2019 Fresh Voices Finalists Announced

Hill-Stead is honored to announce the finalists for the 2019 Fresh Voices Poetry Competition:

  • Riley Arellano – Naugatuck High School
  • Emily Benoit – Westover School
  • Sophia Ciraldo – Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts
  • Elizabeth Cook – Westover School
  • Danny Diaz- Villafane – Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts
  • Emily Fisher – Rockville High School
  • Liza Freeman – Westover School
  • Stella Georgian – East Lyme High School
  • Krista Mitchell – Stafford High School
  • Fiona Mucaj – The Ethel Walker School
  • Autumn Munsell – Granby Memorial High School
  • Jillian Potter – Naugatuck High School
  • Camden Robertson – Granby Memorial High School
  • Abigail Tyrrell – Rockville High School
  • Ava Varano – Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts

Hill-Stead receives State of Connecticut DECD Bond Funding

Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman, State Rep. Mike Demicco, Hill-Stead’s Executive Director Susan Ballek, Governor Dannel P. Malloy and President of Hill-Stead’s Board of Governors Bill Watson.

Hill-Stead is thrilled to receive $1.75 million in State of Connecticut DECD bond funding to support the adaptive reuse of the museum’s Carriage Barn (adjacent to the historic house) to create a more welcoming visitor reception area, a new rotating exhibition gallery, an interactive interpretive space, a relocated and enlarged Museum Shop, an improved space for education programs and new ADA compliant restrooms.

This is the largest amount of state funding the museum has ever received and supports Hill-Stead’s $6.5 million capital and endowment campaign, which includes a $3.5 million capital renovation project.

Spend Your Summer On the Hill – for children 7 to 11

Register

Play Like the Popes!

Hill‐Stead was once home to a private, six‐hole golf course, which is highlighted in a special exhibition this summer. Children will visit the new exhibition Diamonds in the Rough: Golfing at Hill-Stead and then they’ll get to put with “hickory sticks” like the ones that were used in the early 1900’s. They will also play croquet, lawn tennis, board games and other fun pastimes that children enjoyed when Hill‐Stead was home to the Pope family.

Experience Art!

Paintings, pastels, sculpture, prints and more adorn the walls at Hill‐Stead. Each day includes an exploration of the techniques and creativity needed to produce art in the style of Hill‐Stead’s collections. In addition to daily projects, each child will use oil pastels to create an Impressionist‐style work of art over the course of the week.

 

Registration

$200 members/ $250 nonmembers
An early drop‐off at 8:30 a.m. is available for an additional $10 per day.


Dates

WEEK #1 – Summer on the Hill (Ages 7 – 11)

July 23rd – July 27th
9:00 a.m. ‐ 12:00 noon

WEEK #2 ‐ Summer on the Hill (Ages 7 – 11)

July 30th – August 3rd
9:00 a.m. ‐ 12:00 noon

WEEK #3 – Summer on the Hill (Ages 7– 11)

August 6th – August 10th
9:00 a.m. ‐ 12:00 noon

Fresh Voices Poetry Competition Winners Announced

And the winners are….

  • Vanecia Fultz – Rockville High School
  • Rachel Justice – Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts
  • Sarah Lewis – Hall High School
  • Ellis McGinley – Arts at the Capitol Magnet School
  • Youssef Mezrioui – Rockville High School
  • Alex Nordlund – Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts

Thank you to our judges

Daniel Donaghy is a Professor of English at Eastern Connecticut State University, where he has received the school’s Board of Regents Teaching Award and CSU Norton Mezvinsky Trustees Research Award. His poetry collections include Somerset (NYQ Books, 2018), Start with the Trouble (University of Arkansas Press, 2009), winner of the Paterson Award for Literary Excellence, and Streetfighting (BkMk Press, 2005), a Paterson Prize Finalist. He has received grants from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts as well as the Southern Humanities Review’s Theodore Christian Hoepfner Award. He grew up in Philadelphia, PA. Last year, he launched Here: a poetry journal, which he edits with his students.

Adriane Jefferson is an arts administrator who has worked in the performing arts sector and arts education for 15 years. She is currently an arts program manager and special programs coordinator for The Department of Economic and Community Development, Connecticut Office of the Arts. Prior to that, she served as The Executive Director for The Writer’s Block Ink in New London, CT. In 2009 she received her B.A in Popular Music from Florida Memorial University. She went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in Arts Administration from Savannah College of Art and Design. Her career has been centrally focused on cultivating and developing talent within arts and entertainment. With her love for community engagement, Adriane has served as an arts consultant to artists, arts organizations, and arts-based after-school programs where she has helped them to design strategies to achieve their career and organizational goals.

Adriane used her background in performing arts and theatre to help structure the drama department at Alonzo Mourning Charities Over Town Youth Center and The Gibson Charter School. Earlier in her career, she worked as a talent agent on The Mike Sherman Show, a show that focused on the pop music industry and covered major music events such as The Billboard Music Awards and The BET awards. In 2005 Adriane created Rhyme Fest, a community event that used hip-hop as an advocacy tool for social change. Adriane is a long time affiliate of the Writers Block Ink. Outside of the role she played as Executive Director, she served as their Creative Director and Director of Programming from 2013-2015. She is now serving as a member of The Writer’s Block Ink Board of Directors. Adriane is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated.

