Around Town

Carriage Barn Arts Center’s Director To Step Down; Search for Successor Underway

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A search is underway for a new director at a prominent nonprofit organization in New Canaan after the woman who has filled the post for the past decided to step down, officials announced Tuesday. Valerie Garlick had served as executive director at Carriage Barn Arts Center for about one year, and will continue in the role through Aug. 10, according to a press release from the organization. She will take on the same role at the 1826-founded Institute Library in New Haven, according to the release. “I leave my position at the Carriage Barn with no small amount of sadness,” Garlick said in an email to members of the New Canaan Society for the Arts, which oversees the Carriage Barn.

News

Letter: ‘Thank You’ to Community from New Canaan Society for the Arts

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The New Canaan Society for the Arts would like to thank our community for its generous support of the successful Spring Gala, Monaco Grand Prix, held on May 16, 2015. The gala, featuring the exhibition Va Va Vroom, Art of the Vehicle, raised $33,000 which will be used to operate the Carriage Barn Arts Center and to provide exhibitions and programming for the public. Guests were greeted with champagne and savory hors d’oeuvres while serenaded by the sultry voice of Marie Michele, the lead singer for French jazz quintet, Oh La La. We would like to thank our attendees, members, donors and sponsors for their generous contributions. The Monaco Co-Chairs Karla Rimmer and Serena Gillespie would like to sincerely thank the event’s committee chairs Catharine Sturgess, Amy Reid and Laura McDaniel for their talent and energy to organize a successful and fun evening.

Around Town

Carriage Barn Arts Center Co-Directors To Step Down following Season

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The co-directors of Carriage Barn Arts Center will step down from their roles at the end of June, marking the end of a highly successful two-season run that has seen the Waveny-based organization create lively new exhibitions, launch an annual fundraiser and forge strong bonds with local artists and partnerships with businesses and community agencies. A posting for the job of executive director, held since June 2013 by New Canaan’s Eleanor Flatow and Arianne Kolb, was listed on FCBuzz one week ago. Reached by NewCanaanite.com, Flatow and Kolb said they’re committed to Carriage Barn Arts Center for a widely anticipated spring exhibition and fundraiser, as well as Art in the Windows, which will kick off May 30 with “Pop Up Art Day!” downtown. “We have had two terrific years,” Kolb said. Board President Serena Gillespie said in an email that the board appreciates all that Flatow and Kolb have done in two seasons and will seek to hire a single full-time director to succeed them.

Around Town

VIDEO: Laughter, Dancing at Carriage Barn’s ‘Night in Havana’

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A Night in Havana, May 17, 2014
Carriage Barn Arts Center Board of Directors President Serena Gillespie says there are two major reasons that inaugural fundraiser “A Night in Havana” sold out two weeks before the event. “One, the directors [Eleanor Flatow and Arianne Kolb] over the course of this year have had an amazing push in PR and marketing, and the community is responding,” Gillespie said from under a tent outside the Carriage Barn, home of the New Canaan Center for the Arts, as 160 supporters arrived to mingle, dance and laugh (see video above) on a picture-perfect evening for “A Night in Havana.” The fundraiser featured live Latin music from Manchado, plenty to drink, silent auction and a Cuba-inspired menu—all amid the “Absolut Kuba!” exhibition which runs through June 1. “Our turnouts at openings have been astronomical, and now on top of that, we have an exhibition going on that is really caught the eye of a lot of people,” Gillespie continued. “We brought in a lot of people to the lecture last week and to the openings for people who had never set foot in the Carriage Barn before. So I think between the two there is newfound interest.”

It showed.

Around Town

New Downtown Stroll to Kickstart ‘Art in the Windows’ on May 22

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Three springs ago—her first in New Canaan—Serena Gillespie found herself walking downtown when she noticed, and felt moved by, works of art in storefront windows. Attracted to a display that included peonies flowers, Gillespie made inquiries and discovered that she was experiencing Art in the Windows. That’s how she came to find out about the Carriage Barn Arts Center (home of the New Canaan Society for the Arts), which organized the event. “For me, art has always had to connect with me personally,” Gillespie, now president of the art center’s Board of Trustees, recalled on a recent evening as fellow board members, Carriage Barn staff and business owners gathered at the Waveny property during a kickoff/planning gathering for the Seventh Annual Art in the Windows. “If it talks to me and brings back a memory, that’s when it connects with me.