Westporter Robin Jaffee Frank (l), former chief curator of the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford and the Yale University Art Gallery, tonight told a Westport Historical Society audience about the role art played in swaying public opinion in the colonies in favor of the Revolutionary War. Her talk was part of the Society’s month-long observance of the 240th anniversary of the British Raid on Danbury, which began April 25, 1777. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo

The Westport Arts Center was packed for tonight’s Westport Artists Collective’s spring Pop Up Show, featuring over 100 regional artists. The Center gives over its space to the Collective three times each year, allowing local and regional professional artists to showcase their work.  The Pop Up is on view through Saturday at 1 p.m. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Aubrey Grodin for WestportNow.com

The owners of the house at 16 St. George Place, off Weston Road, are the newest recipient of a Westport Historical Society (WHS) historical plaque. Bob Weingarten, WHS plaque historian, presented the plaque to Julie Van Norden and her husband Craig Wynne, who moved into the house, known as the Frederick Morehouse house, c. 1837, in 2002 after relocating from New York.  A unique aspect of its history is its having been moved from Clinton Avenue in 1937 to its current location to preserve the house during the construction of the Merritt Parkway. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Grammy nominated pianist Mona Golabek takes a bow today at the Westport Country Playhouse following the opening matinee performance in her one-person play “The Pianist of Willesden Lane.” it is based on the book, “The Children of Willesden Lane,”  which she she co-authored. The play is based on her mother’s experience in 1938 Vienna as a young Jewish piano prodigy who finds her dreams threatened by the looming war. When she escapes to England on the Kindertransport, a multi-generational tale begins of art preserving life. The play, on tour in the United States and soon to continue in Europe, has a limited engagement of seven performances at the Playhouse through Sunday. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

By Susan Granger

As years go by, more and more poignant survival stories that have been buried in Holocaust history are surfacing.

“The Zookeeper’s Wife” begins on a beautiful day in 1939 at Poland’s Warsaw Zoo, where Antonia Zabinska (Jessica Chastain) is helping her husband Jan (Belgian actor Johan Heldenberg) tend the animals. That afternoon, she resuscitates a newborn elephant calf who cannot breathe - with its distraught mother’s at her side.

But then German aircraft appear overhead, and bombs reign down, killing many of the terrified beasts, while others escape to roam the city’s streets.

Led by Berlin’s chief zoologist, sinister Lutz Heck (Daniel Bruhl), the Nazis commandeer the grounds, saving only “prize specimens” for selective breeding, savagely slaughtering the rest.

WestportNow film critic Susan Granger today told the Westport Rotary Club that the biggest threat to the U.S. film industry is Silicon Valley. Citing electronic delivery platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and others, she said people want to sit at home and watch original content on their televisions. “The most endangered species are local theaters,” said Granger, who autographed copies of her latest book, “150 Timeless Movies” for club members and guests. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com