Community Calendar

Looking for the perfect staycation destination?

Whether you're planning family adventures, a cultural date, or quality time with grandkids, the Bruce offers captivating experiences for every visitor.

With a wide selection of programs and events, from interactive science to stunning art collections, there's always something new to spark your curiosity this summer!

Enjoy 10% off all membership levels.
Use code: SummerFun10
Valid through June 30, 2025

Perfect for:

Teacher thank-you gifts
Summer birthdays
Family adventures
Staycation outing
Escape the summer heat
Rainy day

Create unforgettable memories while exploring science, art, and nature together – or gift a membership to share the wonder with someone special!

This fantastic biennial event will showcase artwork by some of the region’s finest artists and will include art demonstrations and activities for children and adults- all celebrating the timeless themes of nature and agrarian life inspired by our property and the surrounding areas.

All Artwork is For Sale, proceeds from the sale of artwork benefit the programs at New Pond Farm Education Center

More details can be found at https://newpondfarm.org/artshow/

At the burgeoning turn of the 20th century, Connecticut offered artists beautiful rural landscapes not far from the big cities where they transformed European Impressionism into a uniquely American form. The idea was to recreate the young American students' experience of living in the numerous French art colonies. Connecticut offered the ideal environment for six art colonies, more than any other state in the country. This three-part series presented by Tom Davies, a New Canaan resident and collector of American art for over 55 years, will explore the development of these important centers of Impressionism.

As a seaport town Mystic was a smaller community of artists, many of whom exhibited with the Old Lyme artists. Often overlooked , Mystic began seven years earlier than Old Lyme and was strongly influenced by the first artist to arrive in 1891, Charles Harold Davis. Kent was the only colony located inland in the Litchfield Hills along the Housatonic River. Legend has it the major still life artist of the day, Emil Carlsen, boarded the wrong train in New York intending to go to Old Lyme and ended up in Falls Village, discovered he liked it, and settled there.

On June 12, 2025, at 7:00 PM, ET, Hamptons Observatory and co-host Suffolk County Community College will present a free virtual lecture by Dr. Jane Huang from the Department of Astronomy at Columbia University. She will lead us on a journey, “Peering into the Birthplaces of Planets,” and help us understand what we know about planet formation and how our own planet Earth came to be. Registration is required for this free, virtual lecture. Go to: https://bit.ly/PlanetaryTalk

Astronomers have discovered thousands of planets outside of the Solar System. Many of these planets have drastically different properties from the eight in our Solar System. To understand the diversity of planetary properties and ultimately answer the question of how our own planet came to be, we must study the conditions under which planets form. Planets are born in protoplanetary disks, which consist of gas, dust, and ice orbiting very young stars. Recent observations of disks with telescopes such as the Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub-millimeter Array, the Very Large Telescope, and the James Webb Space Telescope play a critical role in unveiling the chemistry and physics of planet formation. Dr. Huang will discuss their key discoveries and some of the open mysteries of planet formation.

Dr. Jane Huang is an assistant professor of astronomy at Columbia University. She received her PhD in astronomy & astrophysics from Harvard University. Before arriving at Columbia, she conducted research at the University of Michigan as a postdoctoral scholar with funding from the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program. Her work centers on observing protoplanetary disks, especially with ALMA, in order to elucidate how planets form. Specific interests include the influence of environment on planet formation, the chemical evolution of disks and its link to exoplanet atmospheres, and the demographics of protoplanets.

Looking for the perfect staycation destination?

Whether you're planning family adventures, a cultural date, or quality time with grandkids, the Bruce offers captivating experiences for every visitor.

With a wide selection of programs and events, from interactive science to stunning art collections, there's always something new to spark your curiosity this summer!

Enjoy 10% off all membership levels.
Use code: SummerFun10
Valid through June 30, 2025

Perfect for:

Teacher thank-you gifts
Summer birthdays
Family adventures
Staycation outing
Escape the summer heat
Rainy day

Create unforgettable memories while exploring science, art, and nature together – or gift a membership to share the wonder with someone special!

This fantastic biennial event will showcase artwork by some of the region’s finest artists and will include art demonstrations and activities for children and adults- all celebrating the timeless themes of nature and agrarian life inspired by our property and the surrounding areas.

All Artwork is For Sale, proceeds from the sale of artwork benefit the programs at New Pond Farm Education Center

More details can be found at https://newpondfarm.org/artshow/

TheatreWorks New Milford will present the world premiere of Upstate, written, directed, and starring Emmy© Award-winner Dorothy Lyman from May 2nd to 24th (weekends).
The play centers around three generations of women who meet upstate over President’s Day weekend to decide the fate of their family farm and its matriarch.
Dorothy Lyman is a two-time Emmy© Award-winner for her work as Opal Gardner on “All My Children” and is widely known for her co-starring role on “Mama’s Family,” alongside Vicki Lawrence and Carol Burnett. In addition to her numerous film and television appearances, Ms. Lyman also directed 75 episodes of Fran Drescher’s sitcom “The Nanny.” Her other plays are Enemy (an adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People), A Rage in Tenure and Soft Landing (directed by John Tillinger) were all developed and produced by Players Workshop in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
In addition to Ms. Lyman playing the role of Elizabeth, the cast includes Jamie Spannhake as Betsy and Thomas Ovitt as Jason, both from Washington, CT, Kevin Sosbe as Tom, Kay Mickelson as Liz and Patti Reese as Christie, all from New Milford, CT. Keli Solomon is producer.

Looking for the perfect staycation destination?

Whether you're planning family adventures, a cultural date, or quality time with grandkids, the Bruce offers captivating experiences for every visitor.

With a wide selection of programs and events, from interactive science to stunning art collections, there's always something new to spark your curiosity this summer!

Enjoy 10% off all membership levels.
Use code: SummerFun10
Valid through June 30, 2025

Perfect for:

Teacher thank-you gifts
Summer birthdays
Family adventures
Staycation outing
Escape the summer heat
Rainy day

Create unforgettable memories while exploring science, art, and nature together – or gift a membership to share the wonder with someone special!

Join us for a beautiful day of cycling and a post ride Oyster Bay Street Fair in support of cancer research at the 5th annual Empire State Ride Long Island on June 14, 2025!

Historic Oyster Bay is the setting for the Empire State Ride Long Island featuring a choice of four scenic North Shore routes designed for riders of all ages and abilities (8, 25, 37 or 62 miles). The fully-supported bike ride includes a pre-ride breakfast, on-road support, and snack stops along the way. And the finish line street fair offers live music, food trucks, free prostate cancer screenings (a simple blood draw) and fun for the entire family.

Funds raised by Empire State Ride Long Island support clinical research trials at Catholic Health Cancer Institutes in partnership with Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. In its first four years the 501-c3 non-profit event has raised over $400K for cancer research.

Unwind and reconnect in nature! Join our expert instructor for a restorative and immersive movement and breath practice. All levels are welcome! Each session will conclude with 10 minutes of soothing guided meditation, leaving you feeling refreshed and renewed.

Depending on weather conditions, yoga sessions will be held outdoors on the serene and beautiful grounds of our nature center.

Please bring your own mat and water bottle.

New this season!
Enjoy all 6 Nature Yoga sessions for one great price! Save with our Season Pass, which grants you access to every Saturday class in our 6-week series. Pay online now and pick up your pass on May 10th.