Arts Council Grooves Into 2nd Half-Century

“Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude,” sang the members of 60s Satisfaction, their bodies a blur of tie-dye from the stage.

Behind them, the sky had turned to an unbroken, low stretch of silk blue; in front, couples had gathered to dance with abandon, some reliving their teenage years while others experienced the sixties for the first time.

A few attendees trickled into a nearby portal to the past, transported back to the mid-20th Century as they ducked under a doorway that led to Wonderland, and straight down memory lane. 

Something everyone could agree on? Things were getting very groovy, very fast.

That’s because Saturday evening marked the Arts Council of Greater New Haven’s 50th birthday party, a fundraiser themed around the organization’s founding in the decade of turning on, tuning in and dropping out. Basking in the late afternoon sun, Arts Council supporters past and present gathered on Audubon Street to celebrate not only the organization’s last 50 years, but also its next.

“Our dream [in 1964] was that we would become sort of a living room for Audubon Street. That we would have a space where … we would be doing a service for everybody,” former Director Frances T. ​“Bitsie” Clark had explained in a video (above) leading up to the event. Calling the party-cum-fundraiser ​“wonderful” Saturday night, she arrived decked out in a retro creamy yellow suit and cameo brooch, laughing as she caught up with friends and old colleagues.

Clark (pictured) wasn’t the only one fêting the Council’s involvement in the city. Looking onto a street flush with violet-and-green sidewalk chalk designs from Audubon Arts on the Edge, Yale’s Deputy Chief Communications Officer and former Arts Council Board Member Mike Morand recollected the meaning that the Arts Council has had during his time in New Haven. 

“More than an anchor, it’s a coordinator and catalyst [for the community]. We are in this incredible era of arts and cultural activities and events and expression in New Haven — certainly the biggest it’s ever been. We have this incredible constellation of events, organizations, activities and venues, and the Arts Council plays a really important role in taking that constellation and making it a community,” he shared.

Around him, members of the local arts scene emerged from the woodwork, each sharing stories of cultural growth in New Haven — and comparing fashions, as those reminiscing are wont to do — as the old and new of the New Haven’s cultural and culinary scene meshed around them.

As for the absence of recreational drugs? Not needed, thanks to some decade-spanning entertainment that has helped, in current Director Cindy Clair’s estimation, make the Arts Council the neighborhood resource that it is. There was 60s Satisfaction, playing hits like ​“Build Me Up Buttercup” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” to keep the crowd dancing for almost two hours straight …

… and Ordinary’s Tim Cabral, slipping historical tidbits in between thrusts of his chrome cocktail shaker as he mixed Whiskey Sours and Tom Collins.

“So many people have been coming up tonight, saying, ​‘Oh my god, I was drinking this as a kid … I was 14, 15 years old drinking these with my parents.’ I went back into the history and saw what people were doing,” he said.

… Da Legna’s wood-oven pizza truck, whose tenuous link to the sixties was overlooked in many a cheesy, gooey high … 

Ron Paolillo of Erector Square Brewing Collective, serving cups of dark porter and summery IPA …

… and the highlight of the night, a ​‘60s-themed pop-up pod with a record collection, early color television, period Polaroids, costume booth, and psychedelically decorated bubble room.

“We’re feeling good. We had a great party, and a good time,” said Clair at the end of the night. ​“We have a huge legacy to live up to. The organization’s done some amazing things in the last fifty years, and I feel a great responsibility and pleasure to think about the next ones.”

To find out more about the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, check out its website.