspiring our students to follow their dreams and ambitions. There is no better way than to see and hear from strong women who have achieved their goals.”
The public is invited at no charge.
Photo from left to right: Rev. Bernadette Hickman-Maynard, Dr. Estela Lopez and Mary-Jane Foster.
In His Words
In His Words
A celebration of Male Poets
Thursday, November 6, 2014
8:00pm to 9:00pm
Free Admission
Featuring Chief, Iyaba Ibo Mandingo, Face, Kayo,
Abiodun Oyewole of The Legendary Last Poets
Download the flyer by clicking on the image below.
Housatonic Museum of Art presents
Harry Moritz: Medium Cool
Harry Moritz will offer a talk about his work to be held in the Events Center in Beacon Hall on the campus of Housatonic Community College on Wednesday, March 16th at 5:30pm. This event is free and the public is cordially invited to attend
Featuring Chief, Iyaba Ibo Mandingo, Face, Kayo,
Abiodun Oyewole of The Legendary Last Poets
Download the flyer by clicking on the image below.
Finding Brass Valley:
A Place in Time that Almost Vanished
This is the story of the people and communities that built the Brass Valley
and attained the American Dream.
Housatonic Museum of Art Presents
Finding Brass Valley:
A Place in Time that Almost Vanished
slide talk & book signing by Emery Roth III
Wednesday, February 10th
11:45 am to 12:45 PM
Events Center
Housatonic Community College
This event is free and everyone is cordially invited to attend
A Talk by Hamish Lutris at Housatonic Museum of Art
6 pm, Wednesday, October 7
In the Burt Chernow Galleries
This event is FREE and open to the public
About the Speaker:
Hamish Lutris is an Associate Professor of History at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He has worked in some of America’s premier natural and historical sites, leading hiking and historical programs. He has also lectured extensively in the United States, Europe, and Canada, presenting programs on wide-ranging historical topics, including Native American history, the Civil War, Scientific History, Social and cultural history, World War I, World War II, and the American West.
Live from the POEMobile: Bridgeport Arts Fest! (more info)
Bridgeport’s best and brightest poets will perform along with
their verses written large on the façade on the McLevy Building at State and Broad Streets.
Led by poetry ambassador Shanna T. Melton, Bridgeport’s best and brightest poets will perform along with
their verses written large on the façade on the McLevy Building at State and Broad Streets.
AEOLIAN RIDE Bridgeport, CT:
30 PERSON INFLATABLE-SUIT BIKE RIDE
Sponsored by HMA with fund from the Werth Family Foundation
and HCC Foundation in support of SweetPort.
FREE PUBLIC ART BIKE RIDE (see
more photos of this event) Friday, May 30, 2009 Photos
by Jessica Findley
You’re invited to join us for programs related to the exhibition, The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography, on view from Wednesday, March 6 through Friday, August 2, 2024. All events are free and open to the public. Support provided by CT Humanities.
Tour of Little Liberia Exhibition with Maisa Tisdale
Wednesday, February 28th from 12pm-1pm
Free and open to the public
Lafayette Hall, CT State Housatonic (900 Lafayette Blvd)
Did you know that Bridgeport was once called Little Liberia?
Learn about this seafaring community of free people of color established in the 1800s. From a luxurious resort hotel for wealthy Blacks to the city’s first free lending library, Little Liberia was a prosperous and thriving community. Hear from Maisa Tisdale, the Executive Director of the Mary and Eliza Freeman Center, who will explain the history and continued importance of Little Liberia.
This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Meet in Lafayette Hall Room L-108 for lunch.
Opening Reception for “The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography”
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 from 3:30pm-5:30pm
Tours at 4pm and 5pm
Burt Chernow Galleries
Snow date: Thursday, March 7, 2024 from 3:30pm-5:30pm
You're invited to the opening of the exhibition, “The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography," on Wednesday, March 6, 2024 from 3:30pm-5:30pm in the Burt Chernow Galleries at the Housatonic Museum of Art. The show showcases a selection of artworks by the famed American photographer, Walter Iooss. On view from March 6, 2024 to August 2, 2024, the exhibition is organized into thematic sections that explore the various ways that photographs capture heroic moments, contribute to legendary myths of greatness, and tell authentic stories of athletic struggle and uplift.
The exhibition is curated by Kathryn Leann Harris and Douglas Stark of Interpreting Sports with key loans from the Collection of the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Connecticut. Support provided by CT Humanities.
The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For questions, contact Jennifer Reynolds-Kaye at or 203-332-5052.
Opening Reception for “The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography”
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 from 3:30pm-5:30pm
Tours at 4pm and 5pm
Burt Chernow Galleries
Snow date: Thursday, March 7, 2024 from 3:30pm-5:30pm
You're invited to the opening of the exhibition, “The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography," on Wednesday, March 6, 2024 from 3:30pm-5:30pm in the Burt Chernow Galleries at the Housatonic Museum of Art. The show showcases a selection of artworks by the famed American photographer, Walter Iooss. On view from March 6, 2024 to August 2, 2024, the exhibition is organized into thematic sections that explore the various ways that photographs capture heroic moments, contribute to legendary myths of greatness, and tell authentic stories of athletic struggle and uplift.
