It snowed this past week. Westport schools were on winter break.
But Coleytown Middle School was filled. Busily and happily, volunteers hung art.
After renovation was completed in January, the Westport Public Art Collections committee got ready to reinstall over 70 works that were removed last year.
Town arts curator Kathie Motes Bennewitz noticed a beautifully refurbished, vast empty wall in the main staircase. It screamed for a giant piece to fill it
WAAC member artist Eric Chiang — who lives near CMS — creates large, multi-canvas acrylic paintings depicting themes like love, connection and hope. Many are colorful and fantastical — perfect for middle schoolers and a big, blank wall.
Could Chiang loan the school one of his pieces?
Of course!
Chiang measured the wall, photoshopped a few images onto it, then suggested possibilities for consideration.
CMS Principal Kris Szebo created a survey to engage students and teachers in the decision-making process. A vote was taken.
The winner: Are We Born Connected? The triptych acrylic on canvas measures 4 feet by 15 feet.
Eric Chiang (center) with his triptych. CMS building chair Don O’Day looks on.
Chiang notes, “The sound of the cello is in the same range of that of human beings. I used cellos to represent humans, emphasizing their voices. The big cello in the foreground faces two choices: Sing a solo dirge like those floating cellos on the left, or band together for Ode to Joy and celebrate the existences together like those cellos on the right. We are wounded, we are in despair, but we have each other. We are born connected, and can sing together.”
Are We Born Connected? is on loan to CMS until the end of the school year. The fanciful work will greet the students when they come back from vacation tomorrow.
The artwork is hung. From left: team member Scott Bennewitz, Westport arts curator Kathie Motes Bennewitz, artist Eric Chiang, CMS building chair Don O’Day.
The public may not visit, due to security protocols and COVID. But the piece can be viewed on the WAAC website — along with more than 1,500 other works from Westport’s extensive public collection.
(Click here for more of Eric Chiang’s work. Hat tip: Nancy Diamond.)
Based on erroneous information, I reported yesterday that the St. Vincent’s COVID testing site on Long Lots Road would close March 1.
Nope! They’ll remain open: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 8 a.m. to noon. And no appointment is needed — just drive in.
Meanwhile, Bridgeport Hospital and Yale New Haven Health will open a new drive-thru COVID testing station at 140 Mill Plain Road in Fairfield on March 1.
The 2-lane site near the train station can accommodate 450 appointments a day, 7 days a week. Scheduling will be available online.
Yale New Haven Health operates several other COVID testing sites throughout the state. For information, call 833-275-9644.
With declining positivity rates, Connecticut will loosen COVID-19 restrictions on some events next month.
Starting March 19, private, social and recreational events at commercial venues can increase indoor capacity to 50%, capped at 100 people. That’s up from 25 people under current rules.
Outdoor event capacities can rise to 200 people (up from 50).
Interstate athletic competitions will be allowed starting March 1. Youth sports events may have spectators up to 25 percent of venue capacity, with a 200-person cap.
We’re not quite back to this kind of wedding reception. But we’re getting there.
Quietly, lovingly and deliciously, the small Post Road restaurant across from Design With Reach serves some of the most flavorful, authentic cuisine in town.
Or anywhere else this side of Thailand.
Through blizzards, hurricanes — and the pandemic — owner Pook and her staff are there. They serve their many loyal customers (and anyone else who wanders by, or orders online) with love. And without dumbing down their menu for the American palate.
Pook uses “correct” herbs. She pays a bit more to import brands from Thailand. It’s certainly worth it.
Jeera Thai is a Westport gem. Here’s to the next 5 years — and many more after that.
Former Westporter Arthur Powers Jr. died Monday. The 60-year-old struck a tree while skiing at Stowe Mountain in Vermont.
He moved to Easton in 2019, after many years on Spicer Road. The Easton Courier wrote:
Known for having a comedic actor’s sense of humor and drama, Art was an inventor and manufacturer of state-of-the-art outdoor speakers who designed music systems for 40 years. He also played drums in numerous bands in a career as a musician.
Art’s many hobbies included music, motorcycles, and mountain biking. He was an automotive enthusiast who raced cars and motorcycles. He loved being in the mountains, in the woods, and on the beach, and was an accomplished biker and skier.
