Creative Places
Delve into the fascinating story of arts and letters in the 20th century through Preservation Connecticut’s Creative Places Project.
For much of the twentieth century, thanks to a synthesis of timing, chance and place, Connecticut attracted some of the world’s leading figures in modern arts and letters, as both visitors and residents. Here, writers and visual artists found inspiration not only in a beautiful landscape and the region’s deep sense of history but also in kindred spirits whose creative output depended on the same kind of original thinking. Moreover, a long tradition of artists’ colonies and the remarkable institutional support provided by dynamic leaders at places like Yale University and the Wadsworth Atheneum proved instrumental in building audiences and in encouraging public and private patronage of innovative work.
Explore the brand new website- launched June 2020!
The Creative Places Projects identified significant sites associated with artists and writers and their work. Our period of focus was from 1913-1979. We included artists of the early Modernist period following the Armory Show of 1913, the influx of emigrant artists fleeing Europe in the World War II period, Modernism after the war, the art of the 1960s and into the 1970s, and other art communities such as the shoreline art colonies. The visual arts included in our project were arts administration and teaching, crafts and textiles, design, illustration, painting, photography, printmaking, mosaics, murals, and sculpture. The writers included drama, fiction, journalism, non-fiction, poetry, and children’s book authors, along with playwrights.
State Register Nominations
Historic Resource Inventories
Sites Documented
From the beginning of the project in 2013 to the end of the project in 2015, we identified over 350 places associated with artists and writers, of which over 160 were already listed on the State and/or National Register of Historic Places. We have written over 150 historic resource inventories, and we have written over 20 nominations for listing on the State Register of Historic Places. All of this was made possible with funding from the State Historic Preservation Office.
