Enduring Creativity: Celebrating 125 Years of the New Haven Paint & Clay Club

Autumn Hydrangeas

New Haven, Conn. (April 14, 2025) “Enduring Creativity: Celebrating 125 Years of the New Haven Paint & Clay Club,” an exhibition featuring over 50 works of art and objects drawn from the New Haven Paint & Clay Club’s significant permanent collection, is on view at the New Haven Museum. The exhibition runs through June 28, 2025.

“Enduring Creativity” celebrates the New Haven Paint & Clay Club’s 125 years of promoting the visual arts in the community. The group was founded in 1900 by artists seeking opportunities to exhibit their work and advocate for the arts. At the turn of the 19th century there were few opportunities for New Haven artists to exhibit their work. From its inception, the New Haven Paint & Clay Club has been progressive, inviting women to fully participate as members and exhibitors.

The New Haven Paint & Clay Club began with a gathering of artists in May 1900. In December of that year, the first exhibition of the newly formed club was held in New Haven in a room over a printer’s shop on Pitkin Alley. Exhibition spaces for the New Haven Paint & Clay Club have ranged from its humble opening space to the New Haven Free Public Library, and later, at the John Slade Ely House where it remained for over 50 years.

In 1928, the club began raising the funds to begin building a permanent collection. Today, there are nearly 400 works of art in the New Haven Paint & Clay Club Permanent Collection, and the Club is one of New England’s oldest, continuously active, arts organizations, and the oldest in Connecticut.

The exhibition is curated by artist Greg Shea, a past president of the Club, with the assistance of Jason Bischoff-Wurstle, NHM Director of Photo Archives. “As an artist member, past president, and the current curator of the of the New Haven Paint & Clay Club’s Permanent Collection, I am proud to belong to a continuum of artists whose significant achievements, and importance to the history of art in the region, and America cannot be overstated,” Shea says. “ It has been my great pleasure to select works for this exhibition which showcase the depth and diversity of the club’s permanent collection, and the artists who have created them. I can think of no better venue and partner than the New Haven Museum to host this exhibition, which celebrates the New Haven Paint & Clay Club’s ongoing mission to promote the visual arts in New Haven, for the benefit and enjoyment of all.”