June 20, 2022

It is our great pleasure to announce the Ely Center of Contemporary Art (ECOCA) has completed the purchase of the John Slade Ely House at 51 Trumbull Street in New Haven, Connecticut.

The 10,000 sq. foot 1901 Elizabethan home, located at the gateway to Yale University, steps from I-95, has served as an important cultural center for the New Haven area since 1964. For the past six years, it has seen a resurgence of free, lively and dynamic programming that brings New Haven’s diverse community together, led by a group of artist volunteers working in partnership with ACES/Educational Center for the Arts. However, the site’s fate became uncertain after ACES put the building up for sale earlier this year. 

This investment exemplifies ECOCA’s ongoing commitment to create partnerships that strengthen the fabric of New Haven’s arts and culture community. It can now deepen its roots and enlarge its role as a catalyst offering contemporary perspectives and interdisciplinary collisions of issues, ideas, and inventions for artists and their audiences. 

To usher in this next era of the John Slade Ely House and ECOCA, and to help raise funds for ongoing operations and programs, a community celebration – free and open to the public – is planned for October 2.

This purchase was made possible with the generous support of two local business people, Carmine and Vinny Capasso, who have a long history of ties to New Haven. Their business, GL Capasso, Inc., is a family-owned-and-operated structural restoration company, with three generations having spent more than 40 years building it into one of the Northeast’s leading exterior structural restoration companies. Over the past three months, both Carmine and Vinny worked closely with the Board of ECOCA to put this deal together and make some additional commitments to building and roof repairs. These improvements will take place over the next 12 months.

More information about Capasso Inc.