The Youth Civic Challenge empowers teams of 13–18 year-olds to define and tackle real-world issues. Through this program, participants learn to rethink societal structures, reframe challenges, and implement lasting solutions.Youth Civic Challenge invites you to be part of an exclusive, 4-week summer course designed to empower driven individuals with the tools, knowledge, and network to drive positive change. 

Basic Italian I, a 13-session beginner class, will be held on Thursdays, May 8 to July 31, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. The class will cover pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, conversation, and culture. The required text is Learn Italian the Fast and Fun Way by Marcel Danesi, Barron's Publisher, any edition, available online at abebooks.com and other retailers. 

View the works of local artist DJ Stenson at the New Hatford Artistans Guild.

Join us for Story Time on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:30 for new books, free play, and fun crafts!

Dates:  June 14 – July 27, 2025

Reception: Saturday June 14, 4 – 6 PM, public invited

Gallery hours: Thursday – Saturday 11:00 – 5:30, Sunday 12:00 – 4:00 and by appointment

Kenise Barnes Fine Art is honored to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by Janna Watson. Watson is a conceptual painter based in Toronto, Canada. Poems Without Words is Watson’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery who has included Watson in eight other exhibitions and placed her work in numerous private collections. The gallery has represented the artist since 2017.

Through her practice, Watson works to reframe spirituality into objects that reflect fluidity, agility, and joy. She communicates this through a queering of the painterly process, into one that is diversely applied, gestural, and multi-oriented. Janna intentionally forgoes the use of borders on her paintings to create a sense of the infinite, and the inherent vulnerability of a spirituality that is not contained by a canon.

Janna Watson’s compositions and color choices are both careful and spontaneous, each gesture evoking an unstated emotional response. The paintings are generous passages of vivid color with swooping buttery paint strokes, and calligraphic marks floating on fields of saturated color. They are not spare, but they have an implied economy of language, each gesture gathered towards the others with an unseen gravitational force coalescing into a graceful equilibrium.

Part of the exhilaration I acquire from painting is being able to see shifts within myself manifested into a physical reality. The most truthful form of expression I have found in my life thus far has been the abstract language of painting.  – Janna Watson, 2025

Janna Watson’s work is widely exhibited internationally including in Canada, the United States and Taiwan. Watson’s paintings can be found in significant collections including Google, Air Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, Toronto, CIBC, Toronto, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Toronto, HBC Global Art Collection, New York, to name a few. Watson earned a BFA in Drawing and Painting from Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto.

Please contact Lani Ming Holloway, Associate Director, Lani@kbfa.com, 860 560 3085 with inquires or to arrange a preview of the exhibition.

Join the Five Points Art Book Club and share in thought-provoking and engaging discussion on the visual arts and the creative journey.

Topic: “The Painted Word” by Tom Wolfe

• In a critique of modern art in the 1970’s, Wolfe’s book targets art critics as having undue influence, dominating the world of art controlled by a small subset of collectors and museums.

July 3, 2025

2 - 3 PM

Five Points Arts Center

MORE INFO & RSVP

For the first year, we will be hosting a summer market located at Franklin Plaza on the same nights as our Summer Concert Series. Each Thursday between June and August, check out vendors of all different varieties from meats, veggies, maple syrup, handcrafted goods, and more! Check out our full vendor list soon! Inquire above if you would like to be a vendor!

Check out some of our confirmed vendors:

• Misfit Farms
• Sunset Meadow Vineyards
• Dancing Ferns Houseplants
• Oracle Mushroom Co
• Hathor Hill Farm
• Bloom Where Planted
• Bantam Bread
• Laura Rubino Crafts
• Forever Connected LLC
• and more!

Out in the Corner and the David M. Hunt Library are partnering for a LGBTQIA+ game night on the first Thursday of the month, from 5:30-7 pm. Bring your own games, play those provided, or just hang out. Snacks are provided!

