If there were moments back then when “Sam,” as Hartford locals called him, felt a yearning to procrastinate with a little literary chitchat, he could pay a call on his next-door neighbor, Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” had turned her into the most famous woman in America. (He also cranked out his books at a summer house in Elmira, N.Y., but either way the slow churn of the Mississippi River was nowhere in sight.) He wrote them, or at least parts of them, at a table in a third-floor billiard room in his house in Hartford, where he and his family lived for about 17 years. Just a few blocks away, on Farmington Avenue, in a 25-room mansion that looks like something from “Downton Abbey: The American Years,” two of the greatest characters in American fiction - Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn - came to life.Ĭontrary to mythology, Mark Twain did not conjure up his masterpieces while puffing cigars on a Southern riverboat. Who knew? Hartford is like that: full of surprises. Thanks to a few advocates from an organization that’s cheekily known as the Friends & Enemies of Wallace Stevens, there is a marked walk that winds along for about 2.4 miles, starting at the white-columned colossus of the Hartford, the insurance giant where one of the most creative men in American letters ascended to the position of vice president, and ending at the white-clapboard house where the Pulitzer Prize winner lived. You can, as I did on a Saturday morning, stroll along the commute that helped dislodge the man’s subconscious musings. Hartford is the place where the poet Wallace Stevens spent a substantial portion of his life, and he composed many of his verses - bizarrely exquisite blossoms unlike anything else in the canon of American literature - while migrating back and forth on foot between his comfortable house on Westerly Terrace and his office at an insurance company. A wildly lyrical geyser of the American imagination? Not so much.Īnd yet, as I discovered on a recent weekend trip, Hartford could probably rival the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco as a wellspring of psychedelic imagery - thanks, in large part, to one man. A decent place to stop for pancakes? Sure. We run a good, ethical business that we can all be proud of, but we don't take ourselves too seriously! Let us know if you're interested in joining our team as a painting instructor (the most common role) or in some other capacity.IN those rare moments when Hartford leaps to mind, I’m guessing that your head does not then turn to watermelon pavilions, a man with a blue guitar, an old sailor catching tigers in red weather or an emperor of ice cream.Ī lot of us think of Connecticut’s capital as a generic New England way station between Boston and New York. Everyone involved in Muse prides themselves on being fun, creative, and energetic. Further expansion plans are in the works.* Assembly Row, MA* Lynnfield, MA* Hingham, MA* Patriot Place, MA* Annapolis, MD* Gaithersburg, MD* National Harbor, MD* West Hartford, CT* Glastonbury, CT* Norwalk, CT* Portland, ME * Manchester, NH* Providence, RI* Great Neck, NY* Garden City, NY* NYC-Tribeca, NY* White Plains, NY* Ridge Hill, NY* Port Jefferson, NY* Fairfax, VA* Gainesville, VA* Richmond, VA* Virginia Beach, VAMost importantly, we're looking for great people to join our team. See our event calendar to understand the typical session scheduling: currently have studios in the following locations. Muse also hosts private events and kids parties. Muse serves food, upscale beer, and a variety of wines that patrons can enjoy while they paint. Paint sessions last 2-3 hours and host 40-50 people at full capacity. At nights end, most will want to bring their masterpiece home. No artistic experience is required to have a good time, and the vast majority of customers are very impressed with the quality of their paintings. Our studios host 10-15 paint lessons per weeklargely nights and weekendsduring which instructors will help customers turn a blank canvas into their own work of art. Muse Paintbar combines painting instruction with a restaurant and bar.
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