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Welcome to your free bi-weekly newsletter from Connecticut Explored with the latest stories, the newest Grating the Nutmeg podcast, programs and exhibitions from our partners to see/watch this month, and more!
From all of us at Connecticut Explored, best wishes for the new year!
Read our end-of-year note for a review of 2023 and a look at what’s to come!
Look Down! The Art of Yvonne Jacquette (1934–2023)
Alexandra Maravel’s photo essay looks at the work of Yvonne Jacquette, a renowned artist known for capturing aerial perspectives in her paintings. Jacquette got her start as an artist during her high school years in Stamford. She died in 2023. Maravel reflects on the power of Jacquette’s perspective,
By the end of her long, productive life, Jacquette had turned aerial sketches of complex cities like New York, Hong Kong, Vancouver, and Chicago and rural vistas across the country into a multimedia body of work that challenged the viewer to see the world in the ever-changing ways in which she saw it.
That connection between artist and viewer is what makes art great. We can all look down from the heights of planes and tall buildings. Nowadays, we can explore satellite imagery of our planet. We can all marvel. But not everyone can take her own experience and recreate the world.
View all the images and read the entire story with your Connecticut Explored subscription.
To Order the Days / Para Ordenar Los Días
Artist Genevieve de Leon’s exhibition To Order the Days / Para Ordenar Las Días centered on knowledge of Mayan cosmology. She created this work during her time as the 2022-23 Richard Koopman Distinguished Chair in the Visual Arts at the Hartford Art School. In her Winter issue article, de Leon describes the inspiration for her work,
A Daykeeper, or Aj Q’ij, is a member of a traditional community that tracks calendrical cycles. Following a practice that dates to ancient Maya civilization, Daykeepers honor sacred days by performing fire ceremonies and engaging in naked-eye astronomy. The parade of constellations across the night sky illuminates story cycles sacred to the Maya.
Read the entire story with your Connecticut Explored subscription.
The Latest From Grating the Nutmeg
Don’t miss the most popular episodes of 2023!
#1 - Connecticut's Would-Be Woodstock: The Powder Ridge Festival
Let’s go back in time to the greatest rock concert… that never happened.
#2 - Stories from Connecticut’s Western Reserve in Ohio
We ask the question: why did the State of Connecticut feel entitled to part of Ohio?
#3 - The Legendary Toad’s Place Nightclub in New Haven
Wall-to-wall posters, sticky floors, a small stage and the stale-beer smell give Toad’s Place its enduring character as a live-music shrine. Authenticity can’t be faked.
#4 - Carbonated Connecticut
Take a look at the beginnings of our national obsession with soft drinks.
#5 - Theodate Pope Survives the Sinking of the Lusitania
Theodate Pope, the architect and owner of what is now the Hill-Stead Museum, was a passenger on the Lusitania - the British transatlantic luxury liner famous for sinking during World War 1.
Programs and Exhibitions to Enjoy This Month
Free Jazz Concerts Return for 20th season
Sunday, January 7 | 3:00 - 4:00 P.M. | Hartford Public Library, Downtown Library
Grand Jazz Concerts will take place on Sundays in January, February, March and April from 3:00-4:00 p.m. in the Center for Contemporary Culture (CCC) at the Downtown Library, 500 Main Street. First come, first seated, beginning at 2pm. Enter through the Library's Arch Street entrance only. This Sunday, see Nat Reeves & Friends!
All shows will continue to be streamed on Hartford Public Library's Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Baby Grand Jazz Event Details, Hartford Public Library
Free Community Day Honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
Monday, January 15 | 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM | New Britain Museum of American Art
In commemoration of Dr. King’s birthday, the NBMAA is partnering with the CT Center for Nonviolence (CTCN) to present an afternoon of art-making, music, and learning. This Community Day is also the kickoff for the Museum's monthly “Access for All” free community days—made possible through generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.
Drop into one activity or stay for all the events! Make a day of it and enjoy a lunch of Caribbean food by The Russel Grab and Go.
Community Day Event Details, New Britain Museum of American Art
Taproom Tastings Virtual Program
January 9 | 6:30 p.m. | Virtual program
Join Keeler Tavern Museum and History Center Chief Curator Catherine Prescott and Hendrick I. Lott House Board Member Mary Tsaltas-Ottomanelli as they investigate historic food and drink cultures. Immigrant Foodways is the topic for this installation. The expert co-hosts will explore how immigrants adapted their native cuisines to the ingredients available to them in America. They'll also discuss how immigrants' culinary traditions influenced - and were influenced by - the palates of their new neighbors.
Taproom Tastings programs are free for all, with a suggested donation of $10/program.
Taproom Tastings Registration, Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center
Editor’s Picks
Want to explore the topics featured in this edition of the e-Newsletter? Check out these stories about Connecticut art history from the archives.
“Augustus Washington: Finding Freedom Through the Daguerreotype,” Connecticut Explored, Fall 2021.
“A Helping Hand for Starving Artists,” Connecticut Explored, Spring 2010.
“Josef & Anni Albers in Connecticut,” Connecticut Explored, Winter 2018-2019.
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