What's Up

at the

Custom House?

April 27, 2025

#StandUpForScience #Museums4Science #ACTDay25

The Custom House is Open Thurs.- Fri. 1-5 PM,

Sat. 10 AM-5 PM, Sun. 1-5 PM.

today Sunday, April 27, 6-9 pm

Open Mic at the Museum

Co-hosted by Kenny 'Doc' Frazier and Christina Corcoran, our monthly open mic welcomes music, poetry, prose, stand-up, or just state what is on your mind. Show up at 5:45 and get on the list! Open to all ages and abilities for fun & camaraderie. It's a friendly crowd!



Sponsored by Kozmik Music Services.  Admission is by donation. The evening is available on the Open Mic at the Museum Facebook page. The page also posts many of the individual performances from past sessions. Photo, above: March Open Mic at the Museum.

Saturdays, Sundays, & by appointment year-round

a popular destination for more than a century.

Visit Inside NL Harbor Pequot Light

Visit Long Island Sound's oldest and tallest lighthouse.

We offer Harbor Light tours every Saturday & Sunday at noon. Climb 116 steps up into the lighthouse lantern. The views are spectacular!​ Tours for up-to five people take approximately 40 minutes. Sign up today. To book a custom tour, send us an email.

This week at the Custom House

We're showing up for the Custom House.

The New London Maritime Society (NLMS) is a history, preservation, and conservation group; it's in our mission statement to teach everyone's history, and to support science which includes educating about the climate crisis. Photo, right: docent Regan Morse tells the story of the Amistad on Saturday.

Last week I attended a meeting of state arts, history, and nonprofit leaders at which Jason Mancini, executive director of CT Humanities said: Our rainy day is here.

With extreme cuts to NOAA, human services, medical research, the sciences, the arts, education, the time has come when we all must stand together. Show up for Arts, Culture, and Tourism Day at the State Capitol Building on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, at 10:00 AM. This event, hosted by the General Assembly’s Arts, Culture, and Tourism Caucus, will celebrate the industry’s vital role in Connecticut’s economy and quality of life. You're encouraged to get creative! Come in costume, bring an exhibit, plan for something interactive. But be there.

Reach out to your legislators in support of increased funding for Arts, Culture, and Tourism as proposed by bills SB 1551, SB 1456, and HB 7176. Use this link to find your legislators.

Our rainy day is here!

Participate!

Volunteer with us. We're having a volunteer meeting this Tuesday at 9:30 at the Custom House. You're welcome to join us. Just send an email and we'll get started. Summer lighthouse tours, Juneteenth, special events, Make Music Day, First Saturdays downtown -- we'll need your help!

--Susan

on view through mid-May

Picturing Us at the Beach: Vintage Photography in the Studio and on the Sand, vintage photography from the collection of Lisa Kereszi. Photo, above.

through May 4



If you haven't been there yet, don't miss Northern Lights: Inuit Prints, Drawings & Carvings, 1950-1990, from the collection of Alice Houston, through May 4 at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum. The exhibition presents the work of indigenous Canadian artists of the 1950s – 1970s, a transformative time in the development of Inuit artmaking traditions.

Lars Thorsen: From Norway to Noank

at the Mystic Museum of Art

May 3 - June 1, 2025

Opening May 3 at the Mystic Museum of Art is an exhibition of the art of Lars Thorsen. Thorsen paintings are all around town. Citizens Bank donated this whaling scene to us. The photo, left, shows the artist's Noank relatives at the unveiling of the painting on National Maritime Day in 2019.

from MMA: Norwegian-born artist Lars Thorsen (1876–1952) rounded Cape Horn on tall ships four times by the time he was twenty. He worked various maritime jobs including mess-boy, sailmaker, rigger, and Grand Banks fisherman, eventually settling in Noank and becoming an important member of the Mystic art colony and founding member of the Noank Watercolor Society. His art tells the story of an identity forged in motion.

Visit the Museum Shop for Mother!

Our gifts have an extra feel good factor: when you shop with us, your purchases support museum exhibitions & educational programs. !

The NL HarborCam is your 24/7 eye on the harbor. Photo, above: sunrise over Groton.

Please share Bluesky our new social media platform so that we can find our people! We post video, events, and articles of note. @customhouse.bsky.social

Photo, bottom: Michael O'Connor, executive director of the CT Port Authority visits the Archie Chester Reading Room.