Housatonic Museum Is Presenting Art Inspired By Weir Farm

BRIDGEPORT — Five artists who found inspiration in a National Historic landscape will be featured in an exhibition titled “Weir Farm Visiting Artists 2003: An Exhibition of Their Exploration of The Historic Site.” The exhibition, which opened last weekend, will be hosted by Housatonic Museum of Art from through December 12.

An opening reception will be conducted on Sunday, September 14, from 1 to 3 pm. A panel discussion is scheduled to begin that afternoon at 2 pm. The reception is free and the public is invited to attend.

Participating artists include Barbara Allen, Sue Collier, Suzanne Howes-Stevens, Constance Kiermaier and Dorothy Powers.

Weir Farm, originally purchased in 1882 J. Alden Weir, a major pioneering figure in the American Impressionist movement, includes land in both Wilton and Ridgefield. Weir spent nearly four decades there, often joined by many artists in his wide circle of friends, including Childe Hassam, John Twachtman, Albert Pinkham Ryder and John Singer Sargent.

Ms Allen received her BA (summa cum laude) from the University of Bridgeport and her MS in art education from Southern Connecticut State University. She is an art specialist at Danbury High School and a senior faculty member of Brookfield Craft Center.

Sue Collier has been living and working in New York City for the past 20 years; she has been teaching painting and drawing for ten of those years and has lectured at Queens College and Dartmouth College. She has exhibited nationally and has had numerous one-person shows. Ms Collier has received various grants including several Meritorious Teaching Awards from SUNY/ Purchase for outstanding teaching, and her work has been reviewed by The New York Times, Art Forum, ARTNews, Artspeak and Women’s Artist News, among others.

Ms Howes-Stevens, of Storrs, taught painting and drawing at Manchester Community College after completing her BFA at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and MA from the Hartford Art School. After retiring in 1997, she returned to her art making full-time. She is the recipient of Connecticut Commission on the Arts and a Greater Hartford Arts Council Individual Artists Fellowship.

Ms Kiermaier, of Westport, is a graduate of Yale School of Fine Arts. She is the recipient of numerous awards, among them a fellowship in painting from New England Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts and a Faber Birren Award for Distinctive and Creative Expression in Color.

Ms Powers, of Branford, is a professional artist and teacher.

Housatonic Museum of Art and Burt Chenow Galleries are at 900 Lafayette Boulevard, on the campus of Housatonic Community College. Gallery hours are Monday through Wednesday and Friday from 8 am until 5:30 pm, Thursday until 7 pm, Saturday from 9 am to 3 pm, and Sunday from 1 to 4 pm. For information call 203-332-5052.