MoCA CT

Docent-Led Exhibition Tour
2025-05-17 13:00 - 14:30, 2025-05-24 13:00 - 14:30, 2025-05-31 13:00 - 14:30, 2025-06-07 13:00 - 14:30, 2025-06-14 13:00 - 14:30, 2025-06-21 13:00 - 14:30, 2025-06-28 13:00 - 14:30, 2025-07-05 13:00 - 14:30 (America/New_York) and 6 more dates | MoCACT, 19 Newtown Turnpike, Westport, 06880, United States
Learn more about the current exhibition from an expert docent. No advance registration required; all tours included in Museum admission. Remember, gallery admission is FREE for MoCA Members.

Lunch & Learn: An Interactive iPhone Editing Workshop
2025-05-21 12:00 - 13:30
Come and enjoy a lunchtime Masterclass with Jane Beiles, acclaimed photographer for publications including The New York Times, Architectural Digest and House Beautiful.
This class is designed for any, and all, levels of photographers seeking to elevate their game. Participants will learn how to edit existing photos with the best practices standard to professional imagery. Jane will teach the key editing components and how to put them to use in order to improve your frames for personal or professional use.
Takeaways will include a valuable toolkit to both enhance the photos in existing libraries plus informed knowledge to capture better frames in the future. Once registered, if you like, you will have the opportunity to submit an existing photo of yours which may be chosen as one of the frames to be used as a demonstrative learning tool for the class.
Jane’s classes are known to be both content-rich and joyful, with valuable educational kernels and more than a few laughs in the mix!
The class will be taught on an iphone 16 but nearly all of the elements will be translatable to earlier models as well as to other manufacturers’ devices*. A brief touch on the new features on the 16 model will be helpful to new users or give owners of older versions information to decide if the investment in a new phone is worthwhile.
*if you are not an iphone user, you should be familiar enough with the analogous settings and navigation on your device as all instructions will be from the IOS perspective.
Please register & BYO Lunch!
When: May 21, 2025
Where: MoCACT Art Studio
Who: Adult class
Cost: $75.00/person

Film Screening of Suburbia (1983) and Q+A with Film Critic Susan Granger
2025-05-22 19:00 - 21:00
Suburbia (1983) and Q+A with film critic Susan Granger
Thursday May 22, 2025
7-9 PM
Experience Penelope Spheeris’ 1983 Suburbia, a gripping 1 hour and 34 minutes drama-thriller. The film follows a young man who, struggling with domestic tensions, finds refuge among a group of societal outcasts, forming an unconventional family.
After the screening, stay for a brief Q&A with film critic Susan Granger.
This film is rated R.
Register Here.

$ 10 General admission free for members, $8 for seniors + students
Image:
Movie poster of Suburbia, 1983. Courtesy of the Shout Factory.

Gallery Talk: "O Say Can You See": Artists Reimagine the Flag
2025-05-29 18:00 - 19:00
From left to right, top to bottom. Frederic Edwin Church, Our Banner in the Sky, c. 1861. Oil on canvas. Fine Art Museums of San Francisco. Banks Violette, Not Yet Titled (Flag Edition), 2010. Marines of the 28th Regiment of the Fifth Division planted an American flag atop Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, on Feb. 23, 1945. Joe Rosenthal/Associated Press. Barbara Kruger, Untitled, 1991. Photographic silkscreen/vinyl. Courtesy Mary Boone Gallery.
“O Say Can You See”: Artists Reimagine the Flag, a gallery talk with Dr. Robin Jaffee Frank on May 29, 2025 from 6-7pm.
Register Here.
Free for MoCA Members; $10 General Admission
In conjunction with Banks Violette’s fraught representations of the American flag in MoCA CT’s solo exhibition, join Dr. Robin Jaffee Frank for a historical investigation of Old Glory as an iconic and ubiquitous symbol in American art and culture. Artists have incorporated its graphic stars and stripes into their work to achieve aesthetic ends, critique social and political inequalities, celebrate freedom and democracy, support and mourn our troops, and express despair and hope. For many American citizens, as well as people around the world, our flag is a uniquely powerful and complex symbol of nationhood.
An independent curator, Robin Jaffee Frank has organized numerous exhibitions at museums throughout the US, lectured extensively, and published widely on American visual culture from the colonial through contemporary periods. She formerly served as Chief Curator and Curator of American Art at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, and Senior Associate Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. Robin holds a PhD in the history of art from Yale University.
Image of Dr. Robin Jaffee Frank.

