<p><strong>Summer Camp Gala Event </strong></p><p><br></p><p>Village Center for the Arts proudly presents our <em>Summer Camp Gala Event "Seeing by Starlight"</em>, showcasing all of our summer camp artists' work.&nbsp;</p><p>With a love and passion for the arts, this annual display of the children's artistic creations and hard work, is open to all.</p><p>Showing their work in this gallery setting instills confidence, pride and a sense of accomplishment for our campers as they show off what they created.</p><p>With each theme-based week of our half day program, like the 3-6 year old's "Famous artists", to our full day "Mosaic", there is something for everyone to see. We also feature camps for Pottery, Mixed Media, Anime, Drawing , Writing, and Video Game Camps. Through this labor of love, and the generous use of the exhibition space at The Silo, we invite you all to experience this amazing show.</p><p>This show celebrates our campers and gives encouragement and support for their hard work.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>When: Saturday, August 24th, 6:30-8:30&nbsp;</strong></p><p><strong>and Sunday, August 25th 12:00-4:00.</strong></p><p><strong>Where: The Silo at 44 Upland Road in New Milford, CT 06776</strong></p><p><br></p><p>Saturday evening is the “Gala” opening event with hors d'oeuvres and refreshments provided.</p><p><em>This is a free event and all are welcome.</em></p><p><a href="http://www.villagecenterarts.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.villagecenterarts.org</a> </p><p>(860) 354-4318</p><p><br></p>

<p><a href="https://www.porticony.com/catalogs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);">Portico New York, Inc.</a><span style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">, a fine art firm with offices in Soho and Kent, CT, is presenting an OP Art pop-up exhibit at </span><a href="http://gregoryjamesgallery.com/gregory-james-gallery-is-expanding-in-new-location/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);">Gregory James Gallery</a><span style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> through Oct. 11.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">An opening reception is scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. July 19, when the public is invited to stop by the gallery to mingle and see works by key figures in the OP Art movement. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Op Art is short for optical art, which favors abstraction and the manipulation of patterns and colors to create effects like a sense of movement, uncertainty about foreground and background, warping, and swelling.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The pop-up exhibit at Gregory James Gallery features the work of five artists.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Michael Peter Cain came to renown in the late 1960s as one of the founders of PULSA, a conceptual art collective, and co-founder of the art department of Maharishi University in Iowa, where he taught for many decades. Cain, who studied and taught transcendental meditation, comes from a family of artists and is best known for his sculpture informed by Indian hammered metalwork. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ellen Carey, a New York native and associate professor of photography at the University of Hartford, </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248);">blends photographic technique with fine art abstraction in her </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">experimental work.</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">A Pictures Generation contemporary of Cindy Sherman and Robert Longo, Carey emphasizes&nbsp;drawing with light, and her photographs no longer represent object-subject relations but rather the twin interplay of light and shadow, stark in black and white minimalism while freeing color itself into a kaleidoscope of abstraction.</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> She’s known for her </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">experimental Polaroid practice dating from 1983, when the Polaroid Artists Support Program invited her to work at the Polaroid 20X24 Studio. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Tom Reeder was a fixture of the late 70s early 80s Soho art scene and a victim of AIDS. Influenced by </span><a href="https://www.alfredjensen.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Alfred Jensen</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">, an abstract artist considered to be a precursor of Conceptual Art, Reeder created beautifully crafted oil paintings with heavy impasto, reminiscent of confections.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Xanti Schawinsky was a student at the Bauhaus and created sets for experimental theatre before devoting himself to painting. In 1936, he was invited by Josef Albers to teach at Black Mountain College and the Museum of Modern Art exhibited his work. He is credited with being one of the founding fathers of Performance Art. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Hungarian French artist </span><strong style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Victor Vasarely</strong><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> is widely credited as being the grandfather of the Op art movement and its central figure. His 1937 work “Zebra” is said to be one of the earliest examples of Op Art.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“He’s kind of the benchmark for all the other work in the pop-up exhibit,” said Steven Lowy, the art advisor and curator who heads Portico, which specializes in 20th Century Modernist paintings, drawings and sculpture with an emphasis on artists from the “Founding Collection” of the Guggenheim Museum. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Lowy has curated and published catalogue essays for numerous museum and gallery exhibitions and consulted for such venerable institutions as the S.R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Villa Stuck in Munich.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“The new gallery has two distinct spaces, one representational and the other offering more contemporary works,” owner Greg Mullen, who moved Gregory James Gallery into a larger location in the summer of 2022. “I have always envisioned the possibility of making one of the spaces available for guest curators and exhibitions. I’m excited to work with Steven of Portico on his new Op Art exhibit.”</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The gallery, located at 149 Park Lane Road (Rt. 202), New Milford is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The phone number is 860-354-3436, the email is&nbsp;</span><a href="mailto:GregoryJamesG@aol.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">GregoryJamesG@aol.com</a><span style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">, and the website is&nbsp;</span><a href="https://gregoryjamesgallery.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">gregoryjamesgallery.com</a><span style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">&nbsp;</span></p>

