Put spring in your step
Daffodils, warming temperatures, longer days are “comfort food” for your soul. How about some comfort food for the mind? Check out these learning opportunities at Presidents’ College Lifelong Learning program at the University of Hartford.
How Music Reflects and Provokes Historical Change: Wednesdays, April 1, 8 and 15, 10:30 a.m.–noon.
Promising Research for the Aging Brain: Tuesday, April 7, 2:30–4 p.m. at UHart or Monday, April 20, 2–3:30 p.m. at McLean in Simsbury
Conversation About Identity with Artist Siona Benjamin: Tuesday, April 14, 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
Hartford Circus Fire: Discussions on Mondays, April 27 and May 4, 2–3:30 p.m. at UHart. Performance at Theaterworks on Sunday, May 3, 1:30 p.m.
The program features “snackable” 90–minute discussions, lectures and mini-courses led by professors and community thought leaders. Open to adults of all ages. No membership fee. Pay only for what you take. Whether you’re a fan of the arts, history, science or literature, these diverse offerings are sure to please.
Visit Hartford.edu/pc. Questions? Email pcollege@hartford.edu or call 860-768-4495.
Farmington Valley Quilters
Trunk Show and Lecture
Meet Wednesday, April 15, 7 p.m. at the Guild meeting, Eno Hall, 754 Hopmeadow St., Simsbury. Robin Long is an internationally recognized teacher and a sought-after quilt designer for fabric. She creates Mariner’s Compass quilts with her signature strip-pieced Mariner’s Compass system featuring rulers, books and patterns that make this classic block accessible without paper piecing. Guest fee $10.
Stripped Pieced Mariner’s Compass Workshop
You’ll love Robin Long’s class for learning how to make 16-point compass blocks using Robin Ruth Design’s rulers and strip-piecing method. Thursday, April 16, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. at Cotton Candy Quilt Shop at the Simsbury Town Shops. Cost is $100 plus $50 for supplies.
For more info or to register, contact FVQprograms@gmail.com or visit fvquilter.org
NEAM Aerospace Academy at home
Join us for Aerospace Academy at Home, a new digital learning program that brings aerospace history, science and technology right to your door. The programs are presented in partnership with Challenger Center Maine Virtual Missions, and are designed for children ages 10–14 and an accompanying adult.
Spring 2026 Sessions
Destination Moon: Saturday, May 2, 2–3:30 p.m. Register by April 2. Launch and fly Blue Origin’s reusable launch vehicle, New Glenn, into orbit; safely land Blue Origin’s lunar lander, Blue Moon, on the lunar surface; and prepare to explore the Moon’s surface.
Observation Earth: Saturday, June 6, 2–3 p.m. Register by May 6. Earth-monitoring sensors on the International Space Station are outdated and need to be replaced with new, state-of-the-art hardware. You will work to capture a cargo craft using a robotic arm, monitor astronauts during a spacewalk as they install the new sensors, and analyze data from Earth-monitoring satellites.
Location is virtual! Participants will receive free passes to visit the museum at a later time!
Suffield Players present AI: Artificially Insidious
The Suffield Players will present a staged reading of AI: Artificially Insidious, a technological thriller in two acts written and directed by Agawam playwright Mark Proulx, on Monday, April 7 at 6:30 p.m. at Kent Memorial Library, 50 North Main Street in Suffield. The event is free.
Part of The Suffield Players’ Page to Stage Reading Series, this special presentation offers audiences the opportunity to experience a new work in development and engage with contemporary theatre in an intimate setting.
AI: Artificially Insidious explores the unsettling possibilities of artificial intelligence and the ways technology can blur the line between innovation and danger. The gripping new thriller examines the human cost of rapidly evolving technology and asks what happens when the tools we create begin to shape—and possibly control—our lives.
The program is recommended for ages 13 and up due to thematic content.