Community Event: Duo Recital by Cameron Chase and David Bernat
2025-05-31 19:00 - 21:00
Violinists Cameron Chase and David Bernat present an evening of violin duos, featuring works by Leclair, Ysaÿe, Bartók, Prokofiev, Schnittke. Don’t miss this engaging and diverse program of masterworks.
Register Here.
Program:
Jean-Marie Leclair: Sonata in A Major for Two Violins Op. 3, No. 2
Eugène Ysaÿe: Sonata for Two Violins
-Intermission-
Bela Bartok: Selections from 44 duos for Two Violins
Sergei Prokofiev: Sonata for Two Violins
Alfred Schnittke: Moz-Art
About the Performers:
Violinist David Bernat leads a multifaceted career as a performer, educator, and artistic director. He has appeared as soloist with the Brookline Symphony, Fort Dodge Symphony, and Waterloo Cedar Falls Symphony. He has been a participant in the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, and Marlboro Music Festival.
Heavily committed to community engagement, advocacy, and education, David holds the 2023-2025 Ensemble Connect Fellowship from Carnegie Hall. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and is currently a C.V Starr Doctoral Fellow at the Juilliard School. In 2024, David was appointed violinist of the Formosa String Quartet who serve as the ensemble in residence at University of Houston’s Moores School of Music and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.
Cameron Chase, graduated from the Juilliard School with a Bachelor’s Degree in violin performance, studying with Areta Zhulla and Joseph Lin. Cameron is a member of the Princeton symphony and plays with other ensembles in the greater New York area. He has played Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto No. 5 with the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra and he won the American Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition where he played Bruch violin concerto and as one of the winners in the Bridgeport Symphony Competition he played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with the Bridgeport Symphony in 2021. At his senior recital in May 2023, he premiered works by four Juilliard composers and is a strong advocate for new music. He has attended music festivals such as the Music Academy of the West, Music Mountain Masterclasses in CT, and The Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine as well as Moritzburg Academy in Germany. Cameron has been teaching violin for many years with students from different backgrounds in both CT and NY and he hopes to help violin players grow their love of both music and string playing.

Community Event: American Music for Saxophone and Piano
2025-06-06 18:00 - 19:30
American Music for Saxophone and Piano
Dan Goble, alto and soprano saxophones
Russell Hirshfield, piano

performing music by Astor Piazzolla, James David, Joan Tower,
Philip Glass, John Adams and david Del Tredici.

Tickets Here.

