If you haven’t been able to visit the ”Audacious Women” exhibit on display now at the Westport Center for the Arts, here is a great opportunity. A local singer will perform “songs from audacious female artists” at the closing ceremony on Dec. 14 from 2-4 p.m. And there will be wassail and desserts to celebrate the holiday season.

For the Audacious Women art show, Gloria Heifner created a series of paintings that include portraits and quotes from women she thinks deserve to be discovered, including Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth, as well as Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinham, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

“An audacious woman is someone who will stand up and fight to be recognized as a human in her own right,” Heifner says. “She is a woman who says, these are my rights, whether they’re in the constitution or not. As a human, I have these rights, and I’m going to live my life based on these rights I have as a human being.”

As the show closes, Westport Center for the Arts invites you to a closing holiday-themed happy hour – with wassail and cookies – featuring local musician Cassie Writz. Writz has recently returned to music. After performing in high school and college, she got busy with life until she dug out her guitar during the Covid shutdown. She is again performing in backyards and parking lots for friends and open mics for anyone who will listen.

At the reception, she’ll pull from her eclectic repertoire, including songs from audacious female artists like Lucinda Williams, Elle King and Brandi Carlile, and classic and alt country with a little pop and punk thrown in.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a woman over fifty, life is too short not to do what you love. You don’t have to be a virtuoso, just put yourself out there and enjoy yourself.”