The Merryall Center in New Milford, CT is now accepting submissions for Expressing Motherhood (Connecticut).

Expressing Motherhood is a stage show of personal stories, songs, and skits all about the journey of motherhood. Since 2008, moms have been sharing their stories at Expressing Motherhood performances across the country. Submissions from moms, dads, grandparents, and reflections about mothers are all welcome.

The show is built for the non-famous, non-published, and people who want to get out and express themselves. The average cast consists of ten people. Performers submit in advance and are chosen based on the power of their stories.

Submission deadline - June 30th, 2025. No auditions. Email Submissions to: aschuette@merryallcenter.org

Open to all levels of experience, this workshop offers an in-depth exploration of oil painting techniques and traditional still life. Develop foundational painting skills, including glazing and layering oil paints to create luminosity and depth.

Oil Painting: Explorations in Still Life

with Sarah Paolucci

Wednesdays, May 7, 14, 21 & 28, 2025

10 AM – 1 PM

Members: $162 / Non-Members: $180

MORE INFO & REGISTER

Music and Rhyme for Children from Birth to 3s! A program for babies and their caretakers that incorporates music, rhythm, stories, and nursery rhymes to spur language development, body awareness, pre-reading skills, self-confidence, and cooperation. Gathering at 10:15, the program begins at 10:30.

Registration appreciated, drop-ins welcome!

Wednesdays in May at 10:30 AM

Perfect for 18 - 36 months, but fun for everyone!

Lots of rhymes, a sprinkling of songs, and one or two shared board books round out this library program that is perfect for little ones who need to get those wiggles out. Stay to PLAY! After the rhymes, stay for some unstructured play time with other kiddos.

Are you ready to embark on an extraordinary journey through time? Introducing the Chabad of Northwest CT JLI Course: Colorful Profiles, where we will dive into the lives of twelve remarkable characters who shaped Jewish history in ways you never imagined! Over the course of four enlightening weeks, you'll meet a tapestry of personalities from courageous converts to wise royal advisors, from daring captives to inspiring philanthropists. Each story is a vibrant thread in the rich fabric of our heritage, offering you a kaleidoscope of experiences that will leave you captivated and craving more.

Discover the sacrifices that paved the way for future generations, the adventures that defied the odds, and the achievements that illuminate our collective past. This course is not just a lesson in history; its a celebration of resilience, identity, and the colorful spectrum of Jewish life. Don't miss out on this chance to enrich your understanding and appreciation of our peoples legacy come join us and let the stories unfold! After all, history is best told through the vivid colors of its characters!

Classes meet in-person on six Wednesday mornings at The Heritage Hotel. 

RSVP: chabadNW.org/JLI (zoom option available)

Shakespeare’s Queens

Shakespeare grew up under the reign of Elizabeth I, a mercurial, intelligent, powerful queen. And her influence is written across many of Shakespeare’s finest female characters. Whether in his dangerous siren-queens like Lady Macbeth and Margaret, or in playful, wayward leaders like Titania and Kate, or in redemptive characters like Hermione and Miranda, Shakespeare seems fascinated by how each of these women wielded power and made choices. Should they speak their minds, or keep to the shadows? Work together or stand alone? And where does their power lie: in mystery, wordplay or swordplay? Created and performed by Shakespearean actress, Poornima Kirby, this jewel of a play dances between Elizabeth’s story, and Shakespeare’s own life as a writer and father to two strong-minded daughters. With history, humor and sparkling poetry, Shakespeare’s Queens is a heartfelt and refreshing exploration of some of the bard’s loveliest verse.

Cost: "Give Local" Donation at door or online

* Pre-registration required for lunch.

Yarn Bomb Drop-in Sessions are taking place at Five Points Arts Center throughout the winter and spring - free and open to the public of all ages, skills and techniques welcome!

MORE INFO HERE

Wednesdays (weekly):

2 - 4 PM

Jan 8 - May 28

Saturdays:

2 -4 PM

January 11 & 25

February 8 &22

March 8 & 22

April 12 & 26

May 10

$5 Per Person, Waterbury public school, magnet school, and charter school students get in FREE, Kids Adventure Passholders get in FREE.

Hang out with friends, try a relaxing craft, get creative with graphic design, or chill on a beanbag! All teens grades 6-12, ages 12+ are welcome, with supplies and snacks provided.

To pre-register please call (203) 753-0381, extension 130

Register Here

 Support provided by United Way of Greater Waterbury and Elisha Leavenworth Foundation. .

