Art and History are Partners in Cheshire

The Town Council added a delightful twist to their December meeting by wearing costumes from the 1820s complete with top hats, green cravats, and for women, large straw hats.

The council and Town Manager Michael Milone donned the outfits to pose for photos for an Artsplace-initiated program about Cheshire's most famous artist; John Fredrick Kensett.

Milone said he and the council members had just come for the photo session held at the historic 1750 Abijah Beach Tavern at 137 S. Main St. The photo was taken in the top floor ballroom, he said.

Another photo was recently taken, Milone said, of Cheshire public works employees who were dressed in the garb of canal workers at historical Lock 12.

Grant funding from the Connecticut Community Foundation in Waterbury will pay for the publication of a booklet, complete with the local photos, about the life of Kensett for all third-grade students in town. 

Kensett was born in Cheshire in 1816 and went on to become an acclaimed Hudson River Valley artist with works exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Boston Fine Arts Museum.