Community Calendar

About the Exhibition: This exhibition presents highlights from the collection of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum, which explores the impact of the Irish Famine of 1845-1852 through artwork produced by eminent Irish and Irish-American artists of the past 170 years. The works on view in the exhibition will include paintings by late 19th- and early 20th‐century artists like James Brenan, Daniel Macdonald, James Arthur O'Connor and Jack B. Yeats, as well as sculptures, paintings, and works on paper by contemporary artists including John Behan, Rowan Gillespie, Brian Maguire, and Hughie O'Donoghue. The exhibition is presented by Quinnipiac University and the Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield Exhibition.

Image: James Arthur O’Connor, Scene in Connemara, 1828, oil on canvas. Courtesy of Quinnipiac University and the Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield Exhibition.

This family-fun annual event features live entertainment, spectacular Fireworks by Grucci both Saturday nights, exciting rides for all ages (including a 110-foot-tall Ferris wheel), and plenty of tantalizing carnival eats.

Free with fair admission are Victoria Circus high-wire, aerial and motorcycle thrill shows, Big Bee Transforming Robot Car, The Escape Explosion show, and World of Wonders Amazement Show featuring 10 old-time sideshow acts under the big top including a sword swallower and a fire eater, plus over 30 bizarre exhibits in the Museum of Marvels.

Fair admission: $5 (free for kids under 36" tall). Parking is free.

Unlimited ride wristbands (for riders 36" & taller) are $42 ($40 cash) or online before 5 pm May 8 for $29, 2/$55 or 4/$99. Visit the website for pre-sale ride tickets, group discounts and specials including Carload Night Thursdays (admission & unlimited rides for $60/vehicle for all seat-belted occupants).

Fair hours: 5-10 pm Monday - Thursday, 5-11 pm Friday, noon-11 pm Saturday, noon-10 pm Sunday. Guests under 21 must be accompanied by an adult age 21+.

More information: 866-666-3247 or BaldHillFair.com

There's something for everyone at this family-fun event featuring midway rides from whimsical kiddie rides to state-of-the-art thrill rides, entertaining carnival games, and deep-fried treats, sweets and other tasty carnival eats.

Admission and parking are free.

Unlimited ride wristbands (for riders 36" & taller) are $42 on site ($40 cash price) or online before 5 pm Wed., May 14 for $29 each, 2/$55 or 4/$99.

Ride tickets are also available on the midway. Online pre-sale special: $45/50 tickets + 1 free ride. (Rides take 2 or more tickets each.)

Visit the website for coupon savings on rides and food and event updates.

Midway hours: 5-10 pm Wednesday - Thursday, 5-11 pm Friday, noon-11 pm Saturday, noon-10 pm Sunday. Guests under 18 must be accompanied by an adult age 21+.

More information: 866-666-3247 or DreamlandAmusements.com
https://dreamlandamusements.com/upcoming-events-amusement-carnival/westbury-carnival/

Join us for an evening of storytelling with Wurtele Gallery Teachers. Hear exciting tales from around the world as reflected in artworks throughout the museum’s collection. This program is inspired by our family program Stories and Art, but with adults in mind.

No registration required; meet by the couches in the Gallery lobby.

In Rewrite the Mother Code, Dr. Gertrude Lyons challenges limiting beliefs and expands the definition of motherhood. She blurs the lines that restrict women to narrow roles, inviting readers to embrace the truth that all women mother, and that mother energy is accessible to everyone, including men. This book celebrates motherhood by reintroducing spirituality and community, empowering women as the ultimate creators. The event will be moderated by Barri Leiner Grant, with books available for sale and signing.

Welcome local musicians! Open to all genres, ages, and styles.

Join us for a one-of-a-kind jam session hosted at The Granite. An experienced houseband is available to back you up, including bass, drums, keys, and guitars. Our full backline is at your service with drums, keys, steel guitar, and amps for bass and guitar, as well as a PA and our skilled engineer.

Sign-up starts at 7 PM. Houseband set at 8 PM. Jam starts at 8:30 PM.

$10 suggested donation includes a complimentary beverage.

Romney: Brilliant Contrasts in Georgian England, co-organized by the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art to celebrate the YCBA’s reopening, features the work of the British portrait painter George Romney (1734–1802). Remembered today for his fashionable likenesses of wealthy patrons, Romney was rivaled in late 18th-century London only by the now better-known artists Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds. His aspirations to be a history painter were never realized, but his many drawings serve as a testament to those greater ambitions. These swiftly executed sketches reveal a mastery of form, line, and light, while his proficiency as a musician and early experience building musical instruments distinguish him among his polymath contemporaries. To fully explore the era’s subjects and sensibilities, paintings and drawings by Romney from both museums are shown alongside selections from the Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments. Unveiling the contrasts in his artistic practice, the exhibition presents a forceful vision—one that has resonated with admirers through the centuries, from William Blake in Romney’s own time to the portraitist Kehinde Wiley today.

David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive is a major traveling retrospective exhibition that spans the seven decades of this South African photographer’s career, from the 1950s to the 2010s, demonstrating Goldblatt’s commitment to showing the realities of daily life in his country. The exhibition and accompanying publication bring together roughly 150 works by Goldblatt from the collections of the Yale University Art Gallery and the Art Institute of Chicago—two major Goldblatt repositories—including his early black-and-white photography and his post-apartheid, large-format color photography. Also included in the exhibition are photographs by some of Goldblatt’s peers, such as Ernest Cole, Santu Mofokeng, and Jo Ractliffe, as well as a generation of younger South Africans, many of whom Goldblatt mentored, including Lebohang Kganye and Zanele Muholi, placing Goldblatt within a broader and intergenerational network of photographers. This ambitious project honors the life and career of an artist who used his work to celebrate his country’s working-class people, the landscape, and the built environment.

The Friends of Fairfield Public Library are holding their semi-annual book sale at the Main Library, 1080 Old Post Road in Fairfield, on Friday, May 16, from 9:00am-4:30pm, and on Saturday, May 17, from noon-4:30pm.

Thousands of books, dvds, and other special items will be available for purchase, most between $1-$5. A free book in the "genre of the day" will be given out with purchases. All proceeds benefit the Fairfield Public Library's programs and services.

GAC Gallery Exhibition “Dear Mother,” Celebrates Relationship of Art & Earth

The newest gallery exhibition at Guilford Art Center, “Dear Mother,” will present artworks which honor our relationship to the natural world through a variety of mediums and practices. This exhibition will explore and embrace our most ancient connections through one of our most human behaviors – artmaking.

The exhibition will be open May 2 – June 1, 2025. Over 100 works will be included by local artists, including painting, photography, drawing, ceramics, woodworking, fiber, woodcut, mixed media, and encaustic.

The community is invited to the Welcoming Reception on Sunday, May 4, from 2-4pm. This event is free and open to all.

The GAC gallery is free to enter and open 7 days a week. Monday-Saturday 10am-4pm, Sunday 12-4pm. The Shop, which carries handcrafted work by hundreds of artists, is also open.

Guilford Art Center is located at 411 Church Street, Guilford. For more information contact Guilford Art Center at www.guilfordartcenter.org or 203-453-5947.