Westville

Paradise Lost — For Now

by | Mar 17, 2016 4:14 pm | Comments (3)

Markeshia Ricks Photo

Boyarksy (at right below) failed to win approval — yet — for his mulching operation (above).

Allan Appel Photo

One frail 77-year-old neighbor said he hasn’t been able to open his windows in three years. Another, with asthma, said she loves her home on Blake Street but may be forced to leave.

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Humans May Make Comeback

by | Mar 14, 2016 12:03 pm | Comments (2)

Artist Photo

“Tomlinson Bridge.”

For more than a decade David Ottenstein has been looping around the Midwest and the South before returning home to New Haven. Everywhere he makes disturbingly beautiful photographs of broken buildings, abandoned industrial sites, savaged farm land, the undersides of overpasses, real bridges or piers that seem like moody stage sets left behind after an evacuation, and other de-peopled landscapes of abandonment, where the human touch is felt primarily by its neglect or absence.

Now the human beings are about to make a comeback.

Artist Photo

“Tomlinson Bridge.”

Allan Appel Photo

But for now broken landscapes reign at David Ottenstein’s new show.

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Alders OK “DISTRICT” Deal, Cycle Corridor

by | Mar 8, 2016 8:24 am | Comments (9)

Markeshia Ricks Photo

James Street developersSalinas and O’Brien, at right, with East Rock Alder Jessica Holmes and City Hall’s Matt Smith Monday night.

The Board of Alders gave final approval to a deal to transform the defunct CT Transit bus garage on James Street, and it gave the OK for the city to accept a $1.2 million grant to advance bike ridership on the west side of town.

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Westville Village Gets Java, Artist Infusion

by | Mar 7, 2016 1:25 pm | Comments (4)

David Sepulveda Photos

911 Whalley now has a Coffee Pedaler and studios for artists like Violet Harlow (inset).

Westville’s reputation as an emerging arts district and destination has taken a step forward with the introduction of West River Arts, a new cluster of art studios and sister project of The Range at Lotta Studios.

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Art Breeds Autism Awareness

by | Feb 23, 2016 8:25 am | Comments (0)

Lucy Gellman Photo

Fussiner and Freidelaender get serious with the peanut butter.

On any given weekend, Angus Fussiner and his dad, Saul, dive into a suite of activities — soccer, jujitsu — laced with an almost rhythmic routine and social aspect that helps seven-year-old Angus, who is on the Aspergian end of the autism spectrum, get to know other kids his age in safe and comfortable settings.

Last Saturday was different. Holding a soft, stretchy pink toy meant to quell stress through sensory pleasure, Angus sat at a table at Chapel Haven, spreading peanut butter on a pinecone with almost surgical precision. At his right, Linda Freidelaender, senior curator of education at the Yale Center for British Art, took a big whiff, smiling at the scent as Fussiner continued his quest to coat the cone, which he planned to cover in birdseed once all sides were sticky.

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Artist Filters Noise and Channels Spirits

by | Feb 16, 2016 1:01 pm | Comments (4)

DAVID SEPULVEDA PHOTOS

Clinard at her exhibit opening.

Filtering Noise,” Susan Clinard’s solo, mixed-media sculpture exhibit at Westville’s Da Silva Gallery until March 2, is a testament to the artist’s restless and sensitive spirit and reflects the challenge,” she said, of keeping myself inspired each and every day.”

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Gershwin-Swift Legacy Soars Back To Life

by | Feb 11, 2016 4:54 pm | Comments (0)

Contributed photo.

Westville’s Lyric Hall will stage a world premiere Friday, as literature, music and history come together to celebrate the legacy of Broadway composers George Gershwin and Kay Swift in Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” a theatrical concert that will highlight composer George Gershwin’s romance with Broadway composer Kay Swift and some of the landmark musical hits they produced.

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Public Art Sweeps The Village

by | Jan 5, 2016 1:28 pm | Comments (5)

DAVID SEPULVEDA PHOTO

Swoon’s latest.

Even when the sun is not shining, there are shadows: Wheels, spokes, and unmistakable shapes of bike frames that seem to be cast by colorful light, stretch across the sidewalk just outside Westville’s Manjares Restaurant. They’ve inspired many a double-take at the base of a yarn-bombed, U‑style bike rack — especially when no bikes are parked.

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“Doubles?” Sparked A Craft-Art Career

by | Dec 8, 2015 5:19 pm | Comments (1)

David Sepulveda Photo

Before his choice to leave the New York gallery scene for timid one in New Haven, before he purchased the Frame Shop in 2002 to turn it into The Frame Shop & Westville Gallery, and certainly before he was informally crowned the unofficial mayor of Westville,” Gabriel Da Silva was a 17 year-old Uruguayan immigrant working odd jobs in New Haven to make ends meet” as he, his parents and three siblings sought to put a life under rotating military dictatorships in Montevideo behind them.

He was homesick, and working hard, and not entirely sure what the future would hold.

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Wrestlers Aim High As New Season Approaches

by | Dec 3, 2015 4:25 pm | Comments (0)

Sandra Gomez-Aceves Photo

Grant Hill, a senior on the Hopkins Varsity Wrestling team, practices his wrestling technique.

The rumble of wrestling shoes against mats and cement floors blended with wrestlers’ heavy breathing. “Levels!” yelled Hopkins School varsity wrestling coach Adam Sperling. Sixteen high-school wrestlers clapped in unison, lowering their wrestling stance, and turned to face the opposite direction.

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The Range At Lotta Studios Lights Up Westville

by | Dec 1, 2015 1:20 pm | Comments (1)

Lotta Studio Photo

The co-work space at Lotta Studio.

Family and art. Family and art. Family and art. In talking to Mistina Hanscom, it’s a phrase that came up again and again.
Do you want to go to art school? Come talk to us first,” she said.

She and her husband Luke are establishing The Range at Lotta Studio, a collective photography studio in Westville.

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