The exhibition is curated by Kathryn Leann Harris and Douglas Stark of Interpreting Sports with key loans from the Collection of the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Connecticut. Support provided by CT Humanities.
The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For questions, contact Jennifer Reynolds-Kaye at or 203-332-5052.
Save the Date:
Hidden Gems
Opening Wednesday, September 13, 2023 at 3:30pm
Burt Chernow Galleries, Housatonic Museum of Art
“From the Concrete I Rose”
Opening Thursday, June 15, 2023 at 5:30pm
Burt Chernow Galleries, Housatonic Museum of Art
This series supports the important educational programs and special exhibitions that the HMA offers to its students, faculty and staff, and greater community. Tickets are $50 and include hand-crafted appetizers, drinks, free parking, and lively conversation. It’s a wonderful way to support the HMA while enjoying an evening on the town.
All events are from 5:30pm – 7:00pm; check the dates below for location. Click the button below to purchase tickets using a credit card.
If you have any questions, please email Jennifer Reynolds-Kaye at or call 203-332-5052.
Date:Tuesday, March 28 from 5:30pm – 7:00pm Speaker’s Name: Manon Gaudet Title Making Sovereignty: Native American Tourist Art at the Housatonic Museum of Art Location: Elizabeth Fray Galleries, Beacon Hall
Manon Gaudet is a PhD Candidate in the History of Art at Yale University. She studies nineteenth and twentieth-century North American art, with a particular interest in the ongoing impacts of settler colonialism and intercultural exchange. Her dissertation critically examines how a land-based, property logic permeates twentieth-century visual culture and how settler artists and designers upheld and visually reproduced the dispossession of Indigenous land.
Prior to Yale, she received an MA in Art History from Carleton University and a BA with Honours from the University of Alberta. Her professional experience includes internships at the Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum and work with the Carleton University Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Alberta. Her writing has been published in Third Text, Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art, and Border Crossings magazine. Her research has been supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art, The Decorative Arts Trust, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, among others.
Date:Wednesday, April 12 from 5:30pm – 7:00pm Speaker’s Name: Dr. Cheryl D. Miller Title: Painting By Design Location: Performing Arts Center, Lafayette Hall, HCC
Dr. Cheryl D. Miller is recognized for her outsized influence within the graphic design profession to end the marginalization of BIPOC designers through her civil rights activism, industry exposé trade writing, research rigor, and archival vision. Miller is a national leader of minority rights, gender, race diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion advocacy in graphic design.
She is founder of the former Cheryl D. Miller Design, Inc., NYC, a social impact design firm; she is a designer, author, educator, trade writer for PRINT Magazine and Communication Arts Magazine, and theologian. She is a decolonizing design historian.
Dr. Miller has an MS in Communications Design from Pratt Institute and a BFA in Graphic Design from Maryland Institute College of Art, completed Foundation Studies at Rhode Island School of Design, and has a Doctor of Humane Letters from: Vermont College of Fine Arts, 2020 and a Doctor of Fine Arts from MICA-The Maryland Institute College of Art 2022, The RISD-Rhode Island School of Design 2022 and a MDiv from Union Theological Seminary. In 2021 she was an AIGA Medalist “Expanding Access,” a Cooper Hewitt “Design Visionary” awardee, an Honorary IBM Design Scholar, “Eminent Luminary and The One Club Creative Hall of Fame Inductee 2022.”
A recipient of countless awards, she is dedicated to visual arts advancement. The Cheryl D. Miller Collection at Stanford University is her legacy professional firm’s archive, including her memoir research and manuscripts. The collection features D&I initiatives, corporate communications developed for Fortune 500 corporations, and corporate communications for national African American organizations, developed post-Civil Rights Era, 1974–1994. She is further archiving, The History of Black Graphic Design In North America, collected at both Stanford University and The Herb Lubalin Center, Cooper Union.
She is an activist, decolonizing graphic design professor, lecturer, and revisionist historian. She is Professor of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Communication Design, Art Center College of Design, Distinguished Senior Lecturer in Design at the University of Texas–Austin, E.W. Doty Fellow 2021, and adjunct professor at Howard University. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Vermont College of Fine Arts and the President’s Global Advisory Board of Maryland Institute College of Art.
