CLASS | Saturday Morning Arts: Open-Level Dance Class with The Hartford Dance Collective
2026-04-11 10:00 - 11:00 (America/New_York) | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
Purchase Tickets
Date: April 11
Dance with us! Join us one Saturday a month at 10 am to awaken your creativity and get moving. Each month, a choreographer from the Hartford Dance Collective will lead an open-level dance class designed to build curiosity, strength, range of motion and confidence in your own movement. Classes include warm-ups, exercises in mobility, and dynamic choreography phrasework. If you’ve been dancing all your life, are a former dancer, or have never danced before, YOU ARE WELCOME HERE! Move your body freely in a supportive community, surrounded by art and our beautiful Colonial Revival Garden.
Upcoming Date: May 9
Tickets: $20
The Hartford Dance Collective | The Hartford Dance Collective aims to empower women to have a voice and an equal opportunity in dance by providing choreographic and leadership opportunities. By sharing professional contemporary dance with new audiences and providing performances in diverse locations, they work to bridge the gap between the arts and the community. Their studio space at Parkville Sounds in Hartford, CT, provides creatives with a home to hone in on their movement vocabulary, and they hold the belief that everyone can dance and everyone should. www.thedancecollective.org

PERFORMANCE | American Contemporary Dances with The Hartford Dance Collective
2026-05-08 19:30 - 21:00 | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
Purchase Tickets
Join us in the intimate Webb barn for the Museum’s first commissioned dance performance! Experience dance in-the-round, featuring new and established works by The Hartford Dance Collective. Rooted in themes of female empowerment, the dances explore strength, resilience, and self-expression through bold physicality and nuanced storytelling. Inspired by America’s 250th anniversary, the Collective enriches the story of our nation’s founding by amplifying women’s voices and experiences. Surrounded by history and audience alike, the dancers invite viewers into a shared space where past and present converge—where the courage to claim one’s voice echoes the spirit of those who shaped a new nation within these very walls.
About This Commission In commissioning this work, the Museum celebrates both a milestone and a continuation: bringing contemporary artists into dialogue with a site where questions of identity, purpose, and collective future have always lived.
PERFORMANCE | Friday, May 8, 7:30 PM

6:00 PM | VIP Ticketholders Pre-Performance Talkback with Hartford Dance Collective
6:45 PM | Doors open
6:45-7:30 PM | Cash bar available, furnished by Vino Crudo
7:30 PM | Performance in-the-round

TICKETS | $18 / $25 / $30 / $45
Students (16-22) | $18
Members | $25
General Admission | $30
Inner Circle VIP | $45

Premiere seating: first two rows
Pre-performance talk-back with dancers and choreographers of Hartford Dance Collective
Early-admission
Reserved Parking
Access to one open rehearsal on May 1 at the HDC studios

Hartford Dance Collective | The Hartford Dance Collective bridges the gap between dance and community by curating unique and accessible performances led by female identifying choreographers and offering open adult movement classes that foster artistic expression, connection, and inclusivity.
Since July 2017, the Hartford Dance Collective has curated performances in unique settings, featuring female choreographers from across the nation. We have shared dance at the Connecticut Convention Center, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Mortensen Riverfront Plaza, ShapeShifter Lab, Real Art Ways, TheaterWorks Hartford, Dunkin Park, Parkville Market, & multiple breweries around the Connecticut, to name a few; and we aim to continue to share the art form with a wide range of demographics. Along with many small programs that we present throughout the year,
The Hartford Dance Collective curates the annual Hartford Dance Festival in Elizabeth Park with 25 performing groups, which is the largest free dance festival in Connecticut. Our studio space in Hartford, Connecticut, provides creatives with a home to hone in on their movement vocabulary and the opportunity for us to bring professional dancers to Hartford including dancers from Pilobolus, David Dorfman Dance, the Limon Company, the Radio City Rockettes, Doug Varone and Dancers, the Merce Cunningham Trust, and the Brooklynettes, to name a few. We hold the belief that everyone can dance and everyone should. Our professional and inspiring studio hosts open adult movement classes for the community featuring the Collective’s Resident Artists and Guest Instructors. A perfect place for a dancer to train, a former dancer to reignite their love for movement, or a member of the community looking to practice dance movement as a form of exercise, art, or meditation. Movement allows us to escape, which drives our commitment to curating experiences that allow for discovery and connection.

