Music, Art and Nature Abound at Fruitlands Museum This August

Music, art and nature abound at Fruitlands Museum this August with a series of public events for adults, children, and families. Programming includes The Love Dogs at finale performance of the Summer Concert Series (August 4); a Parent and Child Workshop building fairy houses & gardens (August 6); a gallery tour with Artist-in-Residence Carolyn Wirth (August 18); and the Food for Thought Film Festival (August 21).

For the full calendar of August events, visit www.fruitlands.org/calendar/events/2016/8.

---

FRUITLANDS 2016 SUMMER CONCERT SERIES FINALE - THE LOVE DOGS

Thursday, August 4 at 7:15PM | $10/car Members, $15/car Nonmembers.

The finale concert for Fruitlands 2016 Summer Concert Series will be a Fruitlands favorite, the dynamic group The Love Dogs. With its mix of jazz and jive, this energetic band brings the crowd to its feet every year. Concertgoers will gather on the lawn and listen to beautiful music performed on Fruitlands' outdoor stage. Bring your blanket, lawn chairs and picnic baskets or purchase food from one of our food vendors. Beer and wine will be available on site. The Fruitlands' Museum galleries and Wayside Visitor Center are open until 7PM. Concert admission price includes entry after 5PM.

PARENT AND CHILD WORKSHOP: FAIRY HOUSE & GARDEN IN A BASKET

Saturday, August 6, 2016| 1-3pm | $35 Members, $45 Nonmembers, $34 materials fee

Indulge your imagination in this two-hour workshop building a fairy house and garden that might just entice the fairies to come and play! Made inside the hollow of a basket, the completed project can be easily carried home. Using ferns, ivy, bark, leaves and twigs, participants will create a charming little house that any fairy would be pleased to call home. Once the house is complete, the landscaping can begin: lay out pathways, gardens or ponds. This workshop is a perfect way to share time with a friend or a child (ages 10 year and up). Instructor Betsy Williams, an accomplished horticulturalist, has authored several books, magazine articles, and lectures locally and nationally.

ART WORKSHOP: JAPANESE PUNCTURE BOOKS WITH CRISTINA HAJOSY

Saturday, August 13, 2016 |10AM-3PM |$100 Members, $125 Nonmembers, $5 materials fee

This all-day workshop will explore the Japanese puncture (or "stab") binding, a technique that is especially useful as it joins individual sheets into a text block. Sheets can be edited and sequenced by the artist, then bound, resequenced, and then bound again and again! Perfect for visual journals, print collections, photo albums, signature books, and upscale scrapbooking, Japanese puncture book have endless uses. Hand stitching is a technique for sewing the sections, or "signatures," of a book together. This workshop will cover six different decorative stitch patterns on both soft and hard covers. Unique decorative papers, book cloths, ribbons, and embellishments will be used, enabling you to add your own personal touches to your finished pieces. All supplies will be provided.

FERN IDENTIFICATION AND ECOLOGY FOR CONSERVATIONISTS AND GARDENERS

Sunday, August 14, 2016 | Time: 1-5pm | $40 Members and Students, $55 Nonmembers

This introduction to ferns will be helpful and informative for anyone interested in learning how to identify ferns-be it for confirming wetland boundaries, incorporating native ferns in a naturalized landscape, or honing your "botanizing" skills. Come explore the woodland trails and learn to identify the most common ferns of our area. An indoor classroom session will cover basic fern biology, identification techniques, and ecology; and the field session will provide simple and easy methods for positive field identification. Please bring a hand lens if you have one, a water bottle, and you're encouraged to dress defensively (for mosquitoes and ticks).

GALLERY TOUR: CAROLYN WIRTH, 2016 ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE

Thursday, August 18, 2016 | 3-4pm | Free with admission

Join 2016 Artist-in-Residence Carolyn Wirth in a guidEd Gallery tour of special exhibition Seeing Past Faces. Learn how she approaches her work in sculpture, photography, and print-making. Learn about the people, ideas and events that inform her work and gain insights into the artistic process in this intimate gallery talk.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT FILM FESTIVAL

Sunday, August 21, 2016 | 10:30am-5:00pm | Free with museum admission

The Food for Thought Film Festival at Fruitlands Museum will showcase three documentary films exploring themes of environmental stewardship, community building, and the quest for personal expression. Held in the Wayside Visitor Center, the screenings are free with admission. Munch on popcorn while watching one or all three of the featured films!

10:30-11:35am TINY: A Story about Living Small

12:30-2:30pm The Last Patrol

3:00-4:35 The Cherokee Word for Water

PASTELS EN PLEIN AIR WITH LISA REGOPOLOUS

Tuesday, August 23, 2016, 10AM-3PM daily | $275 Members, $300 Nonmembers

If you love the outdoors and pastel painting, don't miss this! Enjoy the beauty of Fruitlands Museum grounds during this three day pastel intensive plein air workshop. Acquire the skill for organizing and carrying your pastels and supplies with ease. Learn what to pack, what to leave home and what to wear to make your plein air experience fun and enjoyable. Each day will feature a plein air demo and tips on scouting a location. Working small, you will create your own plein air pastel masterpiece! Develop the skill of simplifying, using 4-5 main shapes combined with under painting to develop your painting quickly. Composition, design, line, color, light effect, shadows and more will be taught.

STUDIO TOUR: CAROLYN WIRTH

Sunday, August 28, 2016 | 1-3pm | $15 Members, $25 Nonmembers

Take an intimate look into an artist studio on an exclusive tour of Carolyn Wirth's workspace. Set in an industrial warehouse, Wirth's studio contains works in progress, sculptural castings and armatures, and finished projects. Visit the studio with Carolyn and learn more about how she creates sculptures like those on view in Seeing Past Faces, her exhibition at Fruitlands Art Museum.

---

Register for summer programs directly through programming@fruitlands.org or 978.456.3924, x239.

Fruitlands Museum is open Monday, Wednesday Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., weekends and holidays 10AM - 5PM, April 15 - November 6, 2016. Admission is $14 adults, $12 seniors and students, $6 for children 5 - 13, and free for members and children under 5. Fruitlands Museum is located at 102 Prospect Hill Road in Harvard, Mass. For more information, visit www.fruitlands.org or call 978-456-3924 ext. 291.

Fruitlands Museum, a 210-acre historic, natural, and cultural destination based in Harvard, MA, recently integrated operations with The Trustees of Reservations. Founded in 1914 by author and preservationist Clara Endicott Sears, the Fruitlands complex takes its name from an experimental utopian community led by Transcendentalists Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane that existed on this site in 1843. Fruitlands properties include: The Fruitlands Farmhouse, once home to the family of Louisa May Alcott and a National Historic landmark; The Shaker Museum, home to the largest archive of Harvard Shaker documents in the world; The Native American Museum, which houses a significant collection of artifacts that honor the spiritual presence and cultural history of the first Americans;The Art Museum, featuring a renowned collection of Hudson River School landscape paintings and 19th century vernacular portraits, along with rotating special exhibitions; and The Land, which features panoramic views of the Nashua River Valley, including 2.5 miles of meadows and woodland recreational trails. The Fruitlands Museum Store sells fine crafts by local artists, including pottery, glass, jewelry, clothing and home furnishings. The Museum Café, open during the main season focuses on locally-sourced, sustainable cuisine reflective of the heritage of New England. For more information, visit www.fruitlands.org or call 978-456-3924 ext. 292.