ArtSpace’s City-Wide Open Studios Brings Students, New Haven Art Community Together

A month-long event that draws thousands of visitors and more than 400 artists to the Greater New Haven area each year, ArtSpace’s City-Wide Open Studios enables artists to share their work with the community. For the second year, the University of New Haven’s Department of Communication, Film, and Media Studies, under the guidance of adjunct faculty Nicki Chavoya, has partnered with the event to interview participating artists, explore the New Haven art scene, and exhibit students’ works.

November 22, 2019

By Serena Piervincenzi ’22

Similar to a craft show, each participating artist at the recent ArtSpace’s City-Wide Open Studios (CWOS) hosts their own room or table. Those sharing their work range from well-established career artists to those who make their art purely out of enjoyment or as a hobby. The artists are not organized in any particular way, as individuals who have never sold a print before are right next to those who make a living by being an artist.

Each artist has their own room covered with art prints, sculptures, music, and colorful fabrics. The energy in the building is tangible. Every artist is equally proud of their work and intrigued by the work of those around them.

In room 357, the University of New Haven’s film department displayed students’ works. As visitors made their way from artist to artist, they could watch old student films or observe the process as our students work to film a music video with Ken Fabian ’21, a music and sound recording major at the University of New Haven.

There really is no common theme among the artists at CWOS. They range from the raw, political prints of Margaret Roleke, who is documenting the humanitarian crisis at the border, to an artist’s collaboration with the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History that shows different stages of an organism’s evolution through hand-stitched tapestries.

The purpose of CWOS is to be a place in which artists can display their work and make connections among fellow artists. For communication and art students, CWOS is an amazing way for us to not only network, but to see the many different ways our chosen career paths may take us.