Music starts at 7:00 pm.

Weston Olencki
- on tour in lieu of their Broadsides LP release

Formant
- bagpipes and sirens

Maggie Schnyer
- generative sound and synthesis

New Haven Night Market

Friday, October 10

Tie-Dye Station at the New Haven Pride Center

The Tie-Dye Station is back by popular demand at the Pride Center, led by both Pride Center & Ely Center creative volunteers! Purchase a $12 white Night Market logo tee to dye or BYO dye-able fabric item!

Purchase a pre-ordered shirt HERE or purchase one day-of (while supplies last), pick it up at the Merch Tent, then visit the Tie-Dye Station where you can make your shirt as bold, wild, and weird as you want it to be.

While you’re at the Pride Center, ask about their programming and how to get involved with volunteering, donations, support groups, & so much more!
Also check out the Ely Center for info on their existing and upcoming events & activations!

Join us for a Dérive Walk w/ artist Monika Lin for Translating From the Edges

Join us Sept 28 for our Second Annual Photobook Fair!

Join us for a day of conversation with photographers!

12pm- Corinne Botz in conversation with Chandra Kelsey

• David Ottenstien & Robert Lisak, 1pm

• 2pm - Joy Bush in conversation with Stephen Vincent Kobasa

• 30 min break with refreshments

• 3:30 pm- Ninja Nay

• 4:30 pm- Olivia Reavey

Sept 26, 7pm Chanelle Allesandre Cassette Release Party

• Midnight Clover Group will be bringing his synth tatting from PVD.

• Phantomime will be miming her way into our hearts from NYC

• Lead Mask will be masking us with their metal from NHV.

• Gutted Inquisitions will be veiling us & unveiling us with her grave grace from NHV.

• Secret Boyfriend will be crooning to us in his lunar language of balsam from NC.

• Chanelle Allesandre will be retexturing all the pieces featured on her side of the cassette + also sussing with a secret one close to her heart.

Gutted Inquisitions presents another wonderful show!

Join us for a thrilling and otherworldly night of sound & sight!!
Tuesday, Sept 16 at 6PM
$10 suggested donation

Featuring the sounds of: Buck Gooter, VALISE, 1-800-HOT-DUCK, Katy Mongeau, Revenge Body, Softwalls, THE//MOON

Join us for the opening reception of Conceptual Romance, a group exhibition drawn from more than 600 submissions to its annual open call invitation to artists.  The Guest Curator is Jared Quinton, Emily Hall Tremaine Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT.

Exhibition Dates: September 14 - November 2, 2025. Learn more here.

There will be a curatorial walk through at 2pm. This event is free and open to all.
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Opening Reception Sunday, September 14, 1-3pm

Please join us for the opening reception of Translation From the Edges, an exhibition of artist books, curated by Maria Markham. Featuring the works of Geoffrey Detrani, Les Finn, Heide Hatry, Bill Healy, Elena Kalkova, Ben Kue, Sonja Langford, Monika Lin, Mark Mulroney, Hafsa Nouman, Kate Quarfordt, Samantha Simpson and also featuring a community book project by Kristin Eno

Weird Music Night returns Thursday September 11, 7 pm. THIS WILL BE THE LAST WEIRD MUSIC NIGHT of 2025! It will return in 2026!!!!

Come experience what the New Haven Independent calls “ Weird, Wacky, and Wildly Entertaining”. FREE and open to all!

This Summer the Ely Center of Contemporary Art welcomes the opening of the inaugural Archive of Memory, curated by Yale President’s Public Service Fellow Kristin B. Eno, Ed.M., YDS M.A.R. (‘26). This multimedia installation will inhabit an upper room of the historic gallery, revealing archival remnants projected into the space. The room will function as a venue for questions, stories and reimagining of local, familial and community ways of knowing, and will center the wisdom of elders and poetic voice of young children. The space will house a library of memories including vintage books that open up conversations about past stories, as well as original books created by gallery participants of all ages who have responded to the multilayered provocations within. The Archive of Memory at the Ely Center will thus center the wisdom of elders and the poetic voice of young children through a library including both antique and handmade original books.

On August 17 from 1-3p and August 24 from 1-3p, the New Haven community is invited to engage with the space through response to visual provocations about historic churches and schools, and to participate in bookmaking and sharing of oral histories. 

