Festival Stories

New Haveners were all invited Thursday to read a book about immigration, then come together to discuss it.

The invitation was issued at City Hall, where Mayor Toni Harp, City Librarian Martha Brogan, and representatives from the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, JUNTA for Progressive Action, and Baobab Tree Studios announced this year’s “Big Read,” a citywide book club with activities that run from this month through the end of June.

The festival has this year selected Luis Alberto Urrea’s Into The Beautiful North, published in both English and Spanish. 

The “Big Read” is done in...

Reggae group, Jimmy Greene to headline Arts & Ideas concerts; June schedule announced

In a transition year to a new executive director, the International Festival of Arts & Ideas isn’t taking anything easy.

The newly unveiled June schedule includes a first-time reggae headline concert and a hip-hop oratorio prompted by the Virginia Tech and Newtown tragedies. As in the previous 21 festivals, there will be several acts dependent on up-to-date travel papers.

Festival officials officially announced this year’s Yale-peppered and world-salted schedule Tuesday evening at a launch party in the...

In partnership with Gateway Community College the Festival’s annual Fellowship Program, offered to New Haven high school sophomores and juniors, is now an accredited course at Gateway.

Now in it's eight year, the Fellowship Program, which aspires to develop the next generation of arts practitioners and audiences, is a semester-long intensive designed to develop each student's skills in communication and critical thinking, through a program of weekly seminars and immersion in the Festival’s programming. Fellows challenge and learn from each other, develop relationships with Festival staff and...

Get your tickets for Dorrance Dance in New Haven >

Michelle Dorrance found her calling when she was only 8 years old. She was training at her mother’s dance school and was lucky enough to have Gene Medler as her tap teacher during her formative years. He would take Dorrance and others around the nation and aboard to train with tap legends such as Buster Brown, Jimmy Slyde and The Nicholas Brother. She credits Medler for helping her become the dancer she is today.

Throughout her dance career Dorrance has performed with STOMP, Savion Glover’s ti dii, Manhattan Tap, Barbara Duffy & Co., JazzTap...

NEW HAVEN, CT—The International Festival of Arts & Ideas will present its 7th Annual Visionary Leadership Award to Majora Carter, noted revitalization strategy consultant, real estate developer, and Peabody Award-winning broadcaster, at an Award Luncheon and Ceremony on Wednesday, January 25 at 12:00 PM at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale (155 Temple Street).

The Award Luncheon, which will be moderated by Dena Simmons, Director of Education at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, draws over 400 attendees from across the region and raises money for the Festival's diverse roster of...

Arts Groups to Share $310,000 in National Endowment for the Arts Funding

The Department of Economic and Community Development, (DECD), through its Office of the Arts, announced today that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will award $310,000 in grants to 15 arts organization throughout the state.

The funding is part of the NEA’s first major grant funding round of fiscal year 2017 totaling more than $30 million that will be awarded to nonprofit organizations and individuals across the country. These grants cross all artistic disciplines, reach 48 states as well as Washington, D.C.,...

Tanya Tagaq is threatening to turn into one of the most peculiar and uncompromising mainstream success stories Canadian music has ever known.

Although she previously graduated from the experimental fringe to a semblance of national prominence after winning the 2014 Polaris Music Prize for her blistering third album, Animism, the Inuk throat singer from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, has enjoyed a level of visibility that even she will concede is utterly unexpected since the release of her record, Retribution, a month ago. From Flare to The Fader, from the New York Times to the Los Angeles Times, from...

Did you know that New Haven was named by Expedia one of America's Top Foodie Cities?

Starting October 30, New Haven dedicates an entire week to showing off some of our delectible culinary haunts.

Here are some Festival Staff Picks to help guide your way through this Food-Lover's Haven:

Alexis Kellogg, Marketing Manager: HARVEST. You can taste how fresh the ingredients are, any dish with scallops is superb!

Liz Fisher, Managing Director: PHO and SPICE*. The food is amazing, the booths are very private and good for conversation, and the wait staff is great.

Patrick Dunn, Development Manager: ZINC is...

Arts & Ideas Audiences Boost City and State Economy, Impact Jumps 23%

The International Festival of Arts & Ideas today announced the results of a highly successful Festival 21, which ran June 10–25 and generated an economic impact of more than $15.4 million according to an Economic Impact Study conducted by Quinnipiac University. This impact figure is an increase of 23% over the same study of last year’s Festival, which reported the same total attendance of over 100,000.

“We’re thrilled with the success of Festival 21 and proud to continue playing an active role in making our Connecticut...

"WELCOME WORLD" proclaimed the Edinburgh International Festival on a stunning yellow sign, many stories high, mounted on the Assembly Hall on The Mound, a focal point for the entire city. Hard for any visitor to Edinburgh's acclaimed festivals to miss the message this August.

Profoundly symbolic in every way, this banner represented what all of us working in the world of festivals strive for every day: to create a pathway through the arts and humanities that brings the world a little closer together. Even the placement of the banner on the Assembly Hall, traditionally one of the Edinburgh...

At the Festival this summer, hundreds of people were pondering this question, along with several other ideas; “I want them to know…” and “I have learned…”

If you were to strike up conversation with one of these people, it would likely spur a very thoughtful and deep talk. As the project manager of the “Before I Die” boards at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, I happened to do this with several of the Festival visitors, and was blown away by what they said. One man talked to me about rebirth and the joy of learning, as he had written “[Before I die I want to] forget...