Join us every Friday night from 5-8 in the NHAG studio, at 37 Greenwoods Road, New Hartford CT - Floor 2 #9A for life model drawing. Participants must be 18+ to attend.

registar at nhagct.art or newhartfordartisansguild.com

Enjoy using watercolors and collage to create your own personal book tracker for summer reading! Ages 11+. Please register @harwintonlibrary.org/events

Join us for our monthly somewhat literary book discussion for adults! Books in various formats are typically available at the library circulation desk approximately one month prior to the discussion. No registration is required! Refreshments served, courtesy of the Friends of the Library. This month we are reading and discussing Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. 

Basic Italian I, a 13-session beginner class, will be held on Thursdays, May 8 to July 31, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. The class will cover pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, conversation, and culture. The required text is Learn Italian the Fast and Fun Way by Marcel Danesi, Barron's Publisher, any edition, available online at abebooks.com and other retailers. 

Join us for Story Time on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:30 for new books, free play, and fun crafts!

Thursdays in May at 10:30 AM

Perfect for 3 - 5 year olds, but fun for everyone!

Join Mrs. Tricia for a classic library storytime - books, songs, bubbles, and more! Come for early literary skills, social connections, and fun! We will focus on one special picture book author each week.

Kenise Barnes Fine Art is honored to present an exhibition featuring hand-painted cyanotypes by Julia Whitney Barnes and drawings by Sarah Morejohn.

Julia Whitney Barnes is well known for her innovations in Cyanotype (camera-less photographic printing process) paintings. Whitney Barnes’ multi-step process includes harvesting flora (flowers and weeds being equally important) and combining several species into a single composition on photo sensitive cotton paper. After exposing the work to UV light, the resulting blue and white image is carefully hand-painted in many layers of watercolor, gouache, and ink, reanimating the vitality to the ghost of the objects. The artist is most interested in creating work that feels both beautiful and mysterious. Her artwork symbolizes resilience and are the records of the historical moment in which they were made, the process, and the artist’s will and interest in reasserting the presence of the image.

Whitney Barnes recently completed permanent public installations in The Botanist’s Mural, Vassar College/Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY, Brooklyn Botanical: PS 253 (glass commission), Public Art in Public Schools/Percent for Art, Brooklyn, NY, Planting Utopia (interior installation), Albany International Airport, Albany, NY, Planting Utopia (interior and exterior installation), Shaker Heritage Society, Albany, NY. The artist has received the following honors and awards; Maker-Creator Research Fellowship, Winterthur Museum, Library & Garden (2024-25), Individual Artist Grant, (partnering with Shaker Heritage Society), New York State Council on the Arts (2018), Individual Artist Commission, NY State Decentralization Grant, Arts Mid-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, NY (2015), Gowanus Public Arts Initiative Grant (ArtsGowanus, The Old Stone House & District 39), Brooklyn, NY, Residency with Site-Specific Installation & Fellowship, Fjellerup I Bund I Grund, Fjellerup, Denmark, to name a few. Her work has been featured in Architectural Record, Times Union, The B Magazine, The Jealous Curator, Create Magazine, American Art Collector Magazine and many other publications and podcasts. Julia Whitney Barnes earned her BFA Fine Arts, Painting, Parsons the New School for Design, New York, NY and her MFA Fine Arts, Painting & Combined Media, Hunter College, CUNY, New York, NY. The artist lives and works in NY.

Sarah Morejohn’s fascination with non-linear patterns in nature drives her work. Through drawing, she considers how the relationship to nature is mediated both by objective understanding and subjective imagining of it. Considering the symbolic connections between nature, the body, and climate change Morejohn draws partial six-fold symmetries. By building a drawing line by line, sharp angles soften and wiggle, cell-like shapes minnow along while branches and flowers become a part of the flotsam disconnected from the earth. Figurative snow crystals become interlaced with one another and their environment, jumbling towards their own future transformations. Morejohn’s drawing process is intuitive and organic, artifacts of the process, drips, spills, flaws and mistakes are embraced. By collaging the imperfect pieces of her drawings together the work becomes a metaphor for the ever-changing uncertainties of life.

Sarah Morejohn’s work in in the collections of Heustis Hall, 1% for Art Oregon Arts Commission, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, Echo Laboratory, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, Ursell Laboratory, Physics Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, Project Art & Medical Museum, University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, Iowa City, IA. She was awarded residencies at Jentel Artist Residency, Banner, WY and Playa Art and Science Residency, Summer Lake, OR. Morejohn earned her BFA in Painting and Drawing, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. The artist lives and works in CA.

Please contact Lani Ming Holloway, Associate Director, Lani@kbfa.com, 860 560 3085 with inquires or to arrange a preview of the exhibition.