Five Reasons to Love La Grua

Head toward the tip of Stonington Borough, and you’ll find La Grua Center, a nonprofit cultural center tucked discreetly into a residential condominium community. It’s a unique venue — a beautiful stone structure showcasing artists, musicians, and lecturers, with affordable ticket pricing and topics that appeal to a broad audience. La Grua Center also offers yoga, fitness and African dance and drumming classes, and summer and holiday youth art workshops for younger audiences.

While there are many reasons to love La Grua, we think there are five in particular that make it a tremendous asset to our magical little village. We hope you’ll check out their calendar to see for yourself!

String Lab

Carol Gimbel and Cullen Bryant

1 - SOUND

With great acoustics, La Grua Center is a fantastic place to hear music — classical, Baroque, chamber, bluegrass, Irish, Swedish, Bulgarian, jazz, African, as well as local singer/songwriters. They even host an early music concert each year, featuring Zuckermann Harpsichord, the world-renowned harpsichord factory less than a mile away. 

Sabina Streeter

Marija McCarthy, Doug Rice, and Sky Hoyt

2 - Art

Every two months, La Grua Center refreshes the walls with engaging and thought-provoking art. A diverse range of exhibits have included watercolors, oils, mixed media, photography, historical WWI letters and photos, old village merchant signs, tapestries, fiber art, graphite, giclée, and small sculptures. It’s the home of the Annual Stonington Artists Show and Celebrating Art in Autism.

Connecticut Gilbert & Sullivan Society

Paul Muldoon

3 - Laughs

While many speakers talk about serious topics and musicians play serious music, others are lighthearted and funny. Audiences have laughed at the brilliant, wry whimsy in the poems of Paul Muldoon, tongue-twisting songs from Connecticut Gilbert & Sullivan Society, a saucy comic duet between soprano Sonja Tengblad and contralto Emily Marvosh, tales of animal antics from Broadway dog wrangler Bill Berloni (and his four-legged friends), and the frantic piano accompaniment played by Jeff Barnhart to the silent films of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.

Maria Giese

Bill McCoy, inspiration for The Real McCoy Rum

4 - Knowledge

With topics as diverse as Todd Bausch climbing the highest peak in Antarctica, Manju Soni growing up under apartheid in South Africa, Bailey Pryor launching The Real McCoy Rum (with samples), Maria Giese fighting gender issues in Hollywood, Tom Verde’s tragic personal loss after the 1938 hurricane, and the spiritual life of animals with Elena Mannes, there’s always something interesting to learn and discover.

5 - Location

We are so fortunate that La Grua Center is right here in Stonington Borough. It’s tucked into a residential condominium community at 32 Water Street, but it’s a public space with free parking.

See La Grua’s full calendar HERE, but save the date for these special events:
Celebrating Art in Autism — Opens Friday, April 10
Annual Stonington Artists Show — Opens Friday, July 10
Annual Stonington Sounds Summer Music Festival (free) — Saturday, June 20
Annual holiday arts and crafts show — Saturday, November 21

La Grua is available for meetings, fundraisers, family gatherings, memorial services, and weddings. For more information, visit LaGruaCenter.org.