Green Street Blog

In conjunction with the Middletown Art Walk, The Green Street TLC will be hosting a very special photo exhibit featuring Middletown resident, Hannah Vecchitto.

Hannah is a 15 year old Middletown High School student and leukemia survivor. With the help of the Make-a-Wish Foundation Hannah received the gift of a lens from Nikon; a Mac computer with photo-editing software; photography lessons, and photo editing lessons.  In Addition, we at The Green Street Teaching and Learning Center offered Hannah the opportunity to exhibit her work in our upstairs gallery space.

After a year of snapping photos Hannah is ready to share with the public what the world looks like through her eyes.

Please join us on Thursday, August 6th at 5pm for the opening reception of the “The little things” exhibit.

The Green Street Teaching and Learning Center is located at 51 Green Street, Middletown, CT.
The gallery hours are Monday through Friday 9a.m.-3p.m. The gallery will close at noon on Fri., Aug. 7th.

Matt Low is a Brooklyn, NY-based photographer whose crisp, concise, and often calligraphic imagery packs a poignant punch as demonstrated in this show of powerful and poetic photographs of beach debris entitled Persistence at the Green Street Center for Teaching and Learning of Wesleyan University.

Greatly disturbed by the growing profusion of plastic detritus he observed washing up onto our beaches, Low began to photograph the vast assortment of forms he encountered while walking the shoreline.  Individually, each of these bits of beach debris appeared nothing more than expended and mundane.  But by astutely arranging and juxtaposing natural ocean remnants with cast off, man-made plastic forms, Matt Low initiates a powerful poetic and/or political discourse within each of these photographs he presents.   Persistence, a captivating photographic narrative– both delightful and dire– is not to be missed.

Low’s exhibit, Persistence will be on display from August 6th-27th with an opening reception on Thursday, August 6th from 5-8:00p.m.

The Green Street Center for Teaching and Learning is located at 51 Green Street, Middletown, CT.

The gallery hours are Monday through Friday 9a.m.-3p.m. The gallery will close at noon on Fri., Aug. 7th.

Ben Parker thoughtfully and skillfully challenges the cliché notion of origami as merely the art of cleverly crafting amusing paper animals.  Ben’s workshop will teach students the art of the fold and how to break some of the rules associated with traditional origami.
Workshop Date: Wednesday, June 24th from 3:30 – 5:30 PM

The workshop cost is $15.00 per person

To register please call us at 860-685-7871 or email us at gsac@wesleyan.edu

During the month of July, the Green Street Teaching and Learning Center will be exhibiting the work of North Haven artist, Nancy Eisenfeld.  This show of her newest work entitled,  On the Diagonal  will highlight her recent exploration of the emotive power of diagonal line.  Alive with the energy and movement of the diagonals which she uses to both construct and dissect their richly layered surfaces, Eisenfeld’s oil stick paintings and glass collages are the serendipitous results of the intuitive experimentation that is integral to her process.  With open-ended, poetic titles like Ice and Angled Light these striking textural wall works provide access and intrigue for the viewer, while offering plenty of room for reflection and personal interpretation.

The exhibit will open on Thursday, July 2nd from 5-8:00p.m. in conjunction with the Middletown ArtWalk series.  On the Diagonal will run from July 2nd through July 29th.  The gallery hours are Monday-Thursday 9a.m.-5p.m. and Fridays 9a.m.-noon (closed on July 3rd for the 4th of July holiday).

 In his series, Breaking the Pattern, that will be on display at the Green Street Teaching and Learning Center of Wesleyan University from June 4th through June 24th, Ben Parker thoughtfully and skillfully challenges the cliché notion of origami as merely the art of cleverly crafting amusing paper animals.

Parker’s aesthetic clearly affirms his affinity for pattern, precision and problem-solving–  all of which are inherent to the mathematics that underly his works and that are in keeping with the Green Street’s overarching theme of science and math.  He exquisitely explores and manipulates a much broader range of hand-folded patterns, designs, and surface textures than one would typically associate with the traditional craft of origami. The works in this show gracefully embody Parker’s contemplative, uniquely personal, and contemporary approach to the ancient art of origami.

This extraordinary exhibit will open on Thursday, June 4th from 5-8:00p.m. in conjunction with the Middletown Art Walk series— and will be a delight for crafters, as well as fine art aficionados.

On Thursday, May 14th from 6:15-8:15 in collaboration with HOT Schools the Green Street Teaching and Learning Center will be hosting a potluck workshop about how to use improvisation in the classroom setting. All teaching artists and interested college students are welcome to join this fun filled night at no cost. All we ask for in return is that if you bring your favorite dish to share with the group. This workshop will be led by HOT Schools very own Teaching Artist Jackie Coleman. 

Jackie Coleman is Senior Executive Advisor for the Arts for Hartford Public Schools. As such she works toward bringing dance, music, theatre and visual art to the students of Hartford in as many ways as possible.

Prior to Hartford Schools, Jackie left Hartford Stage as Director of Education. During her 6 years there she expanded the reach of Connections – a theatre literacy program, created Innovations –a science/theatre residency, formed the Hartford Stage Young Company, designed a multitude of interdistrict and after school programs, increased professional development opportunities and started their adult acting series.  

Jackie is a Master Teaching Artist on the roster for the Connecticut Office of the Arts. She has 15 years of acting credits in and around New York City and Connecticut. She holds an MFA from the University of South Carolina and a BFA from the University of Connecticut.

The schedule will be as follows:

6:15-6:45 eat

6:45-7:30 circle share

7:30-8:15 improv workshop with Jackie

Believe it or not, Green Street is 10 years old this year. Instead of cake, we’re celebrating with froyo and pizza!

Visit FroyoWorld on Main Street in Middletown on Friday, April 17th between 5:00-8:00pm and 20% of sales come directly to Green Street to support our youth programs. Come out to enjoy dessert and say Happy Birthday to Green Street.

Our Discovery AfterSchool Program serves primarily children in Grades 1-5 from all corners of Middletown, many from our neighborhood here in the North End. We also have a unique middle school class offering on Fridays called Wesleyan Bound where students are exposed to a college campus. They get to participate in workshops with student leaders, talk to professors, tour galleries and laboratories, and more.

Registration for next fall’s classes will open in May. Stay tuned for more information or call us (860-685-7871) to be put on a notification list and we’ll let you know when registration is open.

The Petit Family Foundation supports girls in science and they just awarded Green Street a $12,500 grant to grow their Girls in Science Summer Camp. Our Director, Sara MacSorley, got the chance to meet Dr. Petit and talk about the variety of their science support throughout the state.

The Green Street Girls in Science Camp will take place from August 3-7, 2015 and we’ll be recruiting girls entering grades 4, 5, and 6 from the area soon. We’ll be working with Wesleyan Professors Erika Taylor, Ruth Johnson, and Christina Othon to cover topics from biochemistry to physics. The week cumulates in a science showcase event to share all we’ve learned with family and friends.

Scholarships will be available for families that qualify. More information coming soon.