Dan Goble currently serves as the director of the School of Music, Theatre and Dance at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado and was previously the Dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Connecticut. An arts administrator who is also an active performer, Dr. Goble performed with the New York Philharmonic for over 22 years and was featured with the orchestra as the saxophone soloist on Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and Ravel’s Bolero, among other works. In addition to the New York Philharmonic, Dr. Goble has performed with the New York City Ballet, The American Symphony Orchestra, The Mariinsky Orchestra, the New York Saxophone Quartet, and the Harvey Pittel Saxophone Quartet.
He has had the privilege of collaborating with pianist Russell Hirshfield for over 20 years, performing the music of contemporary composers throughout the United States and through several recordings, including the album Mad Dances, American Music for Saxophone and Piano (Troy 1251), and the single release of Piet Swerts’ Hat City Sonata (https:open.spotify.comalbum0AQvN9BU1ybkVdtChRxcWT). Other solo and chamber recordings include the album Freeway (CRI 876) and Quartet, Opus 22, by Anton Webern, conducted by Robert Kraft, available on the Naxos label. Their most recent release, Second Flight (NV6634) features the music of Joan Tower, Jennifer Higdon, Philip Glass, John Adams, James David, and David Biedenbender.
Dr. Goble is a proud native of Wyoming and was named distinguished alum of Casper College in his hometown of Casper. His saxophone teachers include Roger Greenberg, Thomas Kinser, Harvey Pittel, and Albert Regni. Dan Goble is a D’Addario performing artist.
Pianist Russell Hirshfield has received critical acclaim for his original and powerful interpretive insights across a wide repertoire. He has performed in recital regularly throughout the world, giving concerts across the United States, Brazil, China, Belgium, England, Serbia, Bermuda, Costa Rica and South Africa, including recent performances at the Sheldonian Theater and Holywell Music Room in Oxford, the Royal Flemish Academy in Brussels and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Parma Recordings will release his CD program of American Piano Music in 2025 with premieres of commissioned works by Timo Andres and Mary Ellen Childs. Alexander Scriabin: Early Works (Navona, 2020) has been programed in radio broadcasts in at least twenty countries. It features a brilliant program of Scriabin’s earlier, and lesser-known, works for solo piano. Acclaim for Alexander Scriabin – Early Works, in International Piano, Pianist Magazine and Fanfare led to an invitation to perform the Scriabin Piano Concerto with the Oxford Philharmonic, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. His recording Seeker – The Piano Music of Piet Swerts (Phaedra Records) was released in 2017, featured in Europe on Belgian Radio Klara, and received critical acclaim in Holland (Opusklassiek), Belgium (Flanders Art Magazine) and the United States (American Record Guide). Mad Dances – American Music for Saxophone and Piano, with saxophonist Dan Goble, was released by Albany Records.
Russell Hirshfield trained in New Haven, Connecticut and later studied at the Eastman School of Music, Boston University, and the University of Colorado, studying with Robert Spillman, James Avery, Anthony di Bonaventura and Alvin Chow. He is Professor of Music at Western Connecticut State University. Hirshfield has presented master classes and conference lectures throughout the United States and abroad. He was a member of the Artist Faculty for the 2022 Bermuda Piano Festival and also presented at the 2019 International Piano Festival in Bačka Palanka, Serbia, the 2015 Piano Master Class Series at New York University, and the 2013 Oxford Piano Festival.

Opening Reception of Tod Papageorge: At the Beach + In the Pool: On Influence
2025-06-26 18:00 - 20:00
Thursday, June 26
6 – 8 PM
RSVP Here.
MoCA CT will be presenting a major photography exhibition, Tod Papageorge: At the Beach, alongside works by Papageorge’s former graduate students, In the Pool. The companion exhibitions were organized by the photographer Lisa Kereszi, and showcase the work of Tod Papageorge (b. 1940), a Connecticut – based, internationally – acclaimed artist and teacher whose contributions to American street photography in the 1960s helped shape the genre. His work is held in more than thirty prominent public collections, including the Museums of Modern Art in New York and San Francisco.
At the Beach, making its East Coast debut at MoCA CT, will feature work in the form of large – scale black and white photographs that Papageorge produced with medium – format cameras during several trips to the beaches of Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s. As he has written about this project: “I think that part of what these pictures are about is the difference between our preconceptions of a place and what, when we get there, that place turns out to be. To describe a subject and, at the same time, reinvent it, is a double intention on the part of the photographer that we should be used to by now when we look at photographs. With these pictures, I worked with the belief that the closer I came to describing the literal nature of the place and people I was photographing, the more surprising the pictures might be, all while transforming the casual, unselfconscious physicality of these beachgoers into resonant form and meaning.”
The title of the adjacent exhibition, In the Pool, refers to the nickname for the classroom Papageorge taught in for the last third of his teaching career, a renovated swimming pool within the School of Art building. As a professor and the Director of Graduate Studies in Photography at the Yale School of Art from 1979 – 2013, Papageorge mentored many future influential photographers and art educators, with 41 of his students going on to receive Guggenheim Fellowships, a significant marker of achievement in the art and photography world. This part of the exhibition commemorates that fact by exhibiting a single print from each of those Guggenheim Fellows, as well as presenting work through a looping slide show of virtually all 295 of Papageorge’s former MFA students. It’s also worth noting that the work composing In the Pool was made while the photographers were students in the Yale program, years before being selected (by each one of them) for a portfolio created in honor of Papageorge’s retirement as director of the program. These nearly 300 pictures, then, serve to offer some insight into the nature of influence and mentorship in the arts, and to suggest the power of the ongoing moment that is the still – developing history of photography.

