Bob Dylan’s Start

Bob Dylan was only 19 when he arrived in New York City. He wanted to be a folk singer and songwriter like Carolyn Hester, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and others whose clear-voiced songs recalled American innocence and optimism. Yet within two years his nasal, whiny voice and symbolist lyrics would rally activists protesting racial segregation and the Vietnam War. He would even be onstage with Martin Luther King for the “I Have a Dream” speech. Dylan’s first album with Columbia Records, which signed him in 1961, was a flop. His second, 1963’s “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” was a smash. And its iconic cover photo — Dylan and then girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, walking forward on a snow-covered Village street — was taken by Don Hunstein, long the main photographer for Columbia and its albums. Now a collection of Hunstein’s images of Dylan from 1961 through 1963 is on display upstairs in The Moviehouse Gallery in Millerton, NY. There are the famous pictures of Dylan and his guitar; Dylan in a tattered chair in his Village walk-up apartment; Dylan, taken from behind, rehearsing in an empty Carnegie Hall for his sold-out, October 1963 concert. Hunstein’s images are straightforward, unadorned. They recall a time when it was the music that mattered, not bling nor shenanigans; and an artist who has influenced — more than any other, I would argue — the course of American popular and rock music ever since. Hunstein’s photographs of Bob Dylan will be exhibited in The Moviehouse Gallery through Feb. 16.

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Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy
Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.
Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Anderson and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

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A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

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In the company of artists

In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

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