On Thursday August 17, from 5 - 7p, participants of all ages are invited both to bring in materials of their own, and to choose a range of materials from the newly-curated selection at Ely Center’s Materials Kitchen. Artists will work in community to fabricate miniature nomadic dwellings, considering the provocation of many of the works on display in Body’s First Architecture, and the promise of the nomadic dwelling as a safe space within our currently polarized political and social climate. As the curators write,

Many ancient societies, including the Greek, Roman and Mesopotamian, focused on the metaphor of weaving (the essential structure of warp and weft), as symbols of bringing together opposing points of view during civil strife. Ritual garments, such as cloaks, veils and overcoats, were often made as offerings to divinites during war time and transitions of power, and physically placed on the statue of the divinity. It comes as no surprise then, that during our currently polarized political and social climate, textiles have taken central stage in contemporary art. Body’s First Architecture explores the different approaches taken by artists to investigate the soft power and hopefulness that using fabric in art offers today.

Working in miniature will offer participants a new vantage point from which to view the earth and its inhabitants. By fabricating worlds in textiles and observing life as it is seen from tiny spaces, artists will deepen their understanding of worlds as yet unseen. This is second in a series after MENDING MEMORY on August 3.

This Summer the Ely Center of Contemporary Art welcomes the opening of the inaugural Archive of Memory, curated by Yale President’s Public Service Fellow Kristin B. Eno, Ed.M., YDS M.A.R. (‘26). This multimedia installation will inhabit an upper room of the historic gallery, revealing archival remnants projected into the space. The room will function as a venue for questions, stories and reimagining of local, familial and community ways of knowing, and will center the wisdom of elders and poetic voice of young children. The space will house a library of memories including vintage books that open up conversations about past stories, as well as original books created by gallery participants of all ages who have responded to the multilayered provocations within. The Archive of Memory at the Ely Center will thus center the wisdom of elders and the poetic voice of young children through a library including both antique and handmade original books.

On August 17 from 1-3p and August 24 from 1-3p, the New Haven community is invited to engage with the space through response to visual provocations about historic churches and schools, and to participate in bookmaking and sharing of oral histories. 

Mending Memory:  Sunday Aug 3, 1-3p 

The current group show at Ely Center curated by Leeza Meksin and Tamar Ettun considers the primary and fundamental nature of textiles as the body's first dwelling. The exhibition premise stems from Ann Hamilton’s interview in which she states:
Textiles are the body's first house, the body's first architecture.” This statement alludes both to textile’s relationship to the domestic as well as to the nomadic. There is something about the nature of textile that lends itself to travel — it can be packed small, transported relatively easily, made with modest resources while growing expansive and commanding space. 

In two intergenerational workshops that connect to the diverse work on display within Body's First Architecture, Ely Center of Contemporary Art will debut its upstairs Materials Kitchen as a trading post for nomadic makers. The Ely Center’s Summer Yale President’s Public Service Fellow Kristin B. Eno welcomes the New Haven community to explore materials and methods of mending memory and making nomadic dwellings. Makers of all ages are invited to select from Ely’s newly-curated mini materials center, modeled after REMIDA in Reggio Emilia and the Teaching Beyond the Square Materials Center in NYC, which also serves as an active offsite partner to CT’s own Ecoworks.  

On Sunday August 3 from 1-3p, participants are invited to bring in articles of clothing or various other fabric-made objects in need of mending.  Artists will connect fibers from their own possessions in response to the provocation of “mending memory,” utilizing fabric, yarn, ribbon, thread and filament to connect broken threads.  As the curators of Body’s First Architecture write,
Working in this way now offers a surprisingly new (yet ancient) approach to engaging with our world’s problems. The work of mending textile and sewing pieces together, literally and figuratively creates connection and interconnectedness rather than tearing things apart.  Meanwhile, the softness and malleability of fabric stands in contrast to the rigid, unyielding geometry of our dwellings, helping us find a way to heal through touch, playfulness, color and the hand-made.

This workshop is free and open to the public. Families are encouraged to bring all ages, and to spend time choosing diverse materials and experimenting with various techniques of sewing, embroidery, weaving and braiding, and to work together to layer various colors and textures of repair, support and beauty.