Date: Tuesday, May 2 from 5:30pm – 7:00pm Speaker’s name: Eric March Title: Sketching in the Sculpture Garden Location: HCC Courtyard Rain location: African sculpture in Atrium of Lafayette Hall
Eric March is a painter and draftsman whose work explores the formal possibilities of realism with themes of urban life, urban environments, and narrative-often through dense multi-figural compositions. Eric earned his BFA at Indiana University and continued his studies in New York City with Andy Reiss and at the Art Students League. He has had solo shows in New York City and New Haven, CT. His paintings are featured in permanent exhibitions at Indiana University, Yal e New Haven Hospital at 150 Sargent Drive and at Cornell Scott Hill Health Center. Honors include a New Have Arts Council Grant, Queens Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant, the Provincetown Dune Shack Residency, and the Hudson River Fellowship. Eric served as the Department Head of the Painting and Drawing Department at the National Academy School in NY in 2014-15. He currently teaches at the Art Students League (NYC) and Creative Arts Workshop (New Haven). He lives in New Haven with his wife and two boys and has a studio in Erector Square.
You’re invited to the Black History Month Celebration of the Arts at Housatonic Community College! Join us for tours highlighting African American artists, art and poetry by Shanna Tanika Melton, music by Pastor Denny, poetry and dance by Connect Us, and a performance by Rising Starz Dance Studio. The event is free and open to the public; RSVP requested through Eventbrite.
You’re invited to join us for programs related to the exhibitions, The Practice of Democracy: A View from Connecticut and The Bridgeport Portrait Project, on view from Tuesday, January 17 through Friday, February 24, 2023. All in-person events are in the Burt Chernow Galleries; free & open to the public.
Student Docent Tours | Every Tuesday and Wednesday at 12:30pm starting on Tuesday, January 24
Guest Lecture | Thursday, February 9 from 12:30-1:30pm
Slums in the Sky: How Photography Killed Mass Social Housing
In 1972, a failing public housing complex in St. Louis called the Pruitt-Igoe was dynamited, marking the beginning of the end of the utopian project of living better together. Yet the kinds of photography that helped indict projects like the Pruitt-Igoe pictured consequences, not causes of failure, thus discrediting public housing before it could be more fairly evaluated.
This lecture will consider the ways in which photography has shaped discourses of home and community in the postwar world, imagining also the ways in which images might revive affordable housing projects in future.
Sarah Churchill, PhD Candidate at Drew University and Adjunct Instructor of Art History at Housatonic Community College
Workshop | Wednesday, February 15 from 5-7pm
The Intersections of Food Sovereignty & Social Justice
Join us for a Social Justice Workshop focusing on community food security in Bridgeport. Find out how you can get involved locally, learn about the history of Black leaders in the food justice movement and get creative with an interactive zine making session!
Dune Bryant (they/them) & Buggz Majewski (they/them), Green Village Initiative
Virtual Program | Thursday, February 16 from 7-8pm
Exhibition Discussion, The Practice of Democracy: A View from Connecticut
Presented in partnership with Public Humanities at Yale and the Regional Plan Association
Join us for a conversation with Elihu Rubin and Melissa Kaplan-Macey on the current exhibition, The Practice of Democracy: A View from Connecticut. This site-specific immersion examines how justice, equality and power appear in our built environment – our cities and neighborhoods, the places we call home. Register here: http://bit.ly/3XvnVsa
Melissa Kaplan-Macey, Vice President, State Programs & Connecticut Director at the Regional Plan Association
Elihu Rubin, Associate Professor of Urbanism at the Yale School of Architecture with a secondary appointment in American Studies
The Housatonic Museum of Art presents HBO’s three-part documentary, OBAMA: IN PURSUIT OF A MORE PERFECT UNION.
The documentary, produced by Kunhardt Films, chronicles the personal and political journey of President Barack Obama, as the country grapples with its racial history. Weaving together conversations with colleagues, friends, and critics, and interspersed with his own speeches and news interviews, the series begins with Obama’s childhood and takes us through his perspective as the son of a white mother from Kansas and an African father, his spiritual formation by a generation of Black leaders, and his hopes for a more inclusive America. Through the story of one man irrevocably bound to the history of a country, OBAMA: IN PURSUIT OF A MORE PERFECT UNION reflects on the country’s past and present national identity.
Art Activist and Founder of The Spoon Movement to Speak at Housatonic Community College
By Laura Roberts
On Wednesday, September 18, 2019 from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., global game-changer Fernando Luis Alvarez, and founder of The Spoon Movement, will present, “Demanding Accountability Through Art Activism, Passion and Fearlessness,” in Housatonic Community College’s Beacon Hall, Room BH-214. The free lecture is open to HCC and Gateway Community College students, the public and the media.
Alvarez, who is the producer of the widely-acclaimed Opioid: Express Yourself! art show and director of Alvarez Gallery, will share his risk-taking art activism strategy behind the guerrilla installations that continue igniting global awareness of the opioid epidemic while demanding accountability by the architects of this crisis.
“I am honored and excited to share my art activism, specifically, The Spoon Movement with attendees. The hundreds of thousands of victims of the opioid epidemic and their families deserve to be heard and those involved in creating and exacerbating this crisis brought to justice beyond civil suits,” says Alvarez.
Those interested in attending the free lecture can RSVP on The Spoon Movement’s Facebook event page. To learn more about The Spoon Movement, please log on to thespoonmovement.com.