Ceramic Multi-Bowls Workshop with Leah Corbett
2025-07-03 18:00 - 20:00
Spend a creative evening handcrafting your own multi-bowl centerpiece with Fairfield-based ceramicist Leah Corbett. “Multi-bowls” are one of Leah’s most popular forms, and can be used as snack boards, jewelry catchers, air plant displays, or general organizers for keys & miscellaneous items. In this two-hour workshop, Leah will guide you through steps to pinch & smooth multiple bowl forms out of clay, attach them, and manipulate their shapes to fit your own creative style. We provide the clay, tools & glaze options. You get your hands a little dirty, choose your glaze, and then, once fired, come and pick up beautiful and unique gift for Mom, a friend or yourself! This is a great intro to hand-building class that will take you far in the world of pottery.
Register Here.

Session 201: Stewardship: Building + Managing Your Collection (Art of Collecting Series)
2025-07-10 17:30 - 19:00
Register Here.

MoCACT’s second of six sessions ‘On the Art of Collecting’ will focus on the stewardship of an art collection. Our expert panelists will address how to properly document your collection through cataloguing and archiving strategies. We will discuss preservation methods, how and why an artwork gets appraised, as well as how and when to insure your art. This ongoing series is generously sponsored by Wealthspire Advisors.

Panelists:

Fritz Horstman is a curator, educator, author, and artist based in Bethany, Connecticut where he is Education Director at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. Previously he managed the Albers Foundation’s collections and facilities.

Shawna Barrett is a Fairfield County based fine art advisor and nationally certified appraisor (USPAP). She consults with private clients, assisting with fine art selection for first-time buyers and experienced collectors. She has experience across all media, with particular focus on painting, works on paper, and photography.

Pamela Hovland is the Acting Executive Director at MoCACT. She is part of the museum team organizing the series on collecting.

Michelle Impey is a AVP and Fine Art and Collections Manager at Chubb, has over 20 years of art and insurance industry experience. As Fine Art & Collections Manager at Chubb, she leads the team of risk consulting specialists, delivering a suite of consultative collection management services across the country. Michelle advises top private collectors on the protection of their fine art, jewelry, wine, and other valuables.

Performing Arts at MoCA: Miró Quartet (Classical)
2025-07-12 19:00 - 21:00
Program:
Franz Joseph Haydn: Quartet in D major, Op. 71, No. 2
Ginastera: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 26
Ravel: String Quartet in F major
The Miró Quartet is one of America’s most celebrated string quartets, praised as “furiously committed” by The New Yorker and recognized for its “exceptional tonal focus and interpretive intensity” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Marking 30 years together in 2025, the GRAMMY®-nominated ensemble has performed throughout the world on the most prestigious concert stages, earning accolades from critics and audiences alike. Based in Austin, TX and thriving in the area’s storied music scene, the Miró Quartet takes pride in finding new ways to communicate with audiences of all backgrounds while cultivating the longstanding tradition of chamber music.
MoCA Members receive 10% discount
General Admission: $50
Senior/Student: $40
Purchase Tickets
We sincerely thank David Thompson for his generous sponsorship of the Miró Quartet, whose support helps bring world-class chamber music to our community.