The second workshop in this series, MINIATURE NOMADIC DWELLINGS, will happen at the Ely Center on Thursday August 21 from 5-7pm.

Paper Making Workshop w/ local illustrator Olivia Lynn
Sunday July 20, 1-3pm

Join us for this free, outdoor paper making workshop- an all ages drop in event! Get to learn Olivia’s process and make your own paper!

Join us for an evening of boundary-pushing performance and experimental sound!

WEIRD MUSIC NIGHT!
Thursday JULY 17, 7pm

Featuring the sounds of:
Alessandro Maione (of Strega Dada)
Soft Walls (Allie from FaFa's solo goth project)
Dreamer Dreamt
Dave Scanlon from Field Guides
and Parlay Droner

guest curated by Sam of Sans Serif Recording

This event is free and open to all.

Please join us for the opening reception of the culminating exhibition of the three most recent artists in our Keyhole Residency: Isaac Canady, Cynthia Celone and Jean-Pierre Solis-Sanchez. We will celebrate on Sunday July 13 from 1-3pm, and the show will run through August 10.

Exhibition Opening June 29, 1 - 3pm

Ely Center will host an exhibition of Anatar Gagné’s documentation of her mourning process after her husband died unexpectedly a year ago. The show will be in the Flat File Room.

WEIRD MUSIC NIGHT!

Thursday, June 12, 7pm!

Featuring the sounds of:
EZRA KUPFERBERG & PETER FULOP
TERRIFYING PINK THING
SKULL TOWER 4E
EDDIE PETROL
KYLE GRIMM
OILY BOIS

Join artists Kasey Ramirez and Adriana Hernandez Bergstrom for an introduction to dry point printmaking! Ask Kasey questions about her process and see her current exhibition in our flat file gallery!

Free and open to all
Materials provided

This May 8th, come Meet the NEW emcee of Weird Music Night, A. I. Pacino! Will Pervert Savant ever be back to host? We’re not sure, but any persona of John O’Donnell is a friend of ours!

Featuring the sounds of:

Jayden Barber – An experimental sound artist, composer, and award-winning filmmaker from Providence, Barber conjures immersive walls of sound from tape loops, analog drones, and decaying media. His live sets evoke the spectral beauty of cathedrals while dragging audiences through cleansing distortion and cinematic collapse.

The Broken Robots – For over fifteen years, The Broken Robots have turned chaos into communion. Led by vocalist and performance artist Jack Daniel, their fully improvised performances channel the sacred and the absurd—think punk jazz meets séance, filtered through Waits, Zappa, Talking Heads, and the Buddha.

The Regal Drug – Dreamy distortion meets lo-fi euphoria. The Regal Drug crafts emotional, genre-defying soundscapes with an analog heart and a poetic punch. Their performances are haunted lullabies for a glamorous apocalypse.

A.I. Pacino – A satirical performance persona by artist John O’Donnell, A.I. Pacino is a mobster-masked android who raps over "Terminator-type beats" while channeling the absurdity of simulation culture. Inspired by the Max Headroom signal hack, vintage crime cinema, and the slippery terrain of digital identity, A.I. Pacino flickers between parody and prophecy in a performance you’ll never forget (even if you wish you could).

Join us May 5, 7:30pm for a night of artistic sounds curated by Chanelle Allessandre

Featuring the sounds of:

Bentley Anderson 

Alex Zhang Hungtai

Rear Window : @fcknrx  @h_s_f_b  @zach___rowden

Jill Shea

Opening reception of new exhibitions: Old in Art School and others!
Old in Art School, a vibrant and thought-provoking exhibition inspired by the acclaimed memoir of the same name by historian and artist Nell Painter—who will also exhibit her own work in the show. Old in Art School invites viewers to reflect on themes of identity, transformation, and the audacious decision to follow creative passions at any stage of life.
May 4- Special Event: Last Artist Standing Book Launch & Panel Discussion to kick off the exhibition, the Ely Center will host the first stop of Sharon Louden’s national book tour for Last Artist Standing, releasing April 25, 2025. A passionate advocate for sustaining creative careers, Louden will moderate a panel discussion featuring artists from both the exhibition and the book,alongside emerging voices. The panel will explore the realities of maintaining an artistic practice over time—highlighting perseverance, reinvention, and community.