A Westport Historical Society & Freeman Center fundraiser for The Mary & Eliza Freeman Center for History and Community (A 501 c 3 nonprofit)
A generous donor will match all donations!
A Night of Theatre at the Bijou
A Benefit for the Historic Mary & Eliza Freeman Houses and Center
Thursday, May 30th, 7:30 pm
A JOURNEY
Musical One-Woman Show Written & Performed by Kimberly Wilson
Bridgeport’s Mary & Eliza Freeman Center for History and Community and the Westport Historical Society partner once again to present a benefit presentation of “A JOURNEY: Musical One-Woman Show” – to support the Freeman Center’s restoration of the historically significant Mary & Eliza houses and its programs. All proceeds will be matched by a generous donor, so please come and bring your friends.
Theatre seating is $20. Table seating (for 2,3, and 4) is $30 per person. Patron Tickets are $65.00 per person, and include a pre-theatre reception catered by Trattoria ‘A Vuccella (cash bar) from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Donors may select theatre seats or table seating.
“A JOURNEY: Musical One-Woman Show” is an intricate look at the Black experience told through the eyes of the Black woman and performed by one woman, professional actress and singer Kimberly Wilson. Westport resident, Ms. Wilson skillfully tells of the struggles and influence of Black womanhood with strength, dignity and pride and in perfect lockstep with the history of the United States. The Show brings to life 8 historical African-American women, including Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, African Queen, a Slave girl and introducing - Bridgeport’s own Mary Freeman (1815-1883), whose historic 1848 home still bears witness to the storied, free, Black and Paugussett settlement - Little Liberia (circa 1822).
For Tickets & Information: Call the Mary & Eliza Freeman Center (203) 612-7769 or visit our website www.freemancenterbpt.com
Housatonic Museum of Art will host a project launch and brainstorming session for sculptor Rachel Owens project,
Life on the Other Side of the Cracked Glass Ceiling-Bridgeport
PLEASE JOIN US FOR A BRAINSTORMING SESSION
Housatonic Museum of Art will host a project launch and brainstorming session for sculptor Rachel Owens project,
Life on the Other Side of the Cracked Glass Ceiling-Bridgeport
Tuesday, October 16, 2018 from 11am to 1pm
Beacon Hall Events Center
Students and the Community will gather to brainstorm the ways in which this project can work to engage Bridgeport in meaningful conversation in order to create a public program together. Centering on the Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses, a series of sculptures incorporating glass casts of the front porch of Mary's house will be activated through public discussions and performances developed by, and pertinent to, Bridgeport's diverse neighborhoods.
The Freeman Houses are the oldest standing structures owned and built by people of color in Connecticut, and even more importantly, by unmarried women at a time when women were not allowed to own property. These buildings are all that remain of the radical, multi-ethnic community, Little Liberia, a place that was founded as a model of equity. This project seeks to revive that model.
THE collection at Housatonic Museum of Art will set the scene for a sophisticated and challenging scavenger hunt in the stunning and newly designed Housatonic Community College. Using your wits and keen tracking skills, pit yourself against other players for a unique and professionally crafted scavenger hunt.
WHILE hunting, enjoy decadent desserts and smart cocktails at our Sips and Sweets Faire with fun activities, live music and a fabulous silent auction.
Join in the excitement as the Housatonic Museum of Art brings the ART to LIFE in this thrilling scavenger hunt and fundraising event.
Gallery Talk with Curator D. Dominick Lombardi on March 23, from 1:30pm to 2:30pm. This event is free and the public is welcome to attend.
True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport
Human Rights Panel Discussion: OUT of the SHADOWS
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (January 18, 2018) On Thursday, February 8th the Housatonic Museum of Art will present the program, Human Rights Panel Discussion: Out of the Shadows, offering a powerhouse collection of experts on urgent human rights issues. Moderated by Fatima Sabri, a young Afghan leader for women’s equality, the panel includes experts and advocates for social justice, LGBTQ equality, breaking the cycle of domestic violence and the rights of women and children. These noted panelists have dedicated themselves to bringing global awareness to the suffering and the injustice of sex trafficking, the practice of female genital mutilation, and children forced to serve as soldiers.
The panel includes Brian K. Sibley, S. Bear Bergman, Hans Neleman, Debra A. Greenwood, Ann Weiner and Congressman Jim Himes. The discussion takes place at 2pm in the Events Center in Beacon Hall at the Housatonic Community College, located at 900 Lafayette Blvd. in Bridgeport. For additional details visit: www.HoustatonicMuseum.org or contact executive director Robbin Zella at (203) 332-5052.
John R. Wright, historian and illustrator, will discuss how literature and film have framed our image of pirates in popular culture. The talk will explore the facts, myths and Golden Age romance of pirates.