Cyanotypes: Making Art with Sunlight-Garden Workshop for Teens
2025-07-17 15:00 - 17:00
July 17, 3-5 PM
Enjoy a day in the sun making cyanotype impressions, and getting hands-on exposure to early photographic printing processes. Cyanotypes were invented in 1842, preceding roll film by several decades. Cyanotypes were an early way to visualize our natural world, and learn the structure of plant biology. Get into the mindset of the first photo book publisher in the history of the world—botanist Anna Atkins—by exploring this method of contact printing. During this workshop, students will understand the concept of a photographic negative, discover the history of making and printing images, and learn about the medium’s groundbreaking contribution to both science and expressive art.
Students should bring several of their own objects to class, such as shiny materials,
semi-transparent materials, crafting materials, uniquely-shaped objects, and/or organic
nontoxic plant matter such as leaves or flowers. DO NOT BRING: Precious or valuable
items exceeding $5 in case of loss, any sharp objects that may cause injury, or any
flammable or toxic material.
$30 Workshop Fee; MoCA Members receive 10% off
Register Here.
About The Instructor:
Shelli Weiler is an image-based artist from New York who uses digital and analog cameras to explore social conventions and the mechanics of display. Her work deploys the language of documentary photography to look at the production of fantasy and its failure. Her previous subjects include made-for-Instagram selfie factories, gender-segregated ultra-orthodox weddings, and behind-the-scenes footage on horror film sets.
Shelli Weiler received her MFA from Yale School of Art and BA from Wesleyan University, where she currently teaches darkroom and digital photography. She is based in Connecticut and continues to make work in New York.

Sustainable Westport Presents: Plastic People Film Screening
2025-07-17 18:00 - 20:00
Did you know that every molecule of plastic ever created still exists somewhere on Earth? Plastic never goes away; it just degrades from big to small to microscopic particles… forever. These microplastic particles drift in the air, float in all bodies of water, and mix into the soil, becoming a permanent part of the environment. Microplastics are found in our human bodies, leading us to wonder about the impact of these invisible invaders on our health and if anything can be done.
Please join Sustainable Westport at MoCACT on Thursday, July 17 at 6pm for a special screening of the film Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics. This groundbreaking documentary investigates our addiction to plastic and the growing threat of microplastics on human health and the environment. This film is part of Sustainable Westport’s ongoing efforts to reduce plastic use in our community during Plastic Free July (and all year round!).

While the film is recommended for ages 13+, families are welcome to attend with children ages 4-12 who can participate in a drop-in art studio class during the screening. For tickets and more information, click here.

Community Event: Fairfield County Dance Festival
2025-07-24 18:30 - 20:00
Join East Coast Contemporary Ballet and Thomas/Ortiz Dance for a summer evening of inspiring ballet, contemporary and modern dance.
Performances are FREE and open to the public.
New England Ballet Theater & Amy Marshall Dance will be guest companies at this performance.
For more information, click here.

Session 301: Discovering NYC’s Art Scene (Art of Collecting Series)
2025-07-30 10:30 - 17:00
Gallery Tours: Visiting two Chelsea galleries that include emerging talent to blue-chip artists
Insights from gallery owners/curators: How galleries operate, what collectors look for, and current trends in the art market – 10:30: Paul Efstathiou, Hollis Taggart + MoCA CT Board Member + 11:45: Yancey Richardson, YRG founder + Lisa Kereszi, artist; Lunch in Chelsea to follow (details due from Wealthspire)

Limited to 12 participants.

Register here.