Hill-Stead Museum Awarded Re-Accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums

Hill-Stead Museum Receives Highest National Recognition

Hill-Stead Museum has again achieved accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums, the highest national recognition afforded the nation’s museums. Accreditation signifies excellence to the museum community, to governments, funders, outside agencies, and to the museum-going public. All museums must undergo a reaccreditation review at least every 10 years to maintain accredited status.
Alliance Accreditation brings national recognition to a museum for its commitment to excellence, accountability, high professional standards and continued institutional improvement. Developed and sustained by museum professionals for over 45 years, the Alliance’s museum accreditation program is the field’s primary vehicle for quality assurance, self-regulation and public accountability. It strengthens the museum profession by promoting practices that enable leaders to make informed decisions, allocate resources wisely, and remain financially and ethically accountable in order to provide the best possible service to the public.

Susan Ballek, the museum’s Executive Director and CEO, remarked: “Hill-Stead is abundantly proud to be counted among the elite group of museums who meet the rigorous standards for best practices set forth by the American Alliance of Museums. The museum’s Trustees, Board of Governors and staff are dedicated to preserving and sharing Hill-Stead’s rich collection of French Impressionist paintings and decorative arts objects with the public in perpetuity. The guidelines set forth by the Alliance ensure we are taking the right measures to care for our collection and engage our members, donors and community, ensuring this National Historic Landmark will remain a place for learning, reflection and enjoyment for people of all ages and backgrounds.”

Of the nation’s estimated 33,000 museums, over 1,070 are currently accredited. Hill-Stead is one of only 19 museums accredited in Connecticut.

Accreditation is a very rigorous but highly rewarding process that examines all aspects of a museum’s operations. To earn accreditation a museum first must conduct a year of self-study and then undergo a site visit by a team of peer reviewers. AAM’s Accreditation Commission, an independent and autonomous body of museum professionals, considers the self-study and visiting committee report to determine whether a museum should receive accreditation.

“Accredited museums are a community of institutions that have chosen to hold themselves publicly accountable to excellence,” said Laura L. Lott, Alliance president and CEO. “Accreditation is clearly a significant achievement, of which both the institutions and the communities they serve can be extremely proud.”

About the American Alliance of Museums

The American Alliance of Museums has been bringing museums together since 1906, helping to develop standards and best practices, gathering and sharing knowledge, and providing advocacy on issues of concern to the entire museum community. Representing more than 35,000 individual museum professionals and volunteers, institutions, and corporate partners serving the museum field, the Alliance stands for the broad scope of the museum community. For more information, visit www.aam-us.org.

 

 

Winners of the Rooms in Bloom Joyce E. Coughlin Floral Design Award

You voted, and the winners are…

We hope you had the opportunity to experience Rooms in Bloom this weekend and vote for your favorite floral arrangement. Hill-Stead is thrilled to announce the winners of the first annual Joyce E. Coughlin Floral Design Award, recognizing the top two floral designs YOU selected at Rooms in Bloom. Thank you to Scot Coughlin and David Kesselman, for so generously making this award possible!

First Place $1,500
Kathleen Schwartz Flower Design

Kathleen Schwartz presented “There’s a Wedding at Hill-Stead,” arrangements inspired by envisioning a Pope-Riddle family wedding. She imagined flower girls with ruffled dresses and ribbons and flowers in their hair. She placed a small circlet of flowers resting on a tray on the settee below Mary Cassatt’s painting, a flower arrangement in a footed compote on the dresser, two smaller arrangements flanking the clock over the mantel, and an informal bunch of flowers in the bathroom.

Kathleen Schwartz Flower Design focuses on the botanical beauty of stems, petals, foliage, buds, branches, berries, fruits and greens, artfully arranged to bring sensory pleasure to the experience. Their passion and intent are with local flowers, from seed to centerpiece, and the designs from nature they inspire.

Second Place $500
Haworth’s Flowers & Gifts

Kirsten Havelevitch and Sue Albair from Haworth’s in Farmington perfectly captured the masculine hues of Hill-Stead’s First Library with two gorgeous designs. Haworth’s Flowers & Gifts, LLC is a 4th generation florist located in the heart of the Farmington Village.

 

Special thanks to Christine Petit of Le Petit Studio for photographing Rooms in Bloom

2018 Fresh Voices Finalists Announced

Hill-Stead is honored to announce the finalists for the 2019 Fresh Voices Poetry Competition:

Vanecia Fultz
Jamie Masthay
Sarah Lewis
Elliana Branchesi
Ellis McGinley
Adena Ajike
Abigail Tyrrel
Lauren Dionne
Molly Galusha
Kennedy King
Molly Alexander
Kimberly McGuire
Daniel Diaz-Villafane
Alex Nordlund
Youssef Mezrioui
Rachel Justice