Thursday, November 16 @ 6:30 pm in the Burt Chernow Galleries
Mr. Wright is a graduate of Parsons School of Design/The New School. After working for several years as an illustrator and art editor for various publications, he turned his attention towards history. He was Director of the Miller House in White Plains, New York and Education Coordinator at Van Cortlandt House Museum in the Bronx. He is currently the Director at the Thomas Paine Cottage Museum in New Rochelle, New York.
True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport
Who hasn’t dreamed of unearthing buried treasure? Lost gold mines of the Old West might be far-removed and sunken ships difficult to reach… but according to legend and the historical record, vast riches might be secreted in Connecticut’s own Gold Coast: Fairfield County. From pirates to gangsters to a forgotten treasure map, author Michael Bielawa will share his original research highlighting some of Bridgeport’s mysterious lost caches.
Tuesday, Oct 3 at 7PM in Beacon Hall Room 145
Michael J. Bielawa is an award winning author and poet. For years Mike has been fascinated with New England legends and folklore. He has journeyed throughout the Northeast researching the subject. During his travels Michael has visited New England ghost towns, uncovered secret rooms, searched for pirate treasure and, not too long ago, reported a UFO over Woodbury, Connecticut. Bielawa’s supernatural work has appeared in FATE Magazine, The Dead of Night, Hermes’ Crossing, and in London’s Fortean Times. His book, Wicked Bridgeport (published by The History Press) won the first annual New England Paranormal Literary Award in 2012. Another of Bielawa’s examinations concerning weird coastal Connecticut, entitled Wicked New Haven, documents the Elm City’s paranormal heritage, and has received excellent reviews. Bielawa celebrated New Haven's famous 17th century "Phantom Ship” when he produced and directed the 4-story-tall illuminated art installation, “The Persistence of Legend.” You may have seen him on WTNH, Channel 8’s, Connecticut Style and Good Morning Connecticut or heard him on any number of radio programs, including NPR, WABC-AM, WPLR, and WICC.
In addition, Mike has served as special consultant to The Fairfield Museum and History Center and as guest curator for The Barnum Museum. He has lectured about American hero Jackie Robinson for the NEA in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and moderated discussions throughout Connecticut for the Connecticut Humanities Council. One of his favorite presentations honors Kate Hepburn’s summers in Stratford. He is honored to appear throughout Connecticut in order to share and preserve New England legends and folklore.
Join us for a murder-mystery cocktail party and fundraiser.
We would like to thank our sponsors:
“We are dedicated to being everything a community bank should be – every day and in every way”Ann Weiner
True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport
True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport with author Michael Bielawa
Award-winning author and historian Michael Bielawa, an authority on New England legends and folklore, will deliver two lectures at the Housatonic Museum of Art in connection with its newest pirate-inspired exhibition, Scrolls.
On Tuesday, September 19th at 7pm, Bielawa will deliver a fascinating lecture entitled, “Pirates, Buccaneers and Mooncussers of the Connecticut Coast.” While the Connecticut shore might seem far removed from the palm trees and turquoise bays associated with buccaneers, in reality, Long Island Sound was a hive of 17th and 18th century pirate villainy. Join author Michael Bielawa for a fascinating examination of some of history's most infamous freebooters who visited and may have buried treasure right here in Connecticut.
In his lecture “True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport” Bielawa will astonish the audience with tales of the shocking criminal underbelly of Connecticut’s largest city. From pirates to gangsters to a forgotten treasure map, Michael Bielawa will share his original research highlighting some of Bridgeport's mysterious lost caches! The lecture will take place on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 7pm.
Both lectures will take place in BEACON HALL, RM 145, located on the campus of Housatonic Community College, 900 Lafayette Blvd, Bridgeport, CT.
Housatonic Museum of Art Gallery Talk with Curator of Body & Soul Exhibition
The public is invited to a gallery talk with Ben Ortiz, curator of the Housatonic Museum of Art’s newest exhibition, Body & Soul
Attendees will engage directly with the works of art and Ortiz will discuss his passion for collecting art and tell stories behind each work. The talk takes place at the museum located at HCC, 900 Lafayette Blvd., Bridgeport, on Thursday, October 20 at 5:00 pm. There is no charge for attendance.
The Body & Soul exhibition is a collection of prints, paintings, photographs and sculpture with an emphasis on works by Latin American art. Local, regional and national artists are also represented in this compilation of 50 works of figurative art representing diverse art periods, art movements, mediums and techniques. The collection was donated to the museum by Mr. Ortiz and Victor P. Torchia in honor of Mr. Ortiz’s brother, John Eloy Ortiz (1966-2008), who would have celebrated his 50th birthday this year. The exhibition remains open through October 23, 2016.
Mr. Ortiz attended Housatonic Community College, and previously held the position as Curator at the Housatonic Museum of Art. During his tenure he recognized the rapid growth of the Hispanic population in Bridgeport and celebrated their contributions to the arts. His lifelong passion for collecting art began at age 12, when he was drawn to purchase an etching on paper at a Bridgeport tag sale for 50 cents. The work turned out to be created by Edith Nankivell (1896-1962), an American etcher and painter who exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Boston during the 1930s and 1940s, and the piece will be included in the exhibition.