In addition to his life partner of 20 years, Dr. Patricia Hart, he is survived by his daughter Kelly Poweers Bluien; parents Arthur Sr. and Evelyn; siblings Kenny, David and Corrine Powers Barton, many cousins, nieces and nephews, and a menagerie of dogs, cats and goats.
A celebration of Art’s life will be held in late summer.
The longtime Westporter and her husband Frank received a Westport Arts Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 for their contributions to film and television. That followed by 5 years a Friends of the Westport Library Special Friend Award.
The couple shared a career as pioneers during the golden age of television, including founding New York City’s first public television station.
They later started Jacoby/Storm Productions and traveled to over 60 countries making educational, documentary and corporate films.
Doris and Frank Jacoby, in the mid-1980s.
In addition to her professional accomplishments, she was a violinist (having studied at Juilliard from the age of 13), gardener, knitter, sculptor, and adoring grandmother to Alana, Maia, Greg, and Devon.
Her eldest granddaughter Alana is a musical theater writer, theater-maker and educator. She lives in the Hudson Valley, and wrote this remembrance:
When Doris Jacoby received a lifetime achievement award from her alma mater Brooklyn College in 2015, she suggested it be renamed a “lifetime achievement up until now award.” She said, “I’m only 89, and I’m not done yet.”
No one would have blamed her for being “done.” Behind her lay a remarkable career in film and television. She still ran a film screening series at the Westport Library, participated in a French conversation group, and had only recently given up ice skating (after starting lessons at age 73. There was always a magical notion among my family that Doris might outlive us all.
She had been destined for a life in show business. The younger daughter of Manheim and Fannie “Bobbie” Rosenzweig, she was born in 1926 in New York City. Her love of theater was firmly established by age 5, when she and her sister Sonya sold tickets to their productions around their neighborhood.
Doris and her older sister Sonya, circa 1928.
She followed in her musician mother’s footsteps, and began training as a violinist at Juilliard at 13. Theater is how she met my grandfather: When she was 19, she and Sonya borrowed scenery from the local Jacoby Playhouse for a production at the theatrical school they’d founded. Frank Jacoby, age 20, came to retrieve it.
They eloped 3 weeks later. Their marriage lasted 66 years, until Frank’s death in 2012.
Doris and Frank Jacoby celebrate with relatives and friends, a month after their elopement in 1946.
Doris and Frank’s professional relationship grew alongside their personal one, and they soon found themselves pioneers in the Golden Age of Television. Frank worked behind the scenes, while Doris flitted effortlessly between work behind and in front of the camera.
One moment she was a spokesperson, appearing on one of the first live TV news programs as the Con Edison Girl, extolling the wonders of electricity. The next, she was crouched under a table, slowly pulling a wick through a trick candle to create an illusion of a flame slowly disappearing for the opening segment of “Lights Out.”
Doris Jacoby — the “Con Ed girl” — with John Tillman on WPIX-TV, around 1949.
Doris and Frank put Channel 13 on the air, sparking a decades-long love of educational programming. They established Jacoby/Storm Productions (she was known professionally as Doris Storm) and traveled the world together making educational, documentary and corporate films, often working alongside their three sons, Doug, Bruce and Jeff. Their films included “The Wonderful World of Westport,” created to celebrate the town’s 150th anniversary in 1985.
Doris defied gender expectations throughout her life. She received special permission to study physics in high school, and was the only girl in her class.
She was the kind of woman who not only broke barriers, but also turned around to help the next woman through. One day during her tenure as the first female senior vice president of the publishing firm Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, she discovered her secretary sobbing in the restroom, having been sent home for wearing a pantsuit to work. Doris assured her everything would be okay. She bought her own pantsuit after work that evening and wore it the next day. Doris paraded into every male executive’s office, daring them to criticize her. No one said a word.
My grandmother was a true disciple of the tenet, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” Her quick wit and dramatic instincts turned tales from her acclaimed career into the stuff of legends. In a favorite story whose details I never entirely understood even while she was telling it, she claims to have single-handedly persuaded the government of Armenia to reinstate Daylight Savings Time in 1997.
I will always remember her in a t-shirt that read, “If I knew grandchildren were so much fun, I would have had them first.” I’ll remember her showing me how to plant vegetables and solve crossword puzzles, stirring a bowl of chocolate pudding, teaching me how to knit as we made a hat for my cousin.
