This Giving Tuesday help secure Ely Center’s Future

Dear Friends of the Ely Center of Contemporary Art,

As 2025 draws to a close, we find ourselves reflecting on a
transformative year at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art. A year of growth, firsts, and powerful community connection was made possible only through the dedication of artists, partners, and supporters like you. We hope you’ll add your year-end contribution to the special momentum we kicked off in Spring.
In April, for our 10th anniversary, we celebrated our first-ever benefit gala, generating new energy and new relationships. Inspired by metal and tin, we hosted workshops and an exhibition exploring material, memory, and resilience. This event not only strengthened our community ties, it helped us envision the next chapter of ECOCA.
We also deepened our connections throughout the city. Together, we:
• Partnered with Weird Music Night and other local musicians including those displaced from Volume 2/Never Ending Books to bring audio, performing and visual arts into dialogue.
• Collaborated with the New Haven Pride Center to uplift queer artists and celebrate community
• Partnered with Rebekah Fraser’s Trash to Fashion to spotlight Sustainability for Artists.
• Continued our support of Audubon Arts District by partnering with 63 Audubon’s inaugural exhibition.
• Joined NXTHVN, Yale, and Erector Square for Open Studios.

And while ECOCA has long been a home for contemporary art, this year, it literally became a home for love. We were honored to host a marriage proposal and even a small wedding in our last months at historic 51 Trumbull Street.
As we celebrate these memories, we face our most significant transition. After many amazing years at Trumbull street, ECOCA is moving.
To make that happen smoothly we need your support. Your generosity will carry ECOCA into its new home and support the artists and programs that shape our community. It will allow us to:
• Build out our new gallery space for our temporary location
• Continue to pay artists fairly with honoraria
• Sustain and strengthen our High School Summer Apprenticeship Program
• Continue the exhibitions, partnerships, workshops, and community programs that define ECOCA
ECOCA has always been defined by its people; your creativity, your curiosity, your belief in what art can do for a city. As we enter this next era, we invite you to help ensure it is one of possibility, equity, and continued artistic excellence.

We are thrilled to share that beginning in 2026, we will temporarily relocate to CitySeed’s space at 162 James Street, New Haven. February 1st, we will reopen with our Fall ’25 Keyhole Artists in Residence Exhibition, a powerful show that reflects the creativity and diversity at the heart of our mission.
But before turning the page, we invite you to join us in honoring our final chapter at 51 Trumbull. Our final exhibition in the space is on view through December 18th. We hope you’ll visit, reminisce, and celebrate this historic building that has held so many artists, ideas, and memories.
Your support has been critical in achieving our success. Now, we need your help to move forward into our future.

With warmth and gratitude,

The Ely Center of Contemporary Art

PS: Making your gift is easy online HERE

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M I S S I O N

The Ely Center of Contemporary Art’s mission is to present contemporary art exhibitions and events—challenging, conceptual, and provocative—that are inclusive, diverse and promote dialogue around global and community issues. Our work reaffirms Grace Ely’s testamentary wishes for an art center where artists, arts organizations, and the public assemble, exchange, learn, and engage through exhibitions, performances, and emerging contemporary practice

ECOCA receives support from the City of New Haven, Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, Connecticut Office of the Arts, Connecticut Humanities, New Alliance Foundation, Wells Fargo, Yale University, and Friends of the John Slade Ely House of Contemporary Art.