Gallery Talk with Curator D. Dominick Lombardi
Gallery Talk with Curator D. Dominick Lombardi on March 23, from 1:30pm to 2:30pm. This event is free and the public is welcome to attend.
True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport
PIRATES: Fact & Fiction
John R. Wright, historian and illustrator, will discuss how literature and film have framed our image of pirates in popular culture. The talk will explore the facts, myths and Golden Age romance of pirates.
Thursday, November 16 @ 6:30 pm in the Burt Chernow Galleries
Mr. Wright is a graduate of Parsons School of Design/The New School. After working for several years as an illustrator and art editor for various publications, he turned his attention towards history. He was Director of the Miller House in White Plains, New York and Education Coordinator at Van Cortlandt House Museum in the Bronx. He is currently the Director at the Thomas Paine Cottage Museum in New Rochelle, New York.
True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport
Who hasn’t dreamed of unearthing buried treasure? Lost gold mines of the Old West might be far-removed and sunken ships difficult to reach… but according to legend and the historical record, vast riches might be secreted in Connecticut’s own Gold Coast: Fairfield County. From pirates to gangsters to a forgotten treasure map, author Michael Bielawa will share his original research highlighting some of Bridgeport’s mysterious lost caches.
Tuesday, Oct 3 at 7PM in Beacon Hall Room 145
Michael J. Bielawa is an award winning author and poet. For years Mike has been fascinated with New England legends and folklore. He has journeyed throughout the Northeast researching the subject. During his travels Michael has visited New England ghost towns, uncovered secret rooms, searched for pirate treasure and, not too long ago, reported a UFO over Woodbury, Connecticut. Bielawa’s supernatural work has appeared in FATE Magazine, The Dead of Night, Hermes’ Crossing, and in London’s Fortean Times. His book, Wicked Bridgeport (published by The History Press) won the first annual New England Paranormal Literary Award in 2012. Another of Bielawa’s examinations concerning weird coastal Connecticut, entitled Wicked New Haven, documents the Elm City’s paranormal heritage, and has received excellent reviews. Bielawa celebrated New Haven's famous 17th century "Phantom Ship” when he produced and directed the 4-story-tall illuminated art installation, “The Persistence of Legend.” You may have seen him on WTNH, Channel 8’s, Connecticut Style and Good Morning Connecticut or heard him on any number of radio programs, including NPR, WABC-AM, WPLR, and WICC.
In addition, Mike has served as special consultant to The Fairfield Museum and History Center and as guest curator for The Barnum Museum. He has lectured about American hero Jackie Robinson for the NEA in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and moderated discussions throughout Connecticut for the Connecticut Humanities Council. One of his favorite presentations honors Kate Hepburn’s summers in Stratford. He is honored to appear throughout Connecticut in order to share and preserve New England legends and folklore.
Join us for a murder-mystery cocktail party and fundraiser.
We would like to thank our sponsors:
“We are dedicated to being everything a community bank should be – every day and in every way”Ann Weiner
True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport
Award-winning author and historian Michael Bielawa, an authority on New England legends and folklore, will deliver two lectures at the Housatonic Museum of Art in connection with its newest pirate-inspired exhibition, Scrolls.
On Tuesday, September 19th at 7pm, Bielawa will deliver a fascinating lecture entitled, “Pirates, Buccaneers and Mooncussers of the Connecticut Coast.” While the Connecticut shore might seem far removed from the palm trees and turquoise bays associated with buccaneers, in reality, Long Island Sound was a hive of 17th and 18th century pirate villainy. Join author Michael Bielawa for a fascinating examination of some of history's most infamous freebooters who visited and may have buried treasure right here in Connecticut.
In his lecture “True Treasure Tales & Legends of Bridgeport” Bielawa will astonish the audience with tales of the shocking criminal underbelly of Connecticut’s largest city. From pirates to gangsters to a forgotten treasure map, Michael Bielawa will share his original research highlighting some of Bridgeport's mysterious lost caches! The lecture will take place on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 7pm.
Both lectures will take place in BEACON HALL, RM 145, located on the campus of Housatonic Community College, 900 Lafayette Blvd, Bridgeport, CT.
In His Words
In His Words
A celebration of Male Poets
Thursday, November 6, 2014
8:00pm to 9:00pm
Free Admission
Featuring Chief, Iyaba Ibo Mandingo, Face, Kayo,
Abiodun Oyewole of The Legendary Last Poets
Download the flyer by clicking on the image below.
Women Discuss Successful Careers at Housatonic Community College
Three successful women will discuss their career journeys and commitment to the community on Thursday, April 28 at 12:30 p.m. in the HCC Burt Chernow Gallery at LaFayette Hall.
The Rev. Bernadette Hickman-Maynard is Pastor of the Bethel AME Church and is a social activist.