My memories of folding laundry with her or peeling an apple in a single spiral stand out as brightly as memories of Broadway shows and strolling the streets of Paris. She was the kind of person it felt special to be around, no matter what we did. She was an exceptionally excellent grandmother to me, my sister Maia, and my cousins Greg and Devon. She was incredibly well loved when she died peacefully at home on January 27.
Doris Jacoby accepting her Lifetime Achievement Award from Brooklyn College, her alma mater, in 2015.
If you feel inclined to donate in her memory, our family asks you to consider 2 options. Doris was extraordinarily proud of the work she did to establish Devon’s Place, a Boundless Playground in Norwalk that allows children of a wide range of abilities to play together. Named in honor of my youngest cousin, the park has been hugely important to countless children since it opened in 2004. It is due to be renovated within the next year, and we are currently collecting funds for this project.
Another wonderful option is to donate to the Reading Activity program at the Thomas Hooker School (138 Roger Williams Road, Bridgeport, CT 06610), where Doris read aloud to students up until her last few years. She touched many lives through this program.
Those are the twin themes of this week’s art gallery.
As we near a full year of this project, we continue to showcase your art — in whatever form you create it. You don’t have to be a pro, or even experienced. We want it all!
Art should be inspired by, relevant to, or somehow, in some way, connected to our current lives. Student submissions of all ages are especially welcome. So are artists who have not submitted before.
Email dwoog@optonline.net, to share your work with the world.
“Looking Forward to Spring” (Amy Schneider)
“Winter Dunes” oil on canvas plein air — dune preservation on Sherwood Island’s East Beach (Werner Liepolt)
Untitled (Eric Bosch)
“Island” off Compo Beach (Karen Weingarten)
“Arctic Scene” (Lisa Seidenberg)
Untitled. Photographer Richard Epstein says, “My witch hazel begins to flower reliably in February, despite the temperature or weather. It always reminds me spring is coming!”
Joni Mitchell was right. After a winter of snow — and a year of COVID — we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.
And there’s no better place than the Westport Community Gardens.
There — just a few hoe-lengths away from Long Lots Elementary School — 100 or so gardeners grow fruit, vegetables, flowers, herbs and grasses, in a wonderful array of designs and configurations.
Some are families with young children. Some are folks in their 80s. Some are experienced gardeners; others know little, but learn from them. All form a helpful, happy — and very well-fed — community.
Gardens plots are available to town residents and town employees. After the internal allocation ends March 1, any remaining plots are allocated to the wait list.
The gardens are deer-proof. Water is available.
Grow the tomatoes you’ve dreamed of — or any other fruits, vegetables and flowers you’ve wanted to try.
Families find a home at the Community Gardens. Supervised children are welcome — and encouraged.
There’s even a bocce court.
Click here to join the wait list. After all: You are stardust. You are golden. You’ve got to get yourself back to the garden.
The 16-time Grammy-winning violinist — and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner — is the Westport Library’s 22nd “Booked for the Evening” honoree.
The event is set for May 13.
The only catch: It’s virtual. Unlike previous events — with the likes of Tom Brokaw, E.L. Doctorow, Calvin Trillin, Wendy Wasserstein, Martin Scorsese, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Patti Smith, Nile Rodgers, Alan Alda, Frederic Chiu, Lynsey Addario and Justin Paul — audiences won’t be able to enjoy Perlman live.
COVID took care of that.
Still, it’s a step forward from last year. With the pandemic in its early stages, the Library had to cancel the entire Booked evening. That was a disappointment to many — and a big blow to the Library budget. The spring tradition is one of the major fundraisers of the year.
Itzhak Perlman
Perlman is that rare modern superstar: a classical musician whose name everyone knows. Noted for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, his joy for art touches audiences worldwide.
Diagnosed with polio at age 4, Perlman rose to fame on the “Ed Sullivan Show” as a 13-year-old prodigy.
He has performed for presidents, Queen Elizabeth and — on numerous television shows — audiences of millions.
The documentary “Itzhak” details Perlman’s struggles as a polio survivor and Jewish émigré, and is a reminder why art is vital to life.
All week long, Westport schools have been on winter break.
As in years past, families headed on vacation. They skied in Vermont and Colorado. They swam in Florida, and snorkeled off St. Martin.
