Main Street: A look Back 100 years

Official members reception in collaboration with Friday Nights on the Green.  Come join the fun and experience the nostalgia of the days gone by along Norfolk’s “Main Street”.   Light refreshments will be served at the museum, music and food will be available on the Village Green between 6:00 and 8:00.

Friday, July 1, 2022. 5:30 -7:00.

Please join us Sunday June 5th at 3:00PM for an illustrated presentation.

School Days with the Traveling Schoolmarm: A Chronicle of American Country School Images, Artifacts, Recitations, and Adventures.

Susan Webb, AKA The Traveling Schoolmarm, will bring us back to the late 19th century with tales and adventures from her over 20 years of researching the One Room Schoolhouse.  For the past 20 years, Mrs. Webb has been coming to Norfolk to instruct the Botelle School’s 5th grade history students in a day of living history.  The students are encouraged to play their part and dress in period style clothing and pack a lunch pail.  They then head to the Little Red School House for a day of fun and learning.  The Sunday afternoon program, thou geared to an adult audience will be fun for the whole family!  The program is an in-person event held in the museum.

Annual Meeting and Program will be help on January 16, 2022 at 4:00 PM via Zoom-webinar.

Ann Havemeyer: Louisine Havemeyer and the Prison Special

A renowned art collector and philanthropist, Louisine Havemeyer played an active role in the progressive National Woman’s Party, which included public speaking engagements, organizing fundraising art exhibitions, protesting at the White House, and imprisonment. Her devotion to the cause of woman suffrage aided in the success of the long fought battle to secure women’s basic rights in America. In this virtual talk, Ann Havemeyer will tell us more about her great-grandmother’s art collection and her role in the fight for woman suffrage.

Ann Havemeyer is the Director of the Norfolk Library and Curator of the Norfolk Historical Museum. She has written several books on Norfolk history and architecture. She holds a doctorate from Yale University in the History of Art and has lectured extensively.

Register for this webinar here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_T3e6IFelS2KYnIsXSE-c7w

2021 Annual Cake Auction is planned for December 4th live at the Historical Museum.  Event will begin at 5:00 for previewing the cakes, the auction will take place at 5:30.  Our list of talented Norfolk Bakers includes: Lisa Auclair, Jennie Brown, Jill Chase, Walter Godlewski, Larry Hannafin, Tom Hlas, Betsy Little,  Hartley Mead, Caryn Trager, Alyson Thomson and a cake painting by the one and only Turi!  Don’t miss out on all the fun.  Masks will be required for this live event please.

Special Exhibit and Fundraiser — Ticketed event

Guests are invited to come to the Norfolk Historical Museum on November 6th at 5:00 to view this special collection and pick-up a boxed gourmet dinner to enjoy at home. Presentation with Dr. Schlesinger and the NHS staff at 6:00. We are hopeful this will be an in-person event, with Zoom as a backup; final details will be emailed to participants.

Click the Merchandise tab at the top of the page to purchase tickets

Born in 1790, James Mars was the last known slave sold in Norfolk CT.  Gaining his freedom at the age of twenty-one, his live journey is a fascinating one.  Deacon, activist for equal rights, and a community leader.

Join us at Norfolk’s Center Cemetery to lear more about this remarkable man, and the many people who helped him along his journey.

Meet at 1:00 PM 15 Old Colony Road, Norfolk, CT

New England and Connecticut have long been a lure for artists and other creatives, able to claim the birthplace of the Impressionist movement in the United States.  Connecticut can boast the locales of three artistic enclaves which shaped the nation’s cultural evolution and legacy: Cos Cob, Old Lyme, and Weir Farm in Wilton, CT.   Nowhere does art and inspiration come together more powerfully than in the preserved spaces these artists called home. Ms. Balint will discuss historic preserved and lost homes of artists throughout New England, placing them in the context of homes throughout the country, as part of the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  This is program of 44 preserved artist sites throughout the country all open as public museums, and the topic of a newly released guidebook by Balint.  Join us on a virtual journey to learn the historic significance of these places where some of the nation’s most acclaimed artworks were created, and how these public sites continue to inspire visitors today.

Valerie Balint is the Senior Program Manager for Historic Artist’s Homes and Studios (HAHS), a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is administered at Chesterwood (the former home and studio of sculptor Daniel Chester French) and the author of the newly released Guide to Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios (Princeton Architectural Press, June 2020). HAHS is a nation-wide consortium of 44-member sites, that were the home and working studios of American artists. Prior to heading HAHS in beginning in spring 2017, Ms. Balint served for seventeen years on the curatorial staff at Frederic Church’s Olana (also a HAHS site), most recently as Interim Director of Collections and Research. She was co-organizer and co-curator of Olana’s annual exhibitions and accompanying publications. She is a frequent lecturer and writer on preserved artists’ spaces, Frederic Church, the Hudson River School, and American art and social history of the mid-19th and early 20th century. She is co-author of Glories of the Hudson: Frederic Church’s Views from Olana (Cornell Press, 2009). Her previous work also includes curatorial positions at Chesterwood and the Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio (also a HAHS site). She served as the New York State Coordinator of “Save Outdoor Sculpture,” a program of the Smithsonian American Art Museum to document all public sculpture in the United States. Balint is a longtime advocate for recognizing and valuing the important place artists’ homes and public art hold within the greater context of cultural history in America.

Presented as part of the WINter WIN festival, for more information on this and other events please visit: weekendinnorfolk.org.