Come check out the Torrington Recreations 2025 Summer Concert Series at Coe Park! Over the course of 14 weeks, every Thursday, starting June 5th and running through September 4th, we will be hosting 14 different bands who will perform a range of different genres. Concerts will be held on the outside portico at the Coe Memorial Park (101 Litchfield Road) from 6pm-8pm. Bring your blankets, chairs, food and drinks to enjoy our concerts in the park!

BADFOOT delivers the best modern country rock hits, bringing high-energy performances of songs by Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, and more. Get ready for an unforgettable night of contemporary country anthems and crowd-pleasing favorites!

Thursday, July 3rd, at 6:30 PM, 2nd Home welcomes back Ramblin' Dan Stevens (https://www.danstevens.net/) . Dan plays an eclectic mix of acoustic finger style blues. His show is versatile and he has played almost every type of room from nice background music to concerts to houserockin' clubs. He has played all over the Eastern US, Europe, Canada and the Virgin Islands for many years and was a finalist at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis TN. He was also was recently inducted into the CT Blues Hall of Fame.

For reservations (encouraged but not required) call 860-238-4500 or email us at momanddad@2ndhomelounge.com

See our complete event list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/events/

Google Street View

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2nd Home Lounge

524 Main Street, Winsted

2ndhomelounge.com

Join our mailing list - https://2ndhomelounge.com/email-sign-up/

Bring your picnic baskets and lawn chairs and join us for one, two or all of these fun family events!! 

These are all free events! No Registration is Required! Feel free to join us for some foot tapping and swinging Summer entertainment!

Date: Friday, July 4

Time: 10:00 a.m.

Location: The Litchfield History Museum

Cost: Free for Members, $10 for non-Members

Registration Requested

Celebrate Independence Day with our popular Heroes of the Revolution Walking Tour on Friday, July 4 at 10:00 a.m. Discover Litchfield's Revolutionary history and how Litchfield's residents young and old contributed to the founding of the nation.

The walk will begin at the Litchfield Historical Society (7 South Street) and lasts approximately 1 hour. Wear comfortable shoes and bring a bottle of water. Walking tours are free for members and $10 for non-members.

Walking Tours are sponsored by Berkshire Alarm

View the works of local artist DJ Stenson at the New Hatford Artistans Guild.

Dates:  June 14 – July 27, 2025

Reception: Saturday June 14, 4 – 6 PM, public invited

Gallery hours: Thursday – Saturday 11:00 – 5:30, Sunday 12:00 – 4:00 and by appointment

Kenise Barnes Fine Art is honored to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by Janna Watson. Watson is a conceptual painter based in Toronto, Canada. Poems Without Words is Watson’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery who has included Watson in eight other exhibitions and placed her work in numerous private collections. The gallery has represented the artist since 2017.

Through her practice, Watson works to reframe spirituality into objects that reflect fluidity, agility, and joy. She communicates this through a queering of the painterly process, into one that is diversely applied, gestural, and multi-oriented. Janna intentionally forgoes the use of borders on her paintings to create a sense of the infinite, and the inherent vulnerability of a spirituality that is not contained by a canon.

Janna Watson’s compositions and color choices are both careful and spontaneous, each gesture evoking an unstated emotional response. The paintings are generous passages of vivid color with swooping buttery paint strokes, and calligraphic marks floating on fields of saturated color. They are not spare, but they have an implied economy of language, each gesture gathered towards the others with an unseen gravitational force coalescing into a graceful equilibrium.

Part of the exhilaration I acquire from painting is being able to see shifts within myself manifested into a physical reality. The most truthful form of expression I have found in my life thus far has been the abstract language of painting.  – Janna Watson, 2025

Janna Watson’s work is widely exhibited internationally including in Canada, the United States and Taiwan. Watson’s paintings can be found in significant collections including Google, Air Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, Toronto, CIBC, Toronto, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Toronto, HBC Global Art Collection, New York, to name a few. Watson earned a BFA in Drawing and Painting from Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto.

Please contact Lani Ming Holloway, Associate Director, Lani@kbfa.com, 860 560 3085 with inquires or to arrange a preview of the exhibition.