7 New Haveners Celebrated At City’s 380th Birthday

New Haven celebrated its 380th birthday Tuesday afternoon with a party that promoted diversity, opportunity and progress, and singled out seven individuals who have left a lasting imprint on the city’s cultural, physical and spiritual landscape.

Over 100 residents and city officials filled City Hall’s first-floor atrium on Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the anniversary of the city’s official founding by English colonists in 1638.

Organized by city arts czar Andy Wolf and emceed by Community Services Administrator (CSA) Dakibu Muley, the hour-long birthday bash included jazz and swing standards performed by the Survivors Swing Band, a duet from Seussical, The Musical by New Haven middle school students Hector Martinez and Mason Porras, and recognitions of local photographer Joe Standart for his We Are a Nation of Immigrants photography series and of Guilford High School senior Logan Driscoll for his work distributing children’s books and spurring his classmates on to community services through his nonprofit Driscoll Cares Inc.

The centerpiece of the celebration was the awarding of Sheila Leverant de Bretteville, Frances ​“Bitsie” Clark, Karyn Gilvarg, Pastor Donald Morris, David Moser, Neil Richardson, and Anthony ​“Tony” Scillia as the 2018 City Spirit Honorees, seven New Haveners whom Wolf described as exemplifying the ​“values, virtues, and traditions that have made this nation, this city, and our state of Connecticut strong and resilient throughout history.”

As each awardee approached the stage to receive his or her recognition, the dozens of New Haveners present got the opportunity to listen to a brief list of these individuals’ many accomplishments, and to reflect upon just how significant an impact certain dedicated individuals can have on a city of 130,000 that has been around as such for nearly four centuries.

In a fitting introduction to the awardees’ collective and transformative legacy in this city, Mayor Toni Harp recalled the civic pride and connection to history that she witnessed on her recent trip to Changsha, China. 

“At each stop in China,” she said, ​“there were toasts extolling the meaningful contributions of our city and Yale University to global knowledge and humanistic achievement. What I now refer to as Eds, Meds and Arts. Our calling to the world.”

The first 2018 City Spirit Honoree was Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, an artist, graphic designer and Yale School of Art professor.

Calling de Bretteville a ​“truly talented global artist” and a ​“voice for social justice, pride of place and collective memory,” city Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lindy Gold listed off de Bretteville’s accomplishments in New Haven and in the art world more broadly.

In 1971, de Bretteville founded the first design program for women at the California Institute of the Arts. In 1973, she founded the Women’s Building, a public center in Los Angeles dedicated to women’s education and culture. She instituted the communications and design program at the Otis College of Art and Design in 1980, and became the first female tenured professor of the Yale School of Art in 1990.

Independent of her academic accomplishment, de Bretteville has left an enduring legacy of public art in the Elm City. Gold singled out her 1994 Path of Stars project, in which she documented the lives of local citizens past and present with 21 granite stars built into city sidewalks in the Ninth Square neighborhood Downtown.

De Bretteville’s next local public art project, Lighting Your Way, will use motion-activated lights and spotlights to transform a 90-foot passageway on Union Avenue underneath the I‑91 overpass into a theatrically lit gateway connecting Downtown and Union Station.

Next up was Frances Bitsie Clark, the long-time Downtown alder and promoter of the Audubon Arts District.

“So much to say about a dear friend and trusted advisor who throughout her tenure in the Elm City has extended the reach of New Haven’s influence in the arts, cultural vitality and social services in profound and lifechanging ways,” said Barbara Schaffer, the vice chair of the city’s Cultural Affairs Commission.

Schaffer described Clark’s work with Home Haven, a nonprofit that helps New Haven seniors age in place in their own homes as opposed to at a senior center, and praised her for her leadership of the New Haven Arts Council and for transforming Audubon Street into a ​“thriving arts district that changed forever the pivotal role that New Haven would assume as an arts hub on the global stage.”

“Bitsie has left a legacy that few can match and that future generations will celebrate,” Schaffer continued, ​“due to this pioneering spirit’s belief that, ​‘Yes, we can.’”

Up third was Karyn Gilvarg, the recently retired former director of the City Plan department.

Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson told the audience that Gilvarg joined the City Plan department in 1994 after earning a degree at the Yale School of Architecture.

“She exemplifies the lessons and appreciation of the City Beautiful movement in America,” Nemerson said, ​“which are on full display in New Haven of course today and every day.”

Nemerson listed some of Gilvarg’s major accomplishments as the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail Master Plan, the I‑95 Quinnipiac River crossing, the expanded State Street train station, and the almost-finished New Haven boat house.

“All of these things bring together the cultural and civic and transit roles of this city,” he said, calling the design that Gilvarg pushed for and achieved for the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge ​“awe-inspiring.”

The fourth honoree was New Haven Pastor Donald Morris, who was recognized by city probate judge Clifton Graves.

Morris was the founding force behind Unity in Community, Brothers Getting Busy, and the Christian Community Commission. Graves said he was instrumental in the renovation of the Goffe Street park.

“At a moment in American history when gun violence has captured public attention and discourse,” Graves read, ​“it was Pastor Morris in 2005 who formed Brotherhood Leadership Summit to address gun violence in the city of New Haven.” Graves described how the summit brought together a wide range of local black male community members to discuss black male leadership and community outreach, and to promote self pride, fatherhood, and non-violence on city streetcorners.

Gilvarg returned to the front of the room to recognize the next City Spirit honoree, city landscape architect David Moser.

“This remarkable artist and caretaker of our urban park system has been a champion of the environment and of environmental design for over 20 years,” Gilvarg said. ​“His flourish and fine eye is everywhere.”

She described Moser as playing a key role in the design of the fountain around the flagpole in the New Haven Green, as well as for his work on projects ranging from the redesign of the Edgewood Skate Park to the planting of flowering trees in front of City Hall.

Andy Wolf introduced longtime judicial marshal and local basketball advocate Neal Richardson as the next nominee.

A native of Liberia and a graduate of the New Haven Public Schools system and Eastern Connecticut State University, Richardson has served as the judicial marshal in the city’s juvenile court for 23 years. He is the chair of the city’s Coach Bob Salisbury Scholarship Committee and one of the founders of the annual Hoop It Up basketball tournament.

Wolf said that Richardson was also instrumental in bringing the plays Black Angels Over Tuskegee and Kings of Harlem to the Lyman Center at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU).

“Wherever there is a cause or event to promote New Haven,” Wolf said, ​“you will find this dedicated public booster.”

The final 2018 City Spirit honoree was Anthony ​“Tony” Scillia, an accountant with Global Marcum LLP who served for two decades on the Shubert Theatre’s Board of Directors.

“Tony’s remarkable passion for both quantitative as well as qualitative beneficial outcomes,” Wolf said, ​“was instrumental in transforming the management and leadership role of New Haven’s birthplace of American musical theater to the not-for-profit Connecticut Association for the Performing Arts, or CAPA, a partnership that has resulted in enhanced programming and a vibrant yearly calendar of hit shows.”

Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the full ceremony.