The What: This Week in Southwest Connecticut

Kelly Prinz -

Monday, October 24

Happy Monday! This week, we explored a new exhibit at the Norwalk Art Space as a part of our new partnership with the nonprofit.

Artist Sarah King set out to capture the everyday moments, the moments that don’t always stand out in her new exhibit at The Norwalk Art Space.

“I wanted to kind of capture the in-between parts of life, the things you don’t really see on Instagram, the kind of nitty-gritty of motherhood that I feel is often overlooked and not celebrated,” King said at the opening reception on Thursday, October 20.

A look at the newest exhibit at The Norwalk Art Space (Photo by Kelly Prinz)

King, a painter, sculptor, and illustrator, curated the exhibit which features her own work, along with pieces from artists Maryna Bilak and Judy Glantzman. The exhibit features images that capture the everyday moments of life—from pandemic haircuts to brothers playing, mothers feeding their children to cuddling a new baby.

King said she poured herself into the pieces as a way to handle the emotions and challenges of motherhood.

“I just started painting—and I really dedicated over a year of my life to just painting, just painting for me and painting my voice and what I was going through and how I was feeling and just trying to capture that because I felt it was important to do for myself and for my children and my family,” she said.

Check out the full story or see a sneak peek video of the exhibit on our TikTok.

Let’s see what else is happening around the region this week.

Stamford

The Planning Board will meet on Tuesday, October 25 at 6:30 p.m. and hear capital budget presentations on: parks and facilities; operations; land use; engineering; transportation; stormwater management; and traffic and road maintenance. This is a chance for the departments to explain their suggestions for the investment of capital funds—or funds the city borrows for projects—in this year.

Other meetings this week include:

Norwalk

The Charter Revision Commission will meet on Wednesday, October 26 at 6 p.m. and hear from elected officials including the mayor, members of the Common Council, and other boards as well as former members to get their perspectives on parts of the city charter. The charter governs how the city operates, gives power to specific elected officials and boards, and details processes, such as the budget.

"We plan to take an objective review of the Charter to try to make it clearer for everyone to comprehend," Patsy Brescia, chair of the Charter Revision Commission said in a statement, announcing the creation of the commission. "By listening to the public's input, our goal is to reorganize the document to give residents a better sense of how their government works and enhance transparency and accountability."

The commission has eight months to review the charter and present recommendations to the Common Council for approval. If the council approves the recommendations, the question of whether or not residents want to adopt revisions to the charter will appear on the November 2023 ballot.

Other meetings this week include:

Fairfield

The Representative Town Meeting will meet on Monday, October 24 at 8 p.m. to vote on authorizing about $8.4 million of surplus revenue to be used to address environmental remediation efforts. Learn more about what the town is doing to remediate areas that used contaminated fill across Fairfield.

Other meetings this week include:

Greenwich

The Planning and Zoning Commission will meet on Tuesday, October 25 at 4 p.m. and host a public hearing on the town’s Open Space Plan. The plan’s goal is to help the town preserve undeveloped land while “balancing a community’s need for development” and not “diminishing its quality of life. The plan identifies what criteria would make a piece of land desirable for preserving and also “outlines strategies to acquire protection of the land.” Read the full draft open plan.

The commission will also continue reviewing and discussing the proposed plan from Greenwich Hospital to build a Smilow Cancer Center near the hospital. Learn more about the proposal.

Other meetings this week include:

Darien

The Board of Education will meet on Tuesday, October 25 at 7:30 p.m and hear a presentation on class sizes at Darien High School and Middlesex Middle School.

Other meetings this week include:

Westport

The Representative Town Meeting Education, Finance and Employee Compensation Committees are holding a joint meeting on Monday, October 24 at 7 p.m. to review and potentially vote to recommend spending $831,000 on various capital projects in the district.

Other meetings this week include:

Please note: All of these agendas and information here are current as of Sunday night. Meeting times and agendas may get adjusted throughout the week.

Thank you for reading!

If you are interested in being a part of our reporting or just want to share your thoughts, please reach out at coastalconnecticuttimes@gmail.com.

Have a great week,

Kelly Prinz

Founder, Reporter at Coastal Connecticut Times

Editor's note: The name of the exhibit at The Norwalk Art Space has been changed. The emailed version of this newsletter had the former name of the exhibit.