The 75-foot-long brontosaurus in the newly reopened Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven, Conn., is the same dinosaur that the natural history museum has exhibited since 1931. But it looks different. A fresh pose. New front rib. The head is repositioned at a more inquisitive angle. The museum’s four-year renovation not only refreshed the nearly 100-year-old building, but also included an overhaul of fossil mounts that research has proven inaccurate.
The Peabody’s update — 15,000 square feet added, creating more spacious galleries and dynamic displays — has been a long time coming. Like other Yale museums, it’s now free, offers more Spanish-language programming, and invites more voices into the conversation, with some exhibits interpreted by students and artist, opening a lens to how visitors might respond to what they see.
“We want to signal that there is not only one way to respond and interpret what you see,” said the museum’s director, David Skelly.
The concept of change running through Peabody’s 19 galleries is emblematic of what is happening elsewhere in the city. Over the centuries, New Haven has had chapters dedicated to maritime trade, railroads, manufacturing industry and — as the home of Yale University and other institutions of higher learning — education and conservation. health.
Now, New Haven — which is among The Times’ 52 Places to Go in 2023 — is going through a chapter driven by creativity and ingenuity. While Yale continues to give New Haven a certain gravitas, the surrounding city presents its own cultural capital in the realms of art, food, music and more.
Open studios, open mics
Yale’s museums have long stolen the spotlight, but there are new institutions tapping into the energy. In the largely Black and brown Dixwell district northwest of campus, Titus Kaphar, a resident and 2006 graduate of the Yale School of Art, and Jason Price, a private equity manager, founded NXTHVN. Founded to mentor underrepresented artists and curators, the organization focuses on community building and a fellowship program.
Two low-slung brick buildings, former manufacturing plants, house artist studios, co-working spaces and a place for exhibitions, like the current “For a Shadow to Resound,” curated by two NXTHVN fellows. Other events bring in local talent, like a recent open mic with New Haven’s own poet, Sharmont “Influence” Little.
The community vibe also reverberates throughout town. Erector Square — a group of eight buildings that were once factories that made Erector sets and other toys — is filled with 175 studios for artists, designers, musicians and other creatives who staged an ambitious open-studio weekend in fall and smaller events. throughout the year.
Talks, tours, workshops and gatherings are also part of the Ely Center of Contemporary Artmixed with The public gallery hosts six solo and group exhibitions annually, with much of the talent found through open calls to artists to share their work, such as last winter’s “Revival: A Spiritual Journey ” from Guyanese-born artist Stanwyck Cromwell.
Presenting New Haven as an arts hub is the goal of International Festival of Arts and Ideas. The annual festival brings together artists, along with musicians, chefs, storytellers and other creators and thinkers, every June. While headliners like Jon Secada, Dolores Huerta and, this year, Stokley Williams take over the green in the middle of town, local acts perform in six neighborhoods, representing the city’s diverse cultural heritage.
New Haven is “a city of creative entrepreneurs, said Shelly Quiala, the festival’s executive director. “People want to do things here.”
Back on campus, at Yale University Art Gallery, recent acquisitions feature more modern themes than most of the gallery’s impressive collections, which include ancient Southeast Asian gold and textiles, Greek and Roman mosaics and sculpture, and mid-19th-century century European painting. Collages, such as “Nourishing a Nation,“ by G. Kaphar, and David Wojnarowicz’s “Untitled (One Day This Kid)“ tackle racism and homophobia in beautiful, albeit haunting, style.
The art gallery is also currently displaying 25 paintings from its neighbor across the street. The Yale Center for British Arthoused inside a Louis I. Kahn landmark, is closed until next spring while it restores parts of the building, including the 224 domed plexiglass skylights.
Big names and cozy places
Connecticut’s theater contributions are largely unknown — unless you know. The Yale Repertory Theater, known as Rep, counts Meryl Streep, Lupita Nyong’o, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Paul Giamatti among its alumni. Over the years, the 58-year-old theater, housed in a 19th-century Baptist church, has produced more than 100 premieres by playwrights such as August Wilson and Caryl Churchill.
Long Wharf Theatre has its own legacy of plays and world premieres, with more than 30 productions coming to New York. Two years ago, it gave up its longtime home at the New Haven Food Terminal and now travels, staging productions in spaces that enhance their themes. Last year, the one-woman production of Joan Didion’s “The Year of Mystical Thinking” have been held in various homes and spaces, and last winter, Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge” debuted at the Canal Dock Boathouse in the city’s harbor.
Before any of these places existed, the Shubert Theatre is the place for Broadway-bound shows. It closed between 1976 and 1983, a time when the city struggled with a shrinking population and rising crime, but it now features a full rotation of live performances, including New Haven Ballet.
On the music front, New Haven is always a great place to catch a show. U2, the Rolling Stones, Ziggy Marley and other famous bands have taken the stage Frog Placelending legitimacy to the 47-year-old club’s tagline, “Where the legends play!”
College Street Music Hall 2,000-person downtown venue; The Westville Music Bowl, on Yale’s athletics campus, opens an outdoor option in the warmer months; and smaller acts — including jazz, funk and rockabilly — fill spots like Cafe Nine and to Jazzyboth in the majestic Ninth Square neighborhood.
So. many. Food.
As delicious and well-deserved as New Haven’s famous pizza (a thin, coal-fired style known as “apizza”) is, there’s much more to the dining scene.
The city’s waterfront location means seafood is served with a view. Shell and Bones, in City Point, where the oystering industry flourished, is a must-see. The enormous dining room with its magnificent harbor and sunset views is the perfect perch for sipping martinis over a platter of Rhode Island Ninigret oysters or swordfish served Milanese style.
Less famous but no less delicious is award-winning chef Emily Mingrone Fair Haven Oyster House Co. A 28-seat piece of joy on the Quinnipiac River, it makes good use of its waterfront deck for extra seating and also rolls in a food truck from May through October to serve up lobster rolls and foot-high hot dogs from nearby . Hummel Bros. Showing the same flair he does at his East Rock restaurant, State Tavernevery dish, from baby butter lettuces with fried oysters to jerk shrimp with braised flageolet beans, is elegant yet unpretentious.
There are also exceptional cafes. Pistachiowith two locations founded by Syrian artist Mohamad Hafez (whose sculpture is at Peabody), infuses Middle Eastern flavors into its teas, pastries and brunch items, as well as Havenly, run by immigrant and refugee women. Atticusinside a bustling bookshop on Chapel Street, and Poppiesat East Rock, serving quality soups, sandwiches and salads. G Cafe mixes great European breads and pastries.
Outdoor adventures
It’s easy to overlook New Haven’s outdoor outlets — but it’s a shame if you do. East Rock has a 425-acre namesake park with 10 miles of trails and a 350-foot summit for epic views of the city and Long Island Sound. throughout the town, West Rock Ridge State Park extending from the family-friendly neighborhood of Westville northward for six miles. It is defined by its massive trap rock ridge and is one of the most ecologically diverse areas in Connecticut, with 230 species of birds and unusual plants such as jack-in-the-pulpit and American bladdernut.
The Canal Dock Boathouse debuted on Long Wharf six years ago. Built in homage to Yale’s original 1911 boathouse, it’s an elegant structure with a passionate mission: to connect residents, especially young people, to the harbor. Opportunities to row and kayak and do yoga on the outdoor platform are available to both members and non-members, making the boathouse perhaps the best example of what New Haven is doing right: inclusion -together with the old and the new, inside and outside, in a perspective that benefits. all.
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