Make A Date with Monet

Hill-Stead Museum has planned a day trip on Wednesday, April 13 that will begin with a focused guided tour and talk about Monet, the artist's work in the Hill-Stead collection and Alfred Pope's lunch with Monet at Giverny. After lunch at Hill-Stead, participants will board a bus to the Wadsworth Atheneum for a 2-hour tour of their Special exhibition, Monet's Water Lilies: An Artist's Obsession. Upon return to the  Hill-Stead, there will be  a wine & cheese reception featuring new Hill-Stead private-label wines. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the event web site, or call 860.677.4787, ext 131.

Mark your calendars! One of Farmington’s favorite Spring events, May Market, has been scheduled for Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. both days, on the grounds of the Hill-Stead Museum. 

This year’s featured speakers will be L.A. celebrity caterer Lulu Powers on Friday, May 6 at 11 a.m., and New York Times contributor and author Jane Garmey on Saturday, May 7 at 11am.

The front lawn of the museum  will be a giant green marketplace, with over 50 exhibitors offering rare perennials and woodland plants as well as crafts, antiques, art and jewelry.

There will also be artisan foods, garden demonstrations with local experts, horticulturalists and Master Gardeners, estate walks and museum tours, at your own pace.

May Market will be held rain or shine.. For more information and to purchase tickets online, visit www.hillstead.org/activities/maymarket.html.

From the Hill-Stead’s press release: this year’s May Market Special Events include:

Friday, 11 a.m.:  Lulu Powers presents “Food to Flowers – A Guide to Modern Entertaining.” One of Los Angeles' premier caterers and event planners, Lulu Powers will discuss stress-free entertaining as presented in her book, Lulu Powers: Food to Flowers. This beautifully photographed book is filled with over 100 recipes and fabulous party-planning tips. From cocktails to décor, Ms. Powers has wowed clients such as Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, Arianna Huffington and Madonna. The presentation includes refreshments – a specialty appetizer prepared from her book – and a book signing. The price is $30 for members, $35 for members-to-be, and includes May Market general admission.

Friday, 1 p.m.: Steve Silk offers “A Tour of the Sunken Garden.” Award-winning garden writer, photographer and designer Steve Silk guides participants through Hill-Stead’s one-acre jewel, designed c. 1920 by Beatrix Farrand, one of the finest female landscape designers of her generation. President of the Connecticut Horticultural Society and former Managing Editor for Fine Gardening Magazine, Mr. Silk collaborated with Sydney Eddison on Gardens to Go: Creating and Designing a Container Garden. This tour is free with May Market admission.

Saturday, 11 a.m.: Jane Garmey presents “Privacy in the Garden.”  Noted garden and cooking writer and contributor to The New York Times, Jane Garmey will give a power-point presentation based on her book Private Gardens of Connecticut. The book, which features a rare glimpse of 28 private retreats of prominent members of the fashion, design, arts and business communities throughout Connecticut, "celebrates the beauty and bounty of summer and gives us something to look forward to and contemplate" (New Haven Register).  Garmey is also the author of The Writer in the Garden, Great British Cooking: A Well-Kept Secret, and Great New British Cooking. The presentation includes a book signing. The price is $30 for members, $35 for members-to-be, and includes May Market general admission.

May Market is organized and presented by the museum’s core volunteer group, the Hill-Steaders, and raises vital funds for the museum’s educational programs and operations. This year’s event Co-Chairs are Martha Fanelli and Ruth Rabinowitz. Farmington Bank is the 2011 Presenting Sponsor of May Market.