But this year is not like all those others. We are still in a pandemic. Governor Lamont has issued travel mandates. Connecticut residents must take precautions — testing and quarantining — when returning from out of state.
Today, Superintendent of Schools Thomas Scarice said:
Dear Westport Families and Staff,
As we head into the final weekend of the winter break I want to remind everyone of Governor Lamont’s Executive order 9S, regarding travel.
Students and staff returning from travel to anywhere other than New Jersey, New York or Rhode Island, where they have stayed longer than 24 hours, are required by law to follow this executive order.
Governor Ned Lamont’s order on out-of-state travel includes $500 fines.
We want to remind families to continue reporting positive COVID-19 cases of students using our reporting voicemail or email regardless of whether the students are in remote or hybrid models of instruction. Please follow this link for more information on reporting.
As noted last week, the travel guidance linked and outlined below is important information as the winter break draws to a close, but it remains critical for families and staff to remember that smaller social gatherings with family and friends have an equal, if not greater potential, for transmission of COVID-19 if mask wearing and other critical mitigation measures aren’t followed.
Thank you again for your help in following this guidance. Enjoy the weekend, and we look forward to seeing everyone next week!
New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island are exempt from this advisory, and do not require quarantine or COVID-19 testing.
Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and all other states or countries are notexempt. If you visited any non-exempt state for more than 24 hours within the past 10 days:
All students and families must fill out the State Travel Health Form regardless of COVID-19 testing.
All students and families must quarantine when they return home to Connecticut, and must remain in quarantine for 10 days since last contact with the affected state.
Quarantine may be left if a rapid or PCR COVID-19 test was administered, and returned negative. The test can be administered up to 72 hours before returning to the Connecticut, or anytime thereafter. Results must be submitted to the Commissioner of Public Health .
Failure to quarantine, receive COVID-19 testing, and/or submit accurate State Travel Forms will result in a $500 civil penalty per violation (per family member, and/or per time leaving quarantine)
All positive COVID-19 cases for Westport Public Schools students or staff (virtual or in-person learnings) must be reported to the District by email or phone.
Anonymous reporting of people not adhering to the Connecticut Travel Advisory can be submitted online here.
Connecticut has strict rules for travelers returning from destinations like Cancun. Other states — for example, Texas — are less stringent.
A recent “06880” story on the death of Hal Holbrook noted his 1959 Halloween appearance — as Mark Twain, of course — at Staples High.
I wrote: “The school had just opened its modern North Avenue campus. The PTA had an active arts program, bringing musicians, dancers and actors to the new auditorium stage. Hal Holbrook might have been the most famous name of all.”
Staples High School auditorium in its first year: 1959.
He sure had competition. As John Kelley notes, in those early days of the new high school, Ottilie Kaufman — who lived right next to the south entrance — organized and produced a one-of-a-kind, first-ever performing arts series at Staples that included (in addition to Holbrook) the Weavers, Marcel Marceau, Ferrante and Teicher, Odetta, Sir John Gielgud , Andrés Segovia and others.
Segovia — a world-renowned Spanish classical guitarist — died in 1987, at 94. But his legacy — and his visit here — lives on.
Soon after another legendary Latin musician — José Feliciano — turned 75 last year, our Weston neighbor received a gift: Segovia’s footstool.
Autographed. And from that March 1960 Staples concert.
A page from the 1960 Performing Arts series program.
The back story: Prior to his show, Segovia came to the Kaufmans’ home next door to the high school. He warmed up in the living room using that footstool. Many classical guitarists do that; it supports the instrument, as they play seated.
Growing up in Spanish Harlem in the 1950s, Feliciano was highly influenced by the skills and intrigue of Segovia’s delicate flamenco style.
The antique stool sat in the Kaufman family’s attics for decades — first on North Avenue, then at Ottilie and Zenn’s son Roger’s house. A guitarist, singer and founder of Old School Music’s concerts, promotions and events, he’s as famous locally as Feliciano and Segovia are internationally.
The stool seemed a fitting present for Feliciano, who always sits when he plays. Now the “Feliz Navidad” and “Light my Fire” Latin/jazz/blues/soul/rock musician is sitting pretty with Segovia’s stool in hand — er, under foot.
From left: local drummer Tyger MacNeal, Jose Feliciano and Roger Kaufman, with Andres Segovia’s footstool. The 75th birthday presentation was at Sakura.
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