I n the course of natural cycles, spring is a time for beginnings. Culturally, though, it’s just as much a time for capstones. This week, New Haven experiences starts and stops galore, just as thousands of graduating students at colleges around the city—Albertus Magnus, SCSU, UNH, Yale—finish one phase of life and begin another.
Monday, May 12
Craving calcite? Coveting kyanite? Questing for quartz? Tonight at 7:30, the members of the New Haven Mineral Club invite the public to bid on “minerals, fossils and various items of interest”—like “display cases, tools, books, lapidary equipment [and] jewelry supplies”—during its annual silent auction. Only club members are allowed to put items up for bidding, but anyone can place bids. Veterans Memorial Building, 524 Brooksvale Ave, Hamden. Free to attend.
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Tuesday, May 13
Today marks the start of the final week to see the Yale Center for British Art’s heady exhibit Fame and Friendship: Pope, Roubiliac, and the Portrait Bust in Eighteenth-Century Britain, which technically closes next Monday, the 19th. But the gallery itself is usually closed on Mondays, so—unless next week’s different due to commencement goings-on—Sunday marks the last day to gaze into the sculpted eyes of the 1700s poet and British mega-celebrity Alexander Pope. Gaze away any time during regular hours (Tues-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat-Sun 12-5pm), or take advantage of hourlong guided tours at 11 a.m. Thursday or 1 p.m. Sunday. By the way, if you visit on or after this Thursday, check out “Of Green Leaf, Bird, and Flower”: Artists’ Books and the Natural World, a new exhibit connecting the work of 17th- and 18th-century naturalists who catalogued the English countryside with the efforts of more contemporary figures in the same field—perhaps even the same fields. 1080 Chapel St, New Haven. (203) 432-2800. Free.
Wednesday, May 14
At Long Wharf Theatre (222 Sargent Dr, New Haven; 203-787-4282), the masterful Broadway-tested voices of Katie Rose Clarke (Glinda, Wicked) and Adam Halpin (Gordon, Rent) power the love story/musical The Last Five Years. After preview performances that began on May 7, tonight’s show, directed by Gordon Edelstein, marks the official—and already sold-out—opening. If you don’t have seats for this one, that’s okay; there are 22 more performances through June 1. $69.50-79.50.
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Thursday, May 15
The New Haven Symphony Orchestra presents “Rachmaninov Fantastique” for its season finale in Woolsey Hall (500 College St, New Haven) tonight at 7:30. Sergei Rachmaninov’s transcendent Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, still popular well over a century after its writing, is the opener, which is fitting given the finale-like tension it builds in barely any time flat. The second piece of the program is Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique—which, as the NHSO’s website points out, “hurtles from moments of tenderness to tantrums, from visions of suicide to ecstasy.” $15-69.
Friday, May 16
Elm City Cycling is doing monthly bike-to-work breakfasts from March to October this year. But today’s is probably the biggest of them all, coinciding as it is with both National Bike to Work Day and National Bike Month. Between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m., cyclers congregate at Pitkin Plaza (north of Chapel St, on Orange) in front of event sponsor Devil’s Gear Bike Shop, eating food courtesy of Elm City Market, the other sponsor, which is located right around the bend. Rain or shine. Free.
After work, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Giampietro Gallery’s Erector Square location (315 Peck St, New Haven; 203-777-7760), there’s a joint opening reception for two solo painting exhibitions: Collective Memories by Michael Angelis and Inherent Collisions by Peter Ramon. Between Angelis’s realistic depictions of New Haven-area landscapes—particularly “environments in flux” (as in his painting “Earth,” pictured above)—and Ramon’s abstract depictions of “shapes casted in nature by sunlight,” aesthetic counterpoints meet and combine for a rich viewing experience. Free.
Saturday, May 17
From 5 to 8 p.m., flock to Creative Arts Workshop (80 Audubon St, New Haven; 203-562-4927) for “Bird Abode,” an arts-infused cocktail party fundraiser themed after the iconic bird cage-making Andrew B. Hendryx Company, which used to operate a factory on the same block. “Pull out your finest plumage, fluff up your tail feathers and come for a silent auction, cocktails and light fare,” the event’s webpage says. Regular tickets are $60, or $50 in advance, with “high flier” options available for those who want to throw extra support CAW’s way.
Sunday, May 18
From 2 to 3 p.m. today, the James Blackstone Memorial Library (758 Main St, Branford) injects some October into May, and gives new meaning to the phrase “horror stories.” During “Panic in Connecticut: Accused Witches Have Their Say,” actress Virginia Wolf, dressed in period getup, conjures actual 17th-century Connecticut colonists accused of witchcraft in order to more effectively, and affectively, tell their tales. To register (required), click here or call (203) 488-1441 x318. Free.
Written by Dan Mims. Image features “Earth” by Michael Angelis (2014). Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