Dance Class with The Hartford Dance Collective [New Date TBA]
2026-05-09 10:00 - 11:00 | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
Purchase Tickets

May 9 Dance Class has been postponed. A new date will be announced shortly.
Dance with us! Join us one Saturday a month at 10 am to awaken your creativity and get moving. Each month, a choreographer from the Hartford Dance Collective will lead an open-level dance class designed to build curiosity, strength, range of motion and confidence in your own movement. Classes include warm-ups, exercises in mobility, and dynamic choreography phrasework. If you’ve been dancing all your life, are a former dancer, or have never danced before, YOU ARE WELCOME HERE! Move your body freely in a supportive community, surrounded by art and our beautiful Colonial Revival Garden.
Date: May 9
Tickets: $20
The Hartford Dance Collective | The Hartford Dance Collective aims to empower women to have a voice and an equal opportunity in dance by providing choreographic and leadership opportunities. By sharing professional contemporary dance with new audiences and providing performances in diverse locations, they work to bridge the gap between the arts and the community. Their studio space at Parkville Sounds in Hartford, CT, provides creatives with a home to hone in on their movement vocabulary, and they hold the belief that everyone can dance and everyone should. www.thedancecollective.org

PERFORMANCE | American Contemporary Dances with The Hartford Dance Collective
2026-05-09 14:00 - 15:30 | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
Purchase Tickets

Join us in the intimate Webb barn for the Museum’s first commissioned dance performance! Experience dance in-the-round, featuring new and established works by The Hartford Dance Collective. Rooted in themes of female empowerment, the dances explore strength, resilience, and self-expression through bold physicality and nuanced storytelling. Inspired by America’s 250th anniversary, the Collective enriches the story of our nation’s founding by amplifying women’s voices and experiences. Surrounded by history and audience alike, the dancers invite viewers into a shared space where past and present converge—where the courage to claim one’s voice echoes the spirit of those who shaped a new nation within these very walls.
About This Commission In commissioning this work, the Museum celebrates both a milestone and a continuation: bringing contemporary artists into dialogue with a site where questions of identity, purpose, and collective future have always lived.
PERFORMANCE | Saturday, May 9, 2 PM

12:30 PM | VIP Ticket Holders Pre-Performance talkback with Hartford Dance Collective
1:15 PM | Doors open
1:15-2:00 PM | Cash Bar, furnished by Vino Crudo
2:00 PM | Performance in-the-round

TICKETS | $18 / $25 / $30 / $45
Students (16-22) | $18
Members | $25
General Admission | $30
Inner Circle VIP | $45

Premiere seating: first two rows
Pre-performance talk-back with dancers and choreographers of Hartford Dance Collective
Early-admission
Reserved Parking
Access to one open rehearsal on May 1 at the HDC studios

Hartford Dance Collective | The Hartford Dance Collective bridges the gap between dance and community by curating unique and accessible performances led by female identifying choreographers and offering open adult movement classes that foster artistic expression, connection, and inclusivity.
Since July 2017, the Hartford Dance Collective has curated performances in unique settings, featuring female choreographers from across the nation. We have shared dance at the Connecticut Convention Center, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Mortensen Riverfront Plaza, ShapeShifter Lab, Real Art Ways, TheaterWorks Hartford, Dunkin Park, Parkville Market, & multiple breweries around the Connecticut, to name a few; and we aim to continue to share the art form with a wide range of demographics. Along with many small programs that we present throughout the year,
The Hartford Dance Collective curates the annual Hartford Dance Festival in Elizabeth Park with 25 performing groups, which is the largest free dance festival in Connecticut. Our studio space in Hartford, Connecticut, provides creatives with a home to hone in on their movement vocabulary and the opportunity for us to bring professional dancers to Hartford including dancers from Pilobolus, David Dorfman Dance, the Limon Company, the Radio City Rockettes, Doug Varone and Dancers, the Merce Cunningham Trust, and the Brooklynettes, to name a few. We hold the belief that everyone can dance and everyone should. Our professional and inspiring studio hosts open adult movement classes for the community featuring the Collective’s Resident Artists and Guest Instructors. A perfect place for a dancer to train, a former dancer to reignite their love for movement, or a member of the community looking to practice dance movement as a form of exercise, art, or meditation. Movement allows us to escape, which drives our commitment to curating experiences that allow for discovery and connection.

