Around Town

‘Everyone Seems Very Happy’: 3rd Annual Waveny Park Arts Festival a Big Hit

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Tom Kretsch, dedicated to photography since he retired in 2004 after a 37-year career as a schoolteacher, travels throughout New England to show and sell his pictures in shows and exhibitions. A Westport resident and member of the Carriage Barn Arts Center, Kretsch has participated in the organization’s Waveny Park Arts Festival since it launched three years ago. “I like the fact that it’s not too big and the town really comes out to support it,” he said Sunday afternoon from his bustling booth at the festival on a clear, sunny day. “You get really good crowds here and there’s a mixture of different crafts and things. They’re not overloaded in one thing.

Around Town

Third Annual Waveny Park Arts Festival Set for Sunday [Q&A]

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The Third Annual Waveny Park Arts Festival will run 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Sunday, Sept. 28. Organized by the Carriage Barn Arts Center, the family-friendly, rain-or-shine festival is free and features not only work from 50-plus artists and artisans, but also live music, food and entertainment. 

We put some questions to the Carriage Barn’s executive director, Hilary Wittmann, ahead of the event. Here’s our exchange. ***

New Canaanite: For those who were unable to attend the first two, tell us what visitors to the 3rd Annual Waveny Park Arts Festival can expect to find there?

Around Town

‘Art Was His Whole Life’: Celebrating the Life and Work of Norm Jensen, Sunday at the Carriage Barn

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The Carriage Barn Arts Center is set to host a unique celebration Sunday of the life and art of a beloved member of the New Canaan community. 

Norm Jensen, a Brooklyn, N.Y. native and 30-year town resident who worked as a graphic artist and was prolific in painting, ceramics and photography, died Feb. 13 at 84. A member of the Carriage Barn, Jensen “was always showing art at the Carriage Barn and all the other neighboring centers—Rowayton Arts Center, Ridgefield, Wilton,” according to his daughter, Laura Jensen.

At those places, “most people know him,” Jensen told NewCanaanite.com

Jensen experimented with various kinds of art during his lifetime, she said. 

“He originally did photography and also some painting, like oils and acrylic,” she said. “He also did sculpture, computer art, and then he got into making diorama boxes.” 

From 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, the Carriage Barn is hosting “The Life & Artwork of Norman A. Jensen,” where guests will be invited to take home a piece of Jensen’s art to remember him by, and may leave a donation in his honor. “We love Norm—he’s part of the Carriage Barn community,” the organization’s executive director, Hilary Wittmann, said.

Dionna Carlson

Town Approves ‘Third Annual Waveny Arts Festival’ for Sept. 28

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Town officials have approved use of Waveny for a hugely popular arts festival organized by a nonprofit organization. The 3rd Annual Waveny Park Arts Festival will be held Sunday, Sept. 28 following unanimous votes by the Parks & Recreation Commission and Board of Selectmen at their most recent meetings. The first year of the festival was a test to see how it would go “and it was a huge success,” according to Hilary Wittmann, executive director of the Carriage Barn Arts Center. 

“We did grow quite a bit last year, and everything went really smoothly,” Wittmann told the selectmen at their Feb. 25 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Around Town

‘They’re Excited, They’re Proud’: Social Justice Youth Art Showcase Opens at Carriage Barn

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Dozens of Students, families and art appreciators from New Canaan and throughout Fairfield County visited the Carriage Barn Arts Center on Saturday for the opening reception of an exhibition focused on social justice. Presented by Stand Together Against Racism or “STAR,” in partnership with The Glass House, Carriage Barn and NewCanaanite.com, the Third Annual Fairfield County Social Justice Youth Art Showcase, titled “Through Your Looking Glass,” will run through Nov. 24 at the popular gallery in Waveny Park. The number of students participating in the exhibition has tripled since its first year, according to Susan Borst, co-chair of the Showcase together with Blessings Misomali. “It has grown, especially by age,” Borst told NewCanaanite.com as artists mingled with friends, family and art-lovers, taking in a wide range of media including paintings, sculpture, photography, drawings, mixed media and poetry.