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Landscape Image
Artist: Will Nettleship
Date: 1989
Material: Paved red, purple, tan brick
Location: Audubon Street between Whitney Avenue and Orange Street
Nettleship's work explores both the visual and non-visual aspects of sculpture, appealing to the sense of touch and spatial awareness. His public sculptures reflect their surrounding environments, how the space is used, and how art can enhance public engagement. Landscape Image captures informal conversations between the artist and visitors to the Greater New Haven Community Foundation Building, as well as the movement of people in and out of the space. The sculpture marks the building as a place where visitors can expect dynamic and meaningful lively experiences within.
Nettleship's outdoor and interior works can be found in parks, train stations, and business districts throughout the United States and Europe.
Ascending Birds
Artist: David Von Schlegell
Date: 1989
Material: Aluminum
Location: New Haven City Hall. 165 Church Street
This abstract three-piece aluminum sculpture in the lobby of New Haven City Hall is Von Schelegell's last sculpture work. Ascending Birds is "an expression of the artist's lifelong love of Matisse and explores the relation of abstraction to figuration, sculpture to painting, and positive space to negative space."
Stained Glass Window
Artist: David Wilson
Date: 1990
Material: Stained glass
Location: Ives Memorial Library, 133 Elm Street
Wilson of South Berlin, New York, has honed his skills in both design and fabrication. His designs emphasize the importance of visual harmony in the built environment by incorporating glass that enhances and enriches architecture.
Wilson's geometrically designed windows in the Ives Memorial Library include a large circular laylight above the main entry foