To do in Fairfield County: Bats, bird's-eye views and Shakespeare
Updated 7:05 pm, Thursday, June 20, 2013
If your only image of bats comes from horror movies or Halloween decorations, the Stamford Museum and Nature Center has an exhibition for you -- and it opens on Saturday.
"Masters of the Night: The True Story of Bats" will feature interactive displays and lifelike models to help visitors understand the role these mammals play in ecosystems around the world. As pollinators, they are crucial to food production worldwide. With their taste for insects, they are among the world's natural bug exterminators.
"They are so misunderstood," said Lisa Monachelli, the center's education program manager who early in her career worked with a bat in a rehabilitative setting. "They are just fascinating creatures."
Being nocturnal, bats are more active at night, which makes it hard to foster the kind of natural interactions that can occur with diurnal creatures. This exhibition, Monachelli said, will help to bridge that gap with special events and related programs that will occur during the duration of the exhibition. The show runs through Sept. 2.
For instance, circle that calendar now for the afternoon of activities planned Sunday, June 30 from 1 to 4 p.m. There will be a bat rehabilitator on hand, information on how to protect the bats in your backyard and around the world (white-nose syndrome, brought on by a fungus, is killing bats across North America at an alarming rate, according to scientists), story time and an appearance by an aptly named winged superhero -- Batman.
"Every summer, we try to bring in a traveling exhibit that will appear to our broadest audience," said Kirsten Brophy, curator of collections and exhibitions. "This one is really timely right now, with bats so endangered in the Northeast ... and we want to share that message."
There will be no live bats, but there will be opportunities to feel like a bat, through such stations as "Feast in Flight" and "Bat Ears." Watch a short film on how bats eat on the fly and then check out an interactive game where you guide the bat as he searches for dinner. Or listen to the world through bat's ears.
"The idea is that these creatures are not to be feared, but rather they play an important role in our lives," said Brophy.
Check out the organization's website for information on a bat-themed tea party July 13, "Things With Wings" night hike on July 26 and the family camp out, Aug. 3, where visitors will be encouraged to look up for a glimpse or two of some local "masters of the night."
From bats to "birds"
Birds, or at least their perspective, shapes a new exhibition now open at the Westport Arts Center.
"Bird's-Eye View" features an assemblage of photographs, paintings and drawings that takes an aerial view of the action below. It is a mix of the real and the imagined, said curator Helen Klisser During, the center's director of visual arts, of the 18 pieces from the Andrew and Christine Hall Collection that will be on display through Sept. 8. The artists, who include Damian Loeb, Massimo Vitali and Thomas Wrede, have looked at people, cities, structures, roads and landscapes, creating, in some instances deconstructed and abstract images.
Klisser During said the images all reveal that pull between the macro and micro, that difference of being above it all and the sensation of being in the thick of it. With a "big picture" view, she said there is an inherent abstraction, even if the image isn't necessarily abstract.
"When you hover over something, you are not particularly involved," she said.
The center will offer programs to explore these themes and get people talking about perception and reality, as well as a changing planet, including a summer luncheon series art cafes and other special events.
firstname.lastname@example.org; 203-964-2241; http://twitter.com/xtinahennessy
Stamford Museum and Nature Center, 39 Scofieldtown Road, Stamford. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. $10 adults, $8 seniors (65 and older), $6 students (18 and older); $5 children (4-17); free members and children under 3. Those holding bus passes or bus transfer tickets are admitted free. 203-977-6521, http://stamfordmuseum.org.
Westport Arts Center, 51 Riverside Ave., Westport. Through Sept. 8. Free. Gallery hours are Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. The free summer cafe will run Wednesdays 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., June 26, July 10, 24, and Aug. 14. The ArtCafe will run Fridays, 10 to 11 a.m., June 28, July 19, Aug. 2, 16. Free. https://westportartscenter.org.
Outdoor theater: Shakespeare on the Sound is continuing its run of "As You Like It" through June 30. It runs every night except Monday at Pinkney Park, 177 Rowayton Ave., Rowayton, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Park opens at 4 p.m. Suggested donation is $20 adults; $10 students and seniors. Visit http://www.shakespeareonthesound.org or call 203-299-1300. And the Summer Theatre of New Canaan's production of South Pacific" officially opens in Waveny Park. Visit http://www.stonc.org or call 203-966-4634.
Celebration of summer: The Greenwich Tree Conservancy will host its Summer Solstice Picnic and Tree Walk on Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. This bring-your-own-picnic event takes place at Greenwich Point (at the Cow Barn picnic area). The walk is free but reservations are necessary at email@example.com. For more information, visit http://www.greenwichtreeconservancy.org.