FREE EVENT | Wethersfield 250 Jubilee: Revolutionary War Encampment & Traditional Trades Fair
2026-05-23 10:00 - 16:00 | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
FREE EVENT| Wethersfield 250 Jubilee: Revolutionary War Encampment & Traditional Trades Fair
Saturday, May 23, 2026, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Join us for a free, family-friendly day that celebrates our Colonial heritage and the traditional trades that built America.
This year, our beloved Revolutionary War Encampment joins forces with the Traditional Trades Fair for a full day marking America’s 250th anniversary on the museum grounds. Watch the 5th Connecticut Regiment set up camp with musket demonstrations, a battle skirmish with invading British Marines, open hearth cooking, and a children’s march with wooden muskets. Listen to traditional Colonial music and speak with a camp surgeon about his gruesome profession. Try your hand at centuries-old games like graces, or eavesdrop on military maneuvers.
Alongside the encampment, skilled artisans demonstrate timber framing, weaving, carpentry, and historic restoration—the craftsmanship that built the nation and keeps our oldest buildings standing. Witness live preservation projects, try hands-on workshops, shop our vendor market for everything from tools to keepsakes, and discover centuries-old skills through family-friendly demonstrations, Colonial games, and activities. Whether you’re interested in history, restoration, or simply love beautiful craftsmanship, this immersive experience showcases the dedication and artistry behind preserving our architectural heritage.
Bring the whole family for hands-on workshops, Colonial games, food vendors, and a day spent surrounded by the sights, sounds, and skills of the founding era.
The free festivities will begin on the Museum grounds immediately following the Town of Wethersfield Memorial Day Parade.
Schedule*
All Day Scavenger Hunt | Start at Wethersfield Historical Society
Quiet Space | Rotary Room, Wethersfield Historical Society

Exhibitions

American Girlhood and Remember the Ladies | WDS Museum
Legendary People, Ordinary Lives | Wethersfield Historical Society
Crafts & Traditional Trades | Webb Barn

10:00 AM Ancient Burying Ground Tour | Meet by the First Church parking lot
10:30 AM Musket and Drill Demonstration

Declaration of Independence Reading | Steps of the Hurlbut-Dunham House

11:00 AM Children’s wooden musket drill
12:00 PM Midday nooning
12:45 PM People of the Revolution
1:00 PM Tours of Cove Warehouse [until 4:00 PM]
1:30 PM Soldiers Drill
2:00 PM Skirmish with Redcoats
2:30 PM Declaration of Independence Reading | Steps of the Hurlbut-Dunham House
4:00 PM Camp Closes
*Schedule and demonstrations subject to change.

Demonstrations throughout the day will include*:

Colonial music
Children’s colonial games
Surgeon’s table
Woodworking
Masonry
Textile weaving
Open hearth cooking and food
Flag displays and history programs
Weaving and sewing
Soldier’s tent and display of equipment
Colonial clothing and textiles
Life of a Privateer
Butter churning
Camp tours and information about the 5th Connecticut Regiment and its history

CONCERT | American Bluegrass & Square Dance
2026-06-05 18:00 - 20:30 | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
American Bluegrass & Square Dance
Purchase Tickets
Two American traditions, one summer evening. First, a seated concert with Audrey Mae—a Connecticut bluegrass quartet whose close harmonies and acoustic drive draw from the brother duet tradition. Then the floor opens up for a live-music square dance led by caller Liz Slade, who has been guiding first-timers through their first do-si-do for over forty years—no experience necessary.
Ani’s Table + Marketplace will be on-site with dinner, or pack a picnic and settle in on the grounds before the music starts. Whether you love to dance or prefer to appreciate exceptional musicianship, this lively evening combines outstanding entertainment with the charm of our historic setting.
Tickets $15 | Children under 12 free
Friday, June 5, 6:00-8:30 pm
Webb Barn, Wethersfield
Don’t worry if you’ve never square danced before—Liz will teach you everything you need to know. Join your neighbors for an evening that celebrates both our musical heritage and community spirit.

Audrey Mae | Audrey Mae is Peter Winne and Joe Delillo on close two-part harmony, with Joe Lemeris on banjo and Sam McDougle on fiddle and mandolin. A generation apart in age, Winne and Delillo draw from the great brother duet tradition—the Stanley Brothers, the Blue Sky Boys, the Everly Brothers—while sounding entirely like themselves. Named for Delillo’s mother, an Alabama belle, the band moves between high-octane drive and something quieter and more lonesome, sometimes within the same song.
Liz Slade | Caller, fiddler, and educator Liz Slade has spent more than four decades drawing people into community dance. Rooted in the old-time traditions of the Virginia and Carolina mountains and the contra dance world of New England, she’s known for her warmth, her clarity, and her ability to make beginners and seasoned dancers feel equally at home.

