Ecology, Cultural History, Geology<\/strong><\/h4>\n\u201cSight and Sound\u201d is the work of curator Richard Klein, himself a Connecticut-based artist, who brought the show to UConn with support from the Connecticut Sea Grant Arts Support Awards Program<\/a>. It\u2019s a project, he says, that was born in 2024 when he started to think about how other artists, specifically contemporary artists, considered the sound in their work.<\/p>\n![\"An](\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\")
“Eel Impressions IV” from artist James Prosek is part of \u201cSight and Sound: Artists Consider Long Island Sound,\u201d the latest exhibition at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art at UConn Avery Point. The show comes to UConn thanks to the Connecticut Sea Grant Arts Support Awards Program. (Kimberly Phillips\/UConn Today)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cI\u2019m drawn to projects where I\u2019m learning something, where it\u2019s something I don\u2019t know about,\u201d he said during a panel discussion at the show\u2019s opening reception this month. \u201cI\u2019ve lived most of my life along Long Island Sound. I\u2019ve swum in Long Island Sound. I\u2019ve boated in Long Island Sound, fished Long Island Sound – I never really thought about Long Island Sound.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the last two years, as he\u2019s talked with artists about how the body of water that empties into the Atlantic Ocean at the Rhode Island border has affected their work, he said he\u2019s learned about its ecology, how it\u2019s home to 120 species of fish and 1,200 kinds of invertebrates; its cultural history, how prior to the 19th century people on the shore used mostly boats to get from place to place; and its geology, how the watershed spans 16,820 square miles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no idea about the number of wrecks on the bottom of the sound,\u201d he said. \u201cMost of them are on the Connecticut side where the lighthouses are because of the fact it\u2019s rocky. \u2026 Everyone thinks this is a placid body of water, and it\u2019s incredibly treacherous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Artist Martha Willette Lewis, who with artist Marion Belanger has on display several archival pigment prints with hand marbling, said she\u2019s most fascinated by the marshes that sit just a bit inland and serve as a filtration system for the streams and rivers that eventually empty into the sound.<\/p>\n
She described during the discussion the canoe trips she takes to see the \u201chuge quantity of life in there\u201d and how marshes often are seen as worthless property, merely breeding grounds for insects and collection sites for garbage.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I love getting lost in there,\u201d she said, noting the abandoned bridges and roads she often comes across. \u201cIt\u2019s human history in there \u2026 and it\u2019s like this ever-changing labyrinth, so that to me is the most amazing part about the sound.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgan said the three pieces of his in the show depict a place that until two years ago he hadn\u2019t known much about: Little Liberia in Bridgeport, where in the 1800s thousands of African Americans lived in 10 square blocks of the city and made their living working on the water.<\/p>\n
His paintings \u201cLittle Liberia Triptych, Oyster Fleet Returning to Bridgeport Harbor,\u201d \u201cLittle Liberia Triptych, View of Bridgeport Harbor from Little Liberia,\u201d and \u201cLittle Liberia Triptych, Whaling Ship Atlantic Unloading at Wharves in Bridgeport Harbor\u201d imagine what the now redeveloped area might have once looked like.<\/p>\n
Much the same as Herman Melville\u2019s novel \u201cMoby-Dick\u201d features a diverse crew from many nations, so did real life aboard whaling and fishing vessels, Morgan said.<\/p>\n
For artist Francine Ashforth, the sound is a place where she practices close observation, yes, looking off into the distant horizon but also studying what\u2019s near one\u2019s feet.<\/p>\n
Her \u201cFour Rock Collection Drawings,\u201d a set of four pencil sketches of beach rocks, is a commentary, she said, on getting away from screens and other technology to spend time studying something up close.<\/p>\n
Her seascapes – what she referred to as her \u201cbig blue pieces\u201d – including \u201cEstuary,\u201d \u201cWide Water,\u201d and \u201cSurfline,\u201d monotypes in blue and white, are about \u201cawe and beauty and trying to be quiet in a world that\u2019s not quiet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Seeing Things Differently Through Art<\/strong><\/h4>\nSyma Ebbin, Connecticut Sea Grant\u2019s research coordinator who\u2019s also interim director of UConn\u2019s Maritime Studies Program and a professor-in-residence in the agricultural and resource economics department<\/a>, told the group gathered for the panel discussion that she conceived Sea Grant\u2019s art program about 15 years ago after visiting a Stonington-based artist and seeing how she used marine debris in her artwork \u2013 \u201chuman debris morphed upon by nature, so maybe a shoe with barnacles.