ART HAPPY HOUR
Join us on the second Thursday of every month for an evening of art, music and conversation in the galleries. Themes and activities vary monthly. Free with Museum admission. Complimentary wine and cheese are served at 5:30 p.m.; the program is from 6-7 p.m.

Thursday, April 10,  2008
SEMI Wired: Classic Avant-garde Works
The “SEMI Wired” electronic performance ensemble is dedicated to performing live electro-acoustic music wherever and whenever possible. This evening's performance includes a variety of works by composers who, using electronic music, emerged as cornerstones of the 20th century musical avant-garde. The concert will be also feature “Seed,” a trio of young performers from the Hartford area. The concert is dedicated to a work by a well-known leader of this movement, German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007). Stockhausen was known for his ground-breaking work in electronic music and aleatory (controlled chance) in serial composition.

Thursday, May 8, 2008
The Garden as Art, Art as a Garden
Presented by Richard Benfield
Richard Benfield is a professor of geography at CCSU and a master gardener.

Thursday, June  12, 2008
Photographer Angelika Rinnhofer
Photographer Angelika Rinnhofer, our NEW/NOW artist, will give an extensive gallery talk about her work and her technique. Rinnhofer lives with one foot in the past and the other firmly anchored in the present. Her dramatic, large-format color prints evoke the compositions and pictorial techniques of the old masters and mannerists, with direct references to Durer, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and most clearly, Caravaggio, the master of chiaroscuro (contrasting light and dark). Rinnhofer creates her images in a contemporary visual language; a distinct form of portraiture that goes beyond merely replicating the paintings of the past in a contemporary medium.