Mary-Jane Foster, J.D., is provost of University Relations at the University of Bridgeport and was former Mayoral Candidate for the City of Bridgeport, and the former owner of the Bridgeport Blue Fish baseball team.
Dr. Estela Lopez is the interim Provost for the Connecticut State University and Community College system. Dr. Lopez is a recognized leader in higher education.
The panel is presented by the HCC Women’s Center. Dr. Linda Wolfson, Director of the Women’s Center says, “We want to keep inspiring our students to follow their dreams and ambitions. There is no better way than to see and hear from strong women who have achieved their goals.”
The public is invited at no charge.
Photo from left to right: Rev. Bernadette Hickman-Maynard, Dr. Estela Lopez and Mary-Jane Foster.
In His Words
In His Words
A celebration of Male Poets
Thursday, November 6, 2014
8:00pm to 9:00pm
Free Admission
Featuring Chief, Iyaba Ibo Mandingo, Face, Kayo,
Abiodun Oyewole of The Legendary Last Poets
Download the flyer by clicking on the image below.
Housatonic Museum of Art presents
Harry Moritz: Medium Cool
Harry Moritz will offer a talk about his work to be held in the Events Center in Beacon Hall on the campus of Housatonic Community College on Wednesday, March 16th at 5:30pm. This event is free and the public is cordially invited to attend
Featuring Chief, Iyaba Ibo Mandingo, Face, Kayo,
Abiodun Oyewole of The Legendary Last Poets
Download the flyer by clicking on the image below.
Finding Brass Valley:
A Place in Time that Almost Vanished
This is the story of the people and communities that built the Brass Valley
and attained the American Dream.
Housatonic Museum of Art Presents
Finding Brass Valley:
A Place in Time that Almost Vanished
slide talk & book signing by Emery Roth III
Wednesday, February 10th
11:45 am to 12:45 PM
Events Center
Housatonic Community College
This event is free and everyone is cordially invited to attend
A Talk by Hamish Lutris at Housatonic Museum of Art
6 pm, Wednesday, October 7
In the Burt Chernow Galleries
This event is FREE and open to the public
About the Speaker:
Hamish Lutris is an Associate Professor of History at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He has worked in some of America’s premier natural and historical sites, leading hiking and historical programs. He has also lectured extensively in the United States, Europe, and Canada, presenting programs on wide-ranging historical topics, including Native American history, the Civil War, Scientific History, Social and cultural history, World War I, World War II, and the American West.
Live from the POEMobile: Bridgeport Arts Fest! (more info)
Bridgeport’s best and brightest poets will perform along with
their verses written large on the façade on the McLevy Building at State and Broad Streets.
Led by poetry ambassador Shanna T. Melton, Bridgeport’s best and brightest poets will perform along with
their verses written large on the façade on the McLevy Building at State and Broad Streets.
AEOLIAN RIDE Bridgeport, CT:
30 PERSON INFLATABLE-SUIT BIKE RIDE
Sponsored by HMA with fund from the Werth Family Foundation
and HCC Foundation in support of SweetPort.
FREE PUBLIC ART BIKE RIDE (see
more photos of this event) Friday, May 30, 2009 Photos
by Jessica Findley
Upcoming Events
The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography Public Programs
You’re invited to join us for programs related to the exhibition, The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography, on view from Wednesday, March 6 through Friday, August 2, 2024. All events are free and open to the public. Support provided by CT Humanities.
See the exhibition through the eyes of Ivan Maisel, who has covered national college football since the 1980s. He worked for nearly two decades at ESPN and also at Sports Illustrated. Refreshments will be served; presenter attending in-person.
Guest Lecture | Wednesday, March 27 from 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Lunch with Sportswriter Ivan Maisel
In-Person
See the exhibition through the eyes of Ivan Maisel, who has covered national college football since the 1980s. He worked for nearly two decades at ESPN, where he helped lead the celebration of the 150th anniversary of college football in 2019. Maisel worked at Sports Illustrated as a fact-checker (1982-87) and as a senior writer (1997-2002). He left the startup On3 last year to write his fourth book, a biography of the late Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy.
Please note that the presenter will be attending in-person.
Hybrid Artist Talk | Wednesday, April 10 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Conversation with Walter Iooss
In-Person and Zoom
Join us for moderated discussion with Walter Iooss, and learn about his prolific career as one of the most acclaimed sports photographers in the world. Iooss will be joined by Douglas Stark and Kathryn Leann Harris ofInterpreting Sports, who are the guest curators of the current exhibition at the Housatonic Museum of Art, " The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography." Refreshments will be served.
Please note that the presenters, including Walter Iooss, will be attending virtually. In-person attendees will be viewing the conversation and able to ask questions during the Q&A.
Walter Iooss is an American photographer best known for his award-winning images of sports' greatest athletes.
