Evie Lindemann (l), associate professor in the arts therapy program at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, discusses the healing power of the visual arts today at the TEA (Thinkers, Educators, Artists) Talk at Westport Town Hall. With her are Nell Bernegger, Westport artist and mother of three who volunteers at the Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and Jahmane West, an artist who works with Homeless Veterans, Homes for the Brave in Bridgeport and other “WAC Gives Back” programs at the Westport Arts Center. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Westport’s Town Hall auditorium tonight hosted a screening of the critically acclaimed 2011 documentary “The Whale.” Sponsored by the Westport Cinema Initiative, which seeks to bring a movie theater back to Westport, and the Staples High School Green Club, it is about a friendly whale who gets separated from his pod at 2 years old and pays frequent visits to residents living along Nootka Sound on the west side of Canada’s Vancouver Island. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

Westport filmmaker Doug Tirola of Westport Cinema Inititative interviews “The Whale” director Michael Parfit today by Skype following a Town Hall auditorium screening of his 2011 critically acclaimed documentary “The Whale.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

A visitor to today’s first of two days of the Westport Woman’s Club art show featuring local artists looks at works by Susan Malloy. The show was dedicated to the Westport artist who died last month at age 91. Curated by Westport artist Miggs Burroughs, the show continues Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at 44 Imperial Ave. Thirty percent of proceeds go to scholarships for Staples High School seniors. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Larry Untermeyer for WestportNow.com

Scenes from today’s opening day of the Westport Woman’s Club art show featuring 14 local artists. It continues Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at 44 Imperial Ave. A portion of the proceeds of the show, revived after a 30-year hiatus, will benefit Staples High School senior scholarship recipients. Lynn U. Miller and Helen Klisser During for WestportNow.com

Members of the Westport Arts Advisory Committee—(l-r) Nancy Diamond, Richard Epstein, and Miggs Burroughs—prepare for Sunday’s second TEA Talk (Thinkers, Educators, Artists) at 2 p.m. in the Westport Town Hall auditorium. The event and a reception at the Westport Historical Society immediately following are free and open to the public. The TEA Talk features professionals in the visual and performing arts (Nell Bernegger, Judy Dworin, Craig Gillespie, and Jahmane West) who employ music, dance, writing and art therapy for veterans, medical patients, and prison inmates and their families. Epstein, Kristin Fox, and Evie Lindemann will moderate. For more info, http://www.westportarts.org”>visit http://www.westportarts.org. Contributed photo

The Westport Woman’s Club this weekend revives a long tradition after a 30-year hiatus –- an art show featuring local artists. Curator is local artist Miggs Burroughs (l), in a rare role reversal pictured with Helen Klisser During, an exhibiting photographer who usually does the curating at the Westport Arts Center where she is artistic director. The show, dedicated to the late Westport artist Susan Malloy, features work of 14 artists available for sale, some in multiple editions. Thirty percent of sales will go toward need-based scholarships for seniors at Staples High School. Opening reception is Saturday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 44 Imperial Ave., with food, wine and music. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

Westport artist Nina Bentley applies finishing touches today to her 8-foot fiberglass “Dine-A-Saur,” which will be transported to Stamford on May 18. It will among 40 fiberglass dinosaurs displayed in Stamford Downtown’s annual outdoor sculpture exhibit. This year’s theme is “Dinosaurs Rule!,” amd the exhibits will be on display from June 1 through August. Bentley said at the end of the three-month exhibit, each of the painted dinosaurs will be auctioned and the proceeds are distributed to charities.  She said this is the ninth time she has had an entry in the annual Stamford Downtown exhibit. Past subjects have included a cow on ice skates, two cars, two cats, two benches, and a horse. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow
for WestportNow.com

By Susan Granger

Good News: If you’re looking for POW! BAM! SMASH! cartoonish action, you get your money’s worth with “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”

Bad News: Juggling a kaleidoscope of superheroes, as Tony Stark/Iron Man says, “It’s long – Eugene O’Neill long.”

You’d better know your “Avengers” franchise history because this new installment begins mid-mission, as Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Bruce Banner/the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) battle a battalion of H.Y.D.R.A. bad guys to capture Loki’s scepter with its powerful Infinity Stone.

What’s Ultron? A sparkly computer program, concocted as a global protection system by Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. What emerges, instead, is a rogue, red-eyed, megalomaniacal A.I. colossus, drolly voiced by James Spader, mockingly humming Pinocchio’s “No Strings” anthem as a menacing mantra and viewing humans as the world’s biggest threat.