<p><a href="https://officeofthegovernor.cmail19.com/t/j-l-gjifhy-tlluktiylh-k/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(10, 10, 10);"><strong>Governor Lamont Announces $12 Million in State Grants To Improve Transportation Infrastructure in 17 Towns and Cities</strong></a> </p><p>Governor Ned Lamont and Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto today announced that the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) is awarding more than $12 million in grants to 17 towns and cities throughout Connecticut for projects that will improve transportation accessibility and safety.</p><p class="ql-align-justify">The grants are being awarded through CTDOT’s&nbsp;<a href="https://officeofthegovernor.cmail19.com/t/j-l-gjifhy-tlluktiylh-u/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 113, 187);"><strong>Community Connectivity Grant Program</strong></a>. Now in its sixth round of awards, this state-funded program provides financial support for local infrastructure initiatives that make conditions safer, more accommodating, and equitable for pedestrians and bicyclists in urban, suburban, and rural centers.</p><p class="ql-align-justify">The grants approved under the sixth round of the Community Connectivity Grant Program include:</p><ul><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Avon</strong>: Old Farms Road Connectivity Improvements, Phase II ($792,598)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Chaplin</strong>: Chaplin Connectivity and Accessibility Project ($752,000)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Cromwell</strong>: Willowbrook Road and Evergreen Road Sidewalk Connectivity ($229,200)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>East Haven</strong>: Messina Drive Traffic Signal and Pedestrian Walkway ($781,004)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Fairfield</strong>: Improved Access to McKinley School ($681,900)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Glastonbury</strong>: Manchester Road Sidewalks, Shoddy Mill to Hebron Avenue ($796,700)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Greenwich</strong>: Pedestrian Safety Improvements at Three Intersections in Central Greenwich ($799,200)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Guilford</strong>: Boston Post Road (Route 1) Sidewalk Extension to Madison Town Line ($739,765)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Haddam</strong>: Higganum Center Connections, Connecting Village Center to Activity Nodes ($800,000)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Litchfield</strong>: Sidewalk Enrichment Plan, ADA Upgrades and Sidewalk Enhancements ($800,000)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Madison</strong>: Scotland Avenue Roadway Improvements ($800,000)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>New Canaan</strong>: Lakeview Avenue Sidewalk Project ($325,680)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Portland</strong>: The Complete Streets, Main Street Sidewalk Improvements Phase III ($612,000)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Southbury</strong>: Heritage Village Multi-Use Path ($800,000)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Voluntown</strong>: Village Center Pedestrian Network Enhancement ($799,200)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>Watertown</strong>: Main Street (Route 63) Pedestrian Improvements ($800,000)</li><li class="ql-align-justify"><strong>West Hartford</strong>: Sidewalk Accessibility Improvements ($697,000)</li></ul><p class="ql-align-justify">The funding limits for grants awarded in this solicitation can only be used for construction activities that range from $100,000 to $800,000. Now with this sixth round of funding, 138 awards totaling more than $62 million will have been invested in Connecticut’s towns and cities. Municipalities that have been selected to receive grants will be expected to complete the project within three years.</p><p class="ql-align-justify">For more information on the Community Connectivity Grant Program, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://officeofthegovernor.cmail19.com/t/j-l-gjifhy-tlluktiylh-o/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 113, 187);"><strong>portal.ct.gov/dot/pp_intermodal/ccgp/about</strong></a>.</p><p><br></p>

<p><span style="color: rgb(67, 67, 67);">The Annual Litchfield County Artisans Festival will be held on Saturday, July 20 from 10:00am until 5:00pm on the Green in downtown New Milford, rain or shine. This event, sponsored in conjunction with the Town of New Milford, will have over 80 vendors showcasing a wide variety of handcrafted items for sale, as well as several food trucks, and live music from the Bandstand all day long.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(67, 67, 67);">Learn more </span><a href="https://www.newmilfordnow.org/events?event=LITCHFIELD-COUNTY-ARTISANS-FESTIVAL" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p>Questions? Email Janet Wittmann at <a href="mailto:janetmw@prodigy.net" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">janetmw@prodigy.net</a></p>

<p>Join the JCC Sherman for a night of laughter! The 5th Annual Steve Bennett Memorial Comedy Show will take place this Friday July 12th at 7:30pm</p><p>Laugh along with some of the freshest comic voices on the stand-up stage, in keeping with the raucous comedy events our longtime resident Steve Bennett organized over the years!</p><p>Come for the laughs, stay for the confectionary treats.</p><p>Learn more <a href="https://www.newmilfordnow.org/events?event=5th-Annual-Steve-Bennett-Comedy-Show" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>

<p>We are so sorry to announce that the Fourth of July festivities on the green this afternoon have been canceled due to the impending weather.</p><p>The fireworks for this evening will be postponed to the rain date of next Saturday, July 13th.</p><p>We will always error on the side of safety for you and your family, first responders, our volunteers, and all that are involved in ensuring a safe and fun experience for all.</p><p>Thank you for understanding.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>