LECTURE | Roots & Rhythms (New Date TBD)
2026-06-28 11:30 - 12:30 | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
This event has been postponed. Contact rdumouchel@wdsmuseum.org to be notified when a new date is chosen.
Roots & Rhythms: A Garden Talk with Pete Winne Sunday, June 28 | 11:30 AM | Webb Barn
What does tending a garden have in common with playing a folk song? More than you might think. Join WDS head gardener Pete Winne for a one-of-a-kind presentation weaving together the art of horticulture and the art of musical expression—illustrated live with folk music. Part lecture, part performance, entirely unexpected.
Tickets: $15 | Children under 12 FREE
Offered in celebration of Connecticut Historic Gardens Day.
About Peter Winne | Hartford-based horticulturist Peter Winne designs and cares for gardens in public parks and on unique and historic residential properties in Connecticut and New York. He founded Peter Winne Gardens in 2021 after four years as Head Gardener at Elizabeth Park, home of the nation’s oldest public rose garden. Pete apprenticed under rosarian Stephen Scanniello, curator of the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at New York Botanical Garden, and has received additional mentoring from Michael Shoup of the Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham, Texas and Gregg Lowery of The Friends of Vintage Roses in Sebastopol, California. He holds a BA in Urban Planning from Vassar College, an MA from the Gallatin School at NYU, and a Landscape Design Certificate from Naugatuck Valley Community College. Prior to going into horticulture full-time, he performed in the US and Europe as a touring bluegrass musician. He currently lives in his hometown of Hartford where he still occasionally performs.

CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT | Musick's Recreation: At-Home Musick-Making in Colonial New England
2026-09-12 18:00 - 19:00 | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
PURCHASE TICKETS

CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT | Musick’s Recreation: At-Home Musick-Making in Colonial New England
Saturday, September 12, 6:00 PM-7:00 PM
Before recorded sound, music happened at home—played and sung by families, friends, and neighbors gathered in close quarters. This concert brings that tradition to our Waterman Room, overlooking the garden, with a performance by Lyracle, an acclaimed ensemble specializing in historically informed vocal and viol music, featuring mezzo-soprano Ashley Mulcahy and viola da gambist James Perretta.
Together they perform English songs and instrumental works that would have been familiar in colonial and early federal New England parlors, connecting local history to the sound of the era. It’s a rare chance to hear chamber music the way it was designed to be experienced: in a small, resonant room, with the performers close enough to feel the music.
Tickets: $25 | $18 Members

About the Performers
Ashley Mulcahy, mezzo-soprano, is a graduate of the Voxtet program at the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music and has performed with Bach Collegium Japan, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Newberry Consort, among others.
James Perretta, viola da gamba, is a Boston-based performer, arranger, and teacher who has appeared with the Boston Camerata and Nota Bene and twice participated in the Silkroad Ensemble’s Global Musicians Workshop.
Together, Mulcahy and Perretta founded the ensemble Lyracle in 2018.

CONCERT | American Jazz in the Barn
2026-09-25 18:00 - 19:30 | Webb Barn, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, 06109, United States
PURCHASE JAZZ TICKETS
American Jazz in the Barn
Friday, September 25, 6:00–7:30 PM
An intimate evening of live jazz in the Webb Barn, honoring the most distinctly American art form on a night made for close listening. American jazz built its language out of tension and release—call and response, a melody stated plainly and then taken apart. This September, join us for an evening of that language performed live: standards that shaped the tradition, and the improvisation that keeps redefining it.
Tickets: $25 | $18 Members

SPECIAL EVENT | Witches and Tombstones Spooktacular
2026-10-31 18:30 - 20:30 | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
Spooktacular Tickets

Member tickets on sale July 1-9. General Admission tickets go on sale July 10.
SPECIAL EVENT | Witches and Tombstones Spooktacular | Oct 31, 6:30 PM and 7:30 PM
Join us on a special Halloween night as we descend into the witching hour. Our Halloween Spooktacular is an immersive experience that will transport you through our haunted history.
A Spirit Guide – arisen for one night only – will escort you to the Isaac Stevens house where you will meet our weeping widow and discover the macabre funerary practices of the 19th century – an unfortunate regular occurrence for the Stevens family. As you follow your Spirit Guide, you will pass through the Ancient Burial Ground where they will delight you with tales of some of Wethersfield’s longest serving ghouls.
At the Buttolph-Williams House you will partake in the trial of an accused witch and witness first-hand the hysteria that overtook 17 th -century Connecticut Puritans and led neighbors to condemn neighbors to the hangman’s noose. Your final stop on this journey through haunted history is the Silas Deane House. Unfortunately, you will have arrived just a bit too late for poor Mrs. Deane, but her ghost may tell you of the dark history of 18 th -century medicine that sealed her fate. If you dare to linger, your obliging guide will invite you to toast her soul with a spirited drink in the old house. The only tour to be given after dark, this extended Witches and Tombstones tour will haunt you long after you’ve departed.
Tickets: Members: $50 | General Admission: $60
Tours: Saturday, October 31, 6:30 PM and 7:30 PM. Each tour is limited to 20 souls.
You must be 18 years or older to participate in this tour. Valid I.D. is required for all attendees.
Please note that this program lasts approximately 1.5 hours and requires the ability to walk some
distances over unpaved and uneven ground as well as standing for periods of time.
