The first artistic collection of photographs documenting the interiors of the major historic buildings at Weir Farm National Historic Site will be on display at G&B Community Cultural Center in Wilton, October 13 to November 10, after a year of exhibition at many legislative venues including the Washington, DC, office of Senator Joseph Lieberman.
The public is invited to attend the opening reception, free of charge, at G&B Community Cultural Center in Wilton on Saturday, October 13, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Coffee is provided courtesy of Starbucks in Wilton.
A selection of the photographic collection entitled “Weir Was Here – Secret Rooms, Doors and Windows” was first exhibited at Weir Farm last January. In March, Senator Joseph Lieberman (who sponsored Weir Farm’s National Park status) had another selection of photographs installed at his Washington, DC, office where they will remain until the end of the year following his retirement.
Additional photographs are on display at Congressman Jim Himes’ Bridgeport and Stamford offices. Other exhibits are being planned with Senator Richard Blumenthal, Governor Dannel Malloy and Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia.
“The support for these photographs reflects the importance of Weir Farm to the history and culture of Connecticut,” explains Xiomáro (SEE-oh-MAH-ro), Weir Farm’s Visiting Artist and a former Artist-in-Residence who created the images for the park.
The unique photographic record was commissioned by the National Park Service as part of a major rehabilitation and restoration of Julian Alden Weir’s house and painting studio and Mahonri Young’s sculpture studio. By 2013, the interiors will be fully furnished and significantly changed from how they appear now. So the photographs offer a rare peek of what lies within. Weir was a leading figure in American art and the development of American Impressionism. He acquired the property in 1882 and his daughter, painter Dorothy Weir Young, and her husband, sculptor Mahonri Young, continued working and living on the farm after Weir’s death.
The exhibit at G&B Community Cultural Center is unique in that it will present the greatest number of photographs including 12 that have been printed for the first time. These 17″ x 25″ photographs are also larger than any previously exhibited and will be presented unframed. As Xiomáro elaborates, “viewers can now see the photographs as I see them at my studio – without any of the barriers introduced by framing. The glass, its inherently green tinge, its reflective glare and the matting are layers that separate one from the surface finish of the print and interfere with its original colors and tones. I want the viewers’ experience of the photographs to be as intimate as the subject matter of the images.”
“Weir Was Here – Secret Rooms, Doors and Windows” is on exhibit at G&B Community Cultural Center, 49 New Street, Wilton, Connecticut 06897 from October 13 to November 10, 2012. The viewing schedule is Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Admission is free. More information is available at http://www.xiomaro.com, where the public can register for the opening reception. Registration is not required, but helpful for planning purposes.
For more information about Weir Farm National Historic Site, visit http://www.nps.gov/wefa. Sales of prints will benefit G&B Community Cultural Center, a non-profit organization, and will help fund continuing exhibits of the “Weir Was Here” collection.
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