The Connecticut Art Trail has brought back its annual buy one, get one deal for its Passport-Journal program, which allows people to experience more than two dozen cultural attractions throughout the state.
This offer began on November 15th, and will continue through December 31st. During this time, anyone can purchase two Passport-Journals for the price of one at $35. This past year saw a boom for the Connecticut Art Trail, which grew roughly 77% in year-over-year sales as many Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York residents sought to get out and explore the arts and culture within a day trip of their homes.
“We’ve been seeing more and more people discover the incredible cultural assets that can be found right in their own backyard,” said Carey Mack Weber, President of the Connecticut Art Trail and the Frank and Clara Meditz Executive Director at Fairfield University Art Museum. “This annual Passport-Journal deal from the Connecticut Art Trail is a perfect gift for a loved one, opening them up to a year of exploration across the state.”
The Connecticut Art Trail for 2025 will include 24 art museums and cultural sites, as well as five affiliate members. The Passport-Journal provides free admission during the calendar year to all of these sites, along with hundreds of dollars in additional value from added perks like gift store discounts, guest admissions, and complimentary items.
Passport-Journals are $35 each. People can take advantage of the deal by purchasing two Passport-Journals either online at ctarttrail.org/passport or in-person at any member museum. For online purchases, the cost of the second Passport-Journal will be automatically deducted at checkout.
Delamar Hotels Delamar Hotels is again sponsoring a grand prize giveaway for those who visit all full-member sites on the Connecticut Art Trail during the calendar year. Passport-Journal holders who achieve this goal will be entered into a drawing for an overnight stay and one hour couple’s massage at the Delamar Hotels location of their choice.
Connecticut Art Trail member sites will continue to sell the 2024 Passport-Journals through the end of the year or until their location runs out of copies. Following the expiration of the BOGO deal, the 2025 Passport-Journals can be purchased at any Connecticut Art Trail location or online at ctarttrail.org.
Join Jackie DeLise, master certified meditation and mindfulness teacher and stress management expert, for a guided meditation class from the comfort of your home. Jackie will share ancient wisdom for your modern lifestyle, and will guide you in becoming your true self.
No prior experience necessary – learn how to cultivate inner calm, clarity, peace and harmony in your life. All are welcome!
Please join this link at the time start of this event: thequicklive.com.
To learn more about Jackie: https://www.jackiedelise.com/
Please note: This event is virtual only.
Join Jackie DeLise, master certified meditation and mindfulness teacher and stress management expert, for a guided meditation class in the tranquil Bellarmine Hall Galleries. Jackie will share ancient wisdom for your modern lifestyle, and will guide you in becoming your true self.
No prior experience necessary – learn how to cultivate inner calm, clarity, peace and harmony in your life. All are welcome!
To learn more about Jackie visit: https://www.jackiedelise.com/.
All that glitters…is gold, in this case! Our final edition of Virtual Art in Focus this fall, takes a look at this extraordinary print by Maria Katherina Prestel. Prestel has only recently been rediscovered by print historians, as she worked for her husband, Johann Prestel, and his initials appear rather than hers on many of the works.
Join us at 1pm on December 12 on thequicklive.com for informal conversation about this work, led by Curator of Education Michelle DiMarzo, PhD. This work is included in the exhibition Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection (Bellarmine Hall Galleries, September 12 – December 21, 2024). Click here for more information about the exhibition.
Image: Maria Katharina Prestel after Jacopo Ligozzi, The Triumph of Truth over Envy, 1780, etching and aquatint in brown and ochre ink, touched with gold leaf. Courtesy of the Wetmore Collection, Connecticut College.
Join our Museum Educator for our winter Art Party! Attendees will enjoy relaxing tutorials, while viewing the Ink & Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection exhibit in the Bellarmine Hall Galleries. Art supplies will be provided!
Please note: This event is in-person only and will not be streamed. Seating is limited–please register in advance.
Join us on Saturday, December 14th in the Bellarmine Hall, Museum Classroom for a Family Day inspired by horses, cats, birds, and more!
The first session will begin promptly at 12:30 p.m. and the second at 2:30 p.m.
During this Family Day event, kids ages 4-10 will get to challenge their creativity as participate in a range of hands-on projects, a scavenger hunt, and more!
Drawing Party: Still Life on Thursday, April 18th, 7-9 p.m., Bellarmine Hall, Museum Classroom
Join Museum Educator Kate Wellen in our Bellarmine Hall Galleries and Classroom for relaxing drawing tutorials, inspired by the still life paintings on view in “Suzanne Chamlin: Studies in Color”! Art supplies will be provided.
Learn more about the exhibition here.
Suzanne Chamlin, Rose of Sharon, Oil on wood panel. © Suzanne Chamlin.
Join us for Family Day: Mixing It Up with Color on Saturday, April 27, 12:30-2 p.m., 2:30-4 p.m. in Bellarmine Hall, Museum Classroom. Each session will begin promptly at 12:30 p.m. and again at 2:30 p.m.
This event is inspired by the exhibition Suzanne Chamlin: Studies in Color (Bellarmine Hall Galleries, April 5-July 27)!
Kids ages 4-10 will dive into a rainbow of color-based activities, from ‘painting” with Skittles, to making sensory foam paintings, to creating layered collage out of dampened tissue paper – all led by our Museum Educator.
Don’t miss the exhibition down the hall! Artist Suzanne Chamlin (Associate Professor of Studio Art, Fairfield University), explores ideas about color theory and light through a series of landscape and interior stills. Learn more here.
Suzanne Chamlin, paint tube colors, 2012, oil on paper. © Suzanne Chamlin.
Join viral tiktok artists, and twins, Kira Sabin and Kess Fennel as they teach you how to paint your own duck stamp painting. In this hour and half long workshop, you will learn about the rules and regulations of creating and submitting your own duck painting to the Federal Duck Stamp Contest, along with sketching a duck in gallery, then finishing up by painting your own duck. Materials will be provided for this workshop, along with light bites and drinks. Kira and Kess will also be available to help as your create your own duck stamp painting.
In conjunction with the Bruce exhibition Every Leaf & Twig: Andrew Wyeth’s Botanical Imagination, curator William L. Coleman will share an insider perspective on an underrecognized aspect of the work of a widely loved artist. Wyeth’s place-based practice in the immediate environs of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and Port Clyde, Maine included a fascinating array of watercolors and drawings devoted to individual specimens of plant life that he responded to freely across the seasons. In conjunction with the artist’s surviving painting materials and correspondence and in dialogue with the dramatic changes Wyeth’s country has faced in recent years, these remarkable creations speak to a model of sensitive engagement with the natural world that could not be timelier.