ANDI knows who’s playing Toad’s, what’s at the Shubert, where to get scorching barbecue ribs on Whalley Avenue — and you can keep him in your pocket to tell you.
ANDI, the brainchild of the Greater New Haven Arts Council, is a new iPhone app hitting the market Monday. The name is an acronym standing for “Arts, Nightlife & Dining Information.” It puts the local arts and culinary scene in your pocket.
ANDI features extensive listings for music, theater, art exhibitions and special events, compiled by the Arts Council. Dining listings come from the traveler-serving organization Visit New Haven. The app can be downloaded for free from Apple’s App Store here. (The Independent is the project’s media sponsor.)
Cindy Clair, executive director of the Greater New Haven Arts Council, developed ANDI as part of the Council’s mission to help find new and bigger audiences for New Haven’s arts scene.
As people increasingly rely on their phones as sources of information, Clair said, the Arts Council wanted to make sure that local events would have a mobile presence. To keep the local arts scene current and vibrant, she said, you have to give people easy access to information on what’s happening, where they are looking for it.
“ANDI,” said Clair, “is taking promotion of the arts to the mobile phone for the first time in this region.”
The entertainment listings on the app can be searched by date, genre, and venue. The dining listings can be searched by cuisine. For more details about an event or restaurant, ANDI links to the organization’s website and locates the venue on Google maps. You can call the venue with a touch to purchase tickets, or share the details of the event with a friend via email.
And in case you were wondering, Rohn Lawrence & Friends are playing Toad’s Monday night. “Live From 92nd St. Y” hits the Shubert Tuesday night. Mama Mary’s has the ribs at 372 Whalley.
And there’s a Democratic primary election going on in town Tuesday. But you’ll still need to read the Independent to learn all about that.