Film Screening of Brief Encounters and a Q+A with Angela Strassheim
2025-07-31 19:00 - 21:00
Register.
Join MoCA CT for a screening of Ben Shapiro’s 2012 documentary, Brief Encounters, followed by a Q+A with photographer Angela Strassheim on Thursday July 31 at 7pm. Brief Encounters documents internationally acclaimed photographer Gregory Crewdson’s pursuit of his signature, surreal, and meticulously staged portraits of suburban life. Crewdson orchestrates dramatic, large – scale productions, setting houses ablaze, constructing 90 – foot sets with crews of sixty, and temporarily closing city streets, to manifest his haunting vision of American existence, reflecting his own anxieties, dreams, and inner desires. Brief Encounters offers an intimate study of one of our era’s most celebrated image – makers.
This documentary is 1 hour 18 minutes long.
About Angela Strassheim
Angela Strassheim was born in Bloomfield, IA in 1969. She currently lives in Easton, CT. She is an internationally recognized art photographer with an extensive multi – national exhibition record. She holds an MFA from Yale University, a BFA from Minneapolis College of Art & Design, as well as a Forensic Photography Certification from Metro – Dade in Miami Florida. Angela’s work has been exhibited in many galleries and museums including The Guggenheim Museum, The Whitney Museum, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Art Gallery, The Walker Art Center, The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Musee de l’Elysee in Lausanne in Switzerland, Museum of Modern Art (MACVAL) in Paris, and the Wellcome Trust Collection in London.
She was featured in the Whitney Biennial in 2006. Her work appears in many books including ReGeneration, 50 Photographers of Tomorrow (Thames & Hudson), and Role Models (Scala). She recently produced the cover image and story for Time Magazine’s first issue covering the Corona Virus Pandemic. Other publications include New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Exit, Wired, Art Pulse, and Mossless. She has received awards including Women in Photography LTI Lightside Grant, Bush Fellowship, McKnight Fellowship, Jerome Fellowship. Her work is included in many public and private collections including those of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Whitney Museum of Art, Yale University Art Museum, The Israel Museum, General Mills, Sir Elton John, Anthony Podesta, Andrew Hecht and Peter Norton. Currently, Angela is working on a series of portraits through a two – way mirror titled The Visitors.
She is inviting people to come sit for a moment of vulnerability and to share a deep part of themselves while listening to a short playlist that each sitter has created for themself. This past year she has exhibited in four major group shows; Suburbia: Building The American Dream at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània in Barcelona & Vienna, Le fait divers: A hypothesis in 26 letters at Museum of Modern Art (MACVAL) in Paris, and Lucid Dreams which celebrates the 100th anniversary of André Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism (1924) at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Community Conversation: Art Nager, photographer Adult Photo / Storytelling
2025-08-21 18:00 - 19:00
Register.
Throughout a 50 – year career as an artist and photo educator, Arthur Nager has focused on documenting the social landscape, the people, structures and places that reflect the character of where and how we live. His goal has been to capture the details of our evolving culture to convey what is timeless and constant in our lives.
This presentation includes a survey of his black and white photographs from the 70’s made during trips across the country that capture aspects of the unique cultural landscape and the evolving photographic approach to the medium of the time.
Arthur Nager’s work incorporates chance, circumstance, and premonition with the element of irony. Relying on intuition, he enables the viewer to experience a moment in time – to look past the initial painterly impact of color, scale, and form, to extract meaning that is sometimes implied or disguised.
Nager’s work is part of educational and museum collections including The International Museum of Photography at The George Eastman House; The South Street Seaport Museum; Museum of Art, Santa Cruz and the Kennebunk Museum in Maine.
His recent exhibit in 2025 at the Mattatuck Museum featured work documenting the towns of the Naugatuck Valley from 1988 – 2024.
About Arthur Nager:
Arthur Nager earned his MFA in photography from Visual Studies Workshop and a BA in History and Psychology from the University of Rochester. Early in his career, he worked at the George Eastman House and studied under Nathan Lyons and Syl Labrot. He taught at the Center of the Eye and Anderson Ranch Arts Center before becoming Director of the Photography Program at the University of Bridgeport, where he expanded the curriculum and organized a photography lecture series featuring renowned artists such as Arnold Newman and Mary Ellen Mark.
Nager has exhibited widely, including at the Mattatuck Museum, Trinity College, the Ilon Gallery, and the FaheyBodell Umbrella Arts Gallery. His work, which captures the evolving social landscape and architectural transformations, is in the collections of institutions such as the George Eastman House and the South Street Seaport Museum. A recipient of numerous grants, including a National Endowment for the Humanities Grant, he continues to create, exhibit, and teach in Connecticut and NYC.
To learn more about Arthur Nager: https:www.arthurnager.com
