Verso University Presents: Art Tour & Happy Hour at The Aldrich

Join us for an exclusive early-evening event designed to kick off your weekend in style. As a Westport Library ticket holder, you are invited to enjoy a docent-led tour of the museum’s current exhibitions and a complimentary happy hour beverage. Next, explore the stunning sculpture garden at your own pace and cap off the experience with an engaging conversation between the Museum's Curatorial and Publication Manager, Caitlin Monachino, and exhibiting artist, Moko Fukuyama, who will bring the creative process to life!

This is the perfect way to ease into your Friday night—relaxed, inspired, and surrounded by art.

Since 2019, multidisciplinary artist Moko Fukuyama has created a body of large-scale sculptures that utilize salvaged tree matter as its primary material. Often allowing the wood's natural shape and grain pattern to inform the structural composition of the work, Fukuyama revives once-lost timber with new life. Her sculptures explore the psychology of human intervention and desire—interests stemming from Fukuyama's experience as a recreational sports fisher—and our roles in critical issues ranging from overconsumption and consumerism to sustainability and urbanization.

For her latest public art project, Fukuyama debuts a stylized fishing tackle box, a steel-framed structure that contains a menagerie of hand-carved, brightly painted objects that resemble fishing lures. The striking assortment of angler’s "bait" are meticulously crafted from a felled oak tree that once stood outside the artist's Brooklyn residence. Outlined but not enclosed, the sculpture’s open framework allows viewers to see beyond the wooden elements, placing humans in the position typically occupied by fish. This dual perspective not only plays with the rules of attraction but also fosters a dialogue between nature and its imitators.

Verso University is The Westport Library’s lifelong learning and education initiative, serving up year-round offerings of classes, workshops, and lectures designed to further education and learning. Offerings run the gamut of educational opportunities, ranging from one-time lectures to ongoing courses to classes that meet weekly or perhaps monthly.

Verso University programs are made possible by the generous support of the Nancy J. Beard Lifelong Learning and Education Fund.