\u201d<\/p>\n“Southwest Ledge Light” from artist Beth Stewart-Kelly is part of \u201cSight and Sound: Artists Consider Long Island Sound,\u201d the latest exhibition at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art at UConn Avery Point. The show comes to UConn thanks to the Connecticut Sea Grant Arts Support Awards Program. (Kimberly Phillips\/UConn Today)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAfter spending an afternoon learning about that artist\u2019s work, \u201cI realized when I went to the beach the next time that I did not look at that beach the same way, that there had been a transformation in me,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a person who can read a scientific journal [and] if I could have that [kind of] transformation, there\u2019s something super powerful about the ability of art to get us to see things differently and to think about things differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
She explained that she soon thereafter approached her colleagues at Connecticut Sea Grant<\/a> about the possibility of starting an arts grant program similar to the one Rhode Island Sea Grant operated, which funded that Stonington artist who had initially moved her.<\/p>\nBill Lucey, who sits on the Sea Grant Senior Advisory Board and who serves as soundkeeper for the nonprofit Save the Sound, told the group that as a biologist he most often looks at the sound in scientific ways – think, water temperature and habitat classification \u2013 so seeing an exhibition highlighting its artistry has had almost a \u201ccalming effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t care about a place \u2026 you\u2019re not going to spend any time defending it. You\u2019re not going to be attached to it, and \u2026 society\u2019s going to leave things behind, kind of what happened to Long Island Sound in the \u201970s. I mean, it was a mess,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018The sound has always tied us to the rest of the world\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sound-1-300x225.jpg\")
\u201cI\u2019m drawn to projects where I\u2019m learning something, where it\u2019s something I don\u2019t know about,\u201d he said during a panel discussion at the show\u2019s opening reception this month. \u201cI\u2019ve lived most of my life along Long Island Sound. I\u2019ve swum in Long Island Sound. I\u2019ve boated in Long Island Sound, fished Long Island Sound – I never really thought about Long Island Sound.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the last two years, as he\u2019s talked with artists about how the body of water that empties into the Atlantic Ocean at the Rhode Island border has affected their work, he said he\u2019s learned about its ecology, how it\u2019s home to 120 species of fish and 1,200 kinds of invertebrates; its cultural history, how prior to the 19th century people on the shore used mostly boats to get from place to place; and its geology, how the watershed spans 16,820 square miles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no idea about the number of wrecks on the bottom of the sound,\u201d he said. \u201cMost of them are on the Connecticut side where the lighthouses are because of the fact it\u2019s rocky. \u2026 Everyone thinks this is a placid body of water, and it\u2019s incredibly treacherous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Artist Martha Willette Lewis, who with artist Marion Belanger has on display several archival pigment prints with hand marbling, said she\u2019s most fascinated by the marshes that sit just a bit inland and serve as a filtration system for the streams and rivers that eventually empty into the sound.<\/p>\n
She described during the discussion the canoe trips she takes to see the \u201chuge quantity of life in there\u201d and how marshes often are seen as worthless property, merely breeding grounds for insects and collection sites for garbage.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I love getting lost in there,\u201d she said, noting the abandoned bridges and roads she often comes across. \u201cIt\u2019s human history in there \u2026 and it\u2019s like this ever-changing labyrinth, so that to me is the most amazing part about the sound.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgan said the three pieces of his in the show depict a place that until two years ago he hadn\u2019t known much about: Little Liberia in Bridgeport, where in the 1800s thousands of African Americans lived in 10 square blocks of the city and made their living working on the water.<\/p>\n
His paintings \u201cLittle Liberia Triptych, Oyster Fleet Returning to Bridgeport Harbor,\u201d \u201cLittle Liberia Triptych, View of Bridgeport Harbor from Little Liberia,\u201d and \u201cLittle Liberia Triptych, Whaling Ship Atlantic Unloading at Wharves in Bridgeport Harbor\u201d imagine what the now redeveloped area might have once looked like.<\/p>\n
Much the same as Herman Melville\u2019s novel \u201cMoby-Dick\u201d features a diverse crew from many nations, so did real life aboard whaling and fishing vessels, Morgan said.<\/p>\n