Hybrid Guest Lecture | Thursday, April 25 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Walter Iooss and the Evolution of Sports Media
In-Person and Zoom
In this talk, Dr. Adam Rugg will contextualize the work of Walter Iooss against both the shifting dynamics of the sports media landscape as well as the evolving ways in which athletes are covered and represented in media. Amidst a rapidly changing industry, Iooss’ work continues to reflect the power and timelessness of sports photography and stand as a testament to the golden age of sports journalism. Refreshments will be served.
Please note that the presenter will be attending in-person.
Dr. Adam Rugg is the Director of the Sports Media Program as well as an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Fairfield University.
Stay Close. Stay Curious. Stay Fascinated.
The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography Public Programs
You’re invited to join us for programs related to the exhibition, The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography, on view from Wednesday, March 6 through Friday, August 2, 2024. All events are free and open to the public. Support provided by CT Humanities.
See the exhibition through the eyes of Ivan Maisel, who has covered national college football since the 1980s. He worked for nearly two decades at ESPN and also at Sports Illustrated. Refreshments will be served; presenter attending in-person.
Guest Lecture | Wednesday, March 27 from 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Lunch with Sportswriter Ivan Maisel
In-Person
See the exhibition through the eyes of Ivan Maisel, who has covered national college football since the 1980s. He worked for nearly two decades at ESPN, where he helped lead the celebration of the 150th anniversary of college football in 2019. Maisel worked at Sports Illustrated as a fact-checker (1982-87) and as a senior writer (1997-2002). He left the startup On3 last year to write his fourth book, a biography of the late Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy.
Please note that the presenter will be attending in-person.
Hybrid Artist Talk | Wednesday, April 10 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Conversation with Walter Iooss
In-Person and Zoom
Join us for moderated discussion with Walter Iooss, and learn about his prolific career as one of the most acclaimed sports photographers in the world. Iooss will be joined by Douglas Stark and Kathryn Leann Harris ofInterpreting Sports, who are the guest curators of the current exhibition at the Housatonic Museum of Art, " The Making of an Icon: Walter Iooss and Sports Photography." Refreshments will be served.
Please note that the presenters, including Walter Iooss, will be attending virtually. In-person attendees will be viewing the conversation and able to ask questions during the Q&A.
Walter Iooss is an American photographer best known for his award-winning images of sports' greatest athletes.
Hybrid Guest Lecture | Thursday, April 25 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Walter Iooss and the Evolution of Sports Media
In-Person and Zoom
In this talk, Dr. Adam Rugg will contextualize the work of Walter Iooss against both the shifting dynamics of the sports media landscape as well as the evolving ways in which athletes are covered and represented in media. Amidst a rapidly changing industry, Iooss’ work continues to reflect the power and timelessness of sports photography and stand as a testament to the golden age of sports journalism. Refreshments will be served.
Please note that the presenter will be attending in-person.
Dr. Adam Rugg is the Director of the Sports Media Program as well as an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Fairfield University.
Housatonic Museum of Art Invite You To Attend
Big Bash 2021
“The Collector,” followed by a question and answer session with director Olympia Stone. The Collector explores the 46-year career of Allan Stone, the famed New York City gallery owner and art collector. Producer and director Olympia Stone reveals her father’s compulsive collecting genius while telling the parallel story of his lifelong journey through the art world from the 1950s to 2006.
“Curious Worlds: The Art & Imagination of David Beck.” This film pulls back the curtain on artist David Beck: a master sculptor, carver, and miniature architect who works in a fantastical genre all his own, creating intricate worlds that are alive with magical and brilliant observations. His pieces have been shown at the MET, the Guggenheim, and some of the world’s most prominent galleries. His work, "MVSEVM" was commissioned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where it is on permanent display. To the larger public, though, he is virtually unknown.
“The Original” followed by Q&A with director and artist, Richard McMahan, and “Little Fiel,” followed by Q&A with director Irina Patkanian. Outsider artist Richard McMahan is on a quest to painstakingly re-create thousands of famous and not-so-famous paintings and artifacts in miniature. From well-loved Picasso and Frida Kahlo paintings to the more obscure, McMahan has mastered dozens of genres over 30 years. “Little Fiel” is a stop motion animation/documentary loosely based on the life story of Mozambican artist Fiel dos Santos who grew up during the 16-year civil war. Fiel created eight figures representing his family from dismantled civil war guns. Three New York artists turned them into puppets and created immersive stop-motion animation, inspired by Fiel’s memories.
Celebrate Earth Day this year with an award-winning film: The Biggest Little Farm. With breathtaking cinematography, captivating animals, and an urgent message to heed Mother Nature’s call, the film provides a vital blueprint for better living and a healthier planet. Presented by Housatonic Museum of Art, the FREE screening will take place online on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22nd - 24th.
Award-winning author and historian Michael Bielawa, an authority on New England legends and folklore, will deliver two lectures at the Housatonic Museum of Art in connection with its newest pirate-inspired exhibition, Scrolls.
Tea Talk - Thinkers • Educators • Artists
Shiva: God of Many Faces
