Westport artist Miggs Burroughs tonight addresses guests at a Westport Library reception marking the opening of his photo exhibit “Signs of Compassion” in the Great Hall. It is the last major art exhibit in the library before renovations are completed in 2019, and celebrates the end of Burroughs’ one-year term as artist-in-residence. The exhibit is a tribute to a poem about compassion by Emily Dickinson, expressed word by word in American Sign Language, as portrayed in 30 lenticular (animated) images of members of the community. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Lynn U. Miller for WestportNow.com

Friends of the Westport Public Art Collections (WestPAC), Inc. invite the community to attend “Second Story Moonlight,” an inaugural fundraising event to support WestPAC and the educational uses of the collection. 

The event will take place on Thursday, June 8 at 7 p.m. at Rive Bistro, 229 Riverside Ave, Westport. Tickets are $90 and may be purchased by visiting https://www.westportarts.org/moonlight.

Event attendees will have the opportunity to view a special one-night only exhibit of art from the Westport Public Art Collections including works by Picasso, Matisse, Warhol, Motherwell, Rothenberg, Miro, Christo and Jean-Claude and Calder.

The evening will also include a silent auction of selected works by emerging and globally recognized local artists, and items donated by noted collectors. 

The Westport Library today welcomed some unexpected visitors — about 60 second graders from the Western Connecticut Academy of International Studies, an elementary magnet school in Danbury. They were supposed to be at Sherwood Island State Park to perform science experiments and studies, but the wind and rain kept them from going. “So they called us, and we put up some tables and chairs,” said Rachel Reese, the library’s director of communications and marketing. “Lots of kiddos.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

Westport Library’s exhibit team paused during installation of Miggs Burroughs’s “Signs of Compassion” photo exhibit, which opens Friday in the Great Hall with a reception from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. This will be the last major art exhibit in the library before renovations are completed in 2019, and celebrates the end of Burroughs’ one-year term as artist-in-residence. The exhibit is a tribute to a poem about compassion by Emily Dickinson, expressed word by word in American Sign Language, as portrayed in 30 lenticular (animated) images of members of the community. Pictured (l-r) are Carole Erger-Fass, Sue Kirby, Elizabeth Devoll, Ellen Naftalin, Chris Timmons (curator of library exhibits). Anne Levine, and Burroughs. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

By Susan Granger

Over the last few years, Netflix has established itself as a premiere steaming service. Now, Netflix is breaking new boundaries by debuting Brad Pitt’s provocative “War Machine” for home viewing on Friday, May 26, the same day it opens for Oscar-qualifying runs in New York and Los Angeles.

Written and directed by David Michod (“Animal Kingdom,” “The Rover”), it’s a black comedy, loosely based on Michael Hastings’ nonfiction best-seller “The Operators: The Wild & Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan,” expanded from a 2010 “Rolling Stone” expose that led to President Obama’s dismissal of General Stanley McChrystal.

Pitt plays cocky, charismatic Glen McMahon, the fictional, four-star General who struts in to command U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, deploying a controversial military strategy called counterinsurgency or COIN.

“We are here to build, to protect, to support the civilian population,” he says. “To that end, we must avoid killing at all cost. We can’t help them and kill them at the same time.”

It was moving day today for the marble bust of Westport Library benefactor Morris Ketchum Jesup from his prominent spot at the library to a temporary home in the lobby of Westport Town Hall. The bust by sculptor William Couper is being relocated for safekeeping during the library’s transformation project. Town Curator Kathie Bennewitz gave Morris a kiss on his departure and was on the other end to welcome him to his new temporary home. Lynn U. Miller for WestportNow.com

Scenes from tonight’s Westport Arts Center “Martini Madness” gala at the Fairfield County Hunt Club. The gala paid tribute “to the role Westport played during the creative heyday of the 1950s and 1960s, celebrating Westport’s distinctive identity as a creative center steeped in a long history of artists, illustrators and creative executives,” according to organizers. J.C. Martin for WestportNow.com

The Westport Historical Society (WHS) today hosted a workshop on the Historic Homes Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program, which is designed to encourage new homeownership and to assist existing homeowners in maintaining or rehabilitating their property. Pictured are Alyssa Lozupone of the Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office, who explained the application process and examples of rehabilitation work, and Ed Gerber, past WHS president, who lives in a 1764-built home on Cross Highway. For more information on the program, click HERE. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

Westport Cinema Initiative will host a screening of the 1968 film, “Sweet Liberty,” starring Alan Alda on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Town Hall auditorium.

The screening is being held in partnership with the Westport Library’s signature fundraiser, BOOKED for the Evening on Monday, June 5, which is honoring Alan Alda. The event is sold out.

Screening tickets are $10 for general admission and $8 for charter members.

Tickets may be purchased at the door or online at westportcinema.org. For additional information, visit http://www.westportcinema.org.