For artist Francine Ashforth, the sound is a place where she practices close observation, yes, looking off into the distant horizon but also studying what\u2019s near one\u2019s feet.<\/p>\n
Her \u201cFour Rock Collection Drawings,\u201d a set of four pencil sketches of beach rocks, is a commentary, she said, on getting away from screens and other technology to spend time studying something up close.<\/p>\n
Her seascapes – what she referred to as her \u201cbig blue pieces\u201d – including \u201cEstuary,\u201d \u201cWide Water,\u201d and \u201cSurfline,\u201d monotypes in blue and white, are about \u201cawe and beauty and trying to be quiet in a world that\u2019s not quiet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Seeing Things Differently Through Art<\/strong><\/h4>\nSyma Ebbin, Connecticut Sea Grant\u2019s research coordinator who\u2019s also interim director of UConn\u2019s Maritime Studies Program and a professor-in-residence in the agricultural and resource economics department<\/a>, told the group gathered for the panel discussion that she conceived Sea Grant\u2019s art program about 15 years ago after visiting a Stonington-based artist and seeing how she used marine debris in her artwork \u2013 \u201chuman debris morphed upon by nature, so maybe a shoe with barnacles.\u201d<\/p>\n“Southwest Ledge Light” from artist Beth Stewart-Kelly is part of \u201cSight and Sound: Artists Consider Long Island Sound,\u201d the latest exhibition at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art at UConn Avery Point. The show comes to UConn thanks to the Connecticut Sea Grant Arts Support Awards Program. (Kimberly Phillips\/UConn Today)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAfter spending an afternoon learning about that artist\u2019s work, \u201cI realized when I went to the beach the next time that I did not look at that beach the same way, that there had been a transformation in me,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a person who can read a scientific journal [and] if I could have that [kind of] transformation, there\u2019s something super powerful about the ability of art to get us to see things differently and to think about things differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
She explained that she soon thereafter approached her colleagues at Connecticut Sea Grant<\/a> about the possibility of starting an arts grant program similar to the one Rhode Island Sea Grant operated, which funded that Stonington artist who had initially moved her.<\/p>\nBill Lucey, who sits on the Sea Grant Senior Advisory Board and who serves as soundkeeper for the nonprofit Save the Sound, told the group that as a biologist he most often looks at the sound in scientific ways – think, water temperature and habitat classification \u2013 so seeing an exhibition highlighting its artistry has had almost a \u201ccalming effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t care about a place \u2026 you\u2019re not going to spend any time defending it. You\u2019re not going to be attached to it, and \u2026 society\u2019s going to leave things behind, kind of what happened to Long Island Sound in the \u201970s. I mean, it was a mess,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018The sound has always tied us to the rest of the world\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sound-8-300x225.jpg\")
After spending an afternoon learning about that artist\u2019s work, \u201cI realized when I went to the beach the next time that I did not look at that beach the same way, that there had been a transformation in me,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a person who can read a scientific journal [and] if I could have that [kind of] transformation, there\u2019s something super powerful about the ability of art to get us to see things differently and to think about things differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
She explained that she soon thereafter approached her colleagues at Connecticut Sea Grant<\/a> about the possibility of starting an arts grant program similar to the one Rhode Island Sea Grant operated, which funded that Stonington artist who had initially moved her.<\/p>\n Bill Lucey, who sits on the Sea Grant Senior Advisory Board and who serves as soundkeeper for the nonprofit Save the Sound, told the group that as a biologist he most often looks at the sound in scientific ways – think, water temperature and habitat classification \u2013 so seeing an exhibition highlighting its artistry has had almost a \u201ccalming effect.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t care about a place \u2026 you\u2019re not going to spend any time defending it. You\u2019re not going to be attached to it, and \u2026 society\u2019s going to leave things behind, kind of what happened to Long Island Sound in the \u201970s. I mean, it was a mess,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\u2018The sound has always tied us to the rest of the world\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sound-11-300x225.jpg\")