ArtsWestCT Celebrates Opening In West Haven

WEST HAVEN, CT — Officials celebrated the opening of ArtsWestCT with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its new office suite at 377 Main Street in West Haven.

After years of work, Elinor Slomba, president of ArtsWestCT and Nasiyra Clayton, founder of Umbrella Impact, have opened a home for artists in West Haven to collaborate and create.

ArtsWestCT’s mission is to center creative expression by and for the West Haven community. From there, the organization can support rotating exhibitions, an Artists Lending Library and the launch of monthly First Friday celebrations, interspersed with special events.

“If you are a creator with a vision, we’ll help you develop and realize it,” Slomba said as she addressed approximately 30 city and state officials and supporters assembled by the West Haven & Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce. “For the Artists Lending LIbrary, for instance, we have useful items like a professional PA system, a 10X10 vending tent, a set of wooden easels, and a slide projector for loan to creative people who may need them for an event or a presentation. These things that are not always easy to access but can make a huge difference to their success. Along with that, we offer technical assistance with event planning and promotion.

“These are humble beginnings, but we have a track record of delivering on what we say we’re going to do, like Make Music Day which was a partnership with the Early Childhood Council and enjoyed a great deal of momentum between its first and second year. Now we are partnering with West Haven Senior Center on an exhibition of watercolors at Ora Mason Library. Some of the seniors have been in painting classes for years and never had a show.”

Read more from the news release below:

For now, groups and artists who are interested in being part of ArtsWestCT’s consortium are encouraged to be in touch. Umbrella Impact provides scholarship incentives to children in grades 4-8 from low to moderate-income families and will have a glow-in-the-dark experience tent at Halloween on the Green. As an example of groups working together for mutual benefit, youth volunteers from Umbrella Impact will help serve refreshments at ArtsWestCT’s reception for the senior artists October 2nd at 5pm at the Ora Mason Library, and the public is invited to attend. Sounds Unlimited will be playing the seniors’ favorite music there, and will test a live streaming service for those who can’t make it out.

Creative entrepreneurs are arranging for coworking at a desk in the new office space and to deliver small-group workshops in the second room of the suite, which can hold up to 12. Offsite, meetings with cultural stakeholders like Breakwall and the Milford Arts Council are taking place. ArtsWestCT will present All Nations Day October 7th from 2-8pm at Music Back Then Performance Theater on Bull Hill Lane. A panel discussion on Accessibility in the Arts will take place November 14, co-presented with the West Haven Public Library. First Fridays will begin December 1, 2023.

Dabar Ratupenu, an ArtsWestCT Board member who is also a member of the First Congregational Church, the SCSU alumni choir and the Indonesian Association of Connecticut, was there to offer his support.

“With West Haven artists invited into more aspects of civic life and taking on leadership roles in the community,” Ratupenu said. “You’ll see more good things happening downtown and around the city.”

James Celestine of ADT Security, also on the Board, agreed.

“A cultural re-awakening is already taking place, but now it can accelerate,” he said.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony included remarks from Simon McDonald of the West Haven & Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Nancy Rossi, and First District Councilperson Bridgette Hoskie. Attendees included several other City Council and Board Members, State Representative Dorinda Borer, and leadership from Sounds Unlimited, LiveFree100, the Milford Arts Council, the West Haven Family Resource Council, and Bridgeport Library, plus artists and educators.