Project Storefronts

The past few months have been spent in New Haven, CT and starting in February, I will be packing up my odds and ends and going there again for another project. Little did I know that I would be spending the better half of the year in a New England college town. And it's an interesting place too - made up primarily of Yale's campus, there's a startling contrast between the wealth of the university and the poverty that sits just beyond its collegiate walls.  It is perhaps for that reason, that it also has a burgeoning art scene.

This is an empty space.  

There are a lot of empty spaces, and lonely storefronts in New Haven.

I went for a long walk around downtown and found a street that didn't display its communities typical characteristics.  Instead of vacant retail spaces, and quiet sidewalks there was a buzz - an independent coffee house here, a vintage shop there, a storefront occupied by a custom terrarium retailer, a print shop.  Little did I know that I stumbled upon "Project Storefronts"; a venture helmed by the New Haven Department of Cultural Affairs and the New Haven Economic Development Corporation with the aim of "encouraging artists and creative entrepreneurs to test the viability of new creative and arts-related retail and other businesses by providing access to empty retail spaces."  In short, giving a shot of good, wholesome creativity into a depressed community while providing a 'haven' (forgive the pun) for artists to showcase and build a clientele for their crafts.  It was pretty cool.

I continued the walk back to my apartment with a renewed hope in the potential of empty space.  Click here for more info on the great things that are happening under the radar.