community

Scoville unveils renovated building

Scoville unveils renovated building

Kyla DeRisi with bound copies of The Lakeville Journal.

Patrick L. Sullivan

A group of 20 or so patrons of the Scoville Memorial Library took a tour through the nooks and crannies of the building on Friday evening, Dec. 20.

The tour was a repeat of last year’s tour, but everybody who showed up was new to it.

There were fewer staffers on hand due to the snow that was falling at show time. Karen Vrotsos, the head of adult programs, stood in for library director Karin Goodell. Also leading groups were volunteers David Rogers and Macey Levin, and the latest addition to the staff, children’s librarian Kyla DeRisi.

Vrotsos took a group to the director’s office, where they admired the portrait of Andrew Warner — one of the founders of Hartford — and heard how a long shot inquiry from a descendant led to the portrait turning up in the library’s holdings.

Then it was up the narrow spiral staircase to a room that holds the original books that made up the library’s initial collection.

The books are small, fragile, and lean heavily toward religion and morally uplifting subjects.

There is also a sword, which might have been made in France in the 1770s and exported to the American colonies for use in the Revolution.

Moving to the reading room, Macey Levin reminded the younger members of the group that it used to be the children’s section, directed the group’s attention to the stone carving in the wall — from Salisbury Cathedral in England — the Oak Room (aka the Kobler Room or the Tower Room) and the map on the wall in an alcove showing the old 14 school districts within Salisbury.

In the basement, DeRisi pointed out a display of miniature books donated by the late Whitney North Seymour. The display was once in the main room of the library, was stowed away in the director’s office, and was then relocated downstairs during the most recent renovation.

There are also bound copies of the Lakeville Journal.

Upstairs under the bells, Rogers explained why the group could not go up the “rickety” ladders to see the actual bells. (Answer: insurance).

Rogers said the “Parsifal Peal” used by the library for its bells is based on Richard Wagner’s “Parsifal” opera and as far as he knows is the only bell tower in the United States that plays it.

He then obliged by playing it on his saxophone.

community

Latest News

State intervenes in sale of Torrington Transfer Station

State intervenes in sale of Torrington Transfer Station

The entrance to Torrington Transfer Station.

Photo by Jennifer Almquist

TORRINGTON — Municipalities holding out for a public solid waste solution in the Northwest Corner have new hope.

An amendment to House Bill No. 7287, known as the Implementor Bill, signed by Governor Ned Lamont, has put the $3.25 million sale of the Torrington Transfer Station to USA Waste & Recycling on hold.

Keep ReadingShow less
waste management

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 Carter 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.”

Keep ReadingShow less
history

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.”

Keep ReadingShow less
exhibit