New Haven is home to world class shopping, dining, art galleries, museums, theaters, and festivals. The EDA works to promote the rich cultural economy the Elm City boasts that offers large capital returns, employment opportunities, and better quality of life for residents.

Partner Resources

See the links below to visit our partner organizations’ resources on the many cultural, artistic, and historic offerings of New Haven

• Visit New Haven’s Historic and Cultural Attractions Map
• Visit New Haven’s Visitor’s Guide
• Arts Council of Greater New Haven

Shopping

New Haven offers a wide array of shopping opportunities ranging from high end destinations such as Lululemon, Barbour, and Gant, to locally owned eclectic boutiques and one-of-a-king shops that sell anything from vintage kitchen items to trending fashion items to hand crafted artisan ware.

New Haven is also home to some of the region’s most popular shopping destinations like the Apple Store, IKEA, Jordan’s Furniture, and LLBean.

The walkability of Downtown New Haven offers unparalleled street urban shopping experiences. Shoppers can stroll along brick-laid Broadway Avenue to stop into one of the area’s many new shops and boutiques.

View a selection of New Haven’s retail options.

Dining

New Haven is a regional culinary destination, drawing visitors from around the state and southern New England. Options range from world famous “New Haven-Style Pizza” to Louis’ Lunch, the site of the first hamburger, to international cuisines including Ethiopian, Spanish, French, Greek, Latin, Mexican, Italian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian, Jamaican, Cuban, Peruvian, Syrian/Lebanese, and Turkish. The wide selection of options at a variety of price points makes New Haven the culinary heart of Connecticut.

• Investments into New Haven’s restaurant industry include the newly added Shake Shack in Downtown
• The Blake Hotel opened the area’s first Michelin-Starred chef

Complete list of New Haven’s many dining options

List of Downtown New Haven restaurants

Art Galleries, Museums, and Theaters

New Haven hosts a world class collection of museums, art galleries, and theaters that attract approximately 800,000 visitors to the city each year. Notable institutions include:

New Haven Museum, which was founded in 1862 in New Haven, Connecticut for the purposes of preserving and presenting the region’s history.

The Yale Art Gallery which possesses one of the world’s largest collections of masters and modernist works. The gallery was designed by modernist architect Louis Kahn and underwent a $135 million renovation completed in 2012.

The Yale Center for British Art, which contains the largest, most comprehensive collection of British art outside of the UK. It reopened May 2016 after a 16-month, $33 million conservation effort to restore the Louis Kahn-designed treasure to the architect’s original vision.

The Peabody Museum of Natural History, which was founded in 1866, and contains artifacts of four billion years of history. The Peabody benefits from frequent special curation by Yale Professors. The museum received a $160 million donation and is currently undergoing renovations to expand visitor galleries by 50% and create a dedicated K-12 education center.

The Long Wharf Theater, which attracts more than 100,000 patrons annually to view imaginative revivals of classics and new works by world-renowned playwrights. Multiple past productions have earned Pulitzer Prizes and Tony Awards.

The New Haven Symphony Orchestra, which Is the fourth-oldest symphony orchestra in America, is housed in Woolsey Hall at Yale.

College Street Music Hall, which opened in May 2015 at the site of the old Palace and Roger Sherman Theaters. The 2,000 seat fully renovated venue is in the heart of Downtown’s arts and entertainment district. Each month it hosts on average 3-5 big ticket acts, which draw concertgoers from all over the Northeast. An economic impact report indicated that the 72 events at College Street in 2018 generated $16 million in economic activity, supplying over 250 jobs.

Annual Festivals

• Arts and Ideas
  
• Music on the Green
• New Haven Jazz Festival
• The International Festival of Arts & Ideas, held annually in mid-June, draws performers, thinkers, and artists from around the world
• Music on the Green is a free series of late July concerts that bring the community together several times each season to enjoy popular music by world-renowned acts
• New Haven Jazz Festival is a landmark week-long event in August on the New Haven Green and in “pop-up” locations around town

Public Art

New Haven is home to over 500 works of publicly accessible art throughout the City. Public art adds yet another layer to the rich culture of New Haven, attracting tourists and focusing attention on the vibrant status of art and culture in New Haven.

• Percent for Public Art, a City funded program enacted in 1981, requires that 1% of the City’s construction budget for new or renovated municipal buildings must be allocated towards the purchase of commissioned artwork. New Haven was the first of only 3 cities in the state to have a legislation of this sort enacted and to date has commissioned over 30 pieces mainly from top local artists.
• New Haven Public Art Database. The City of New Haven has partnered with CultureNOW/Museums without Walls to archive a complete, interactive map of public art in New Haven
• Public Art Tours are offered by a variety of organizations including the New Haven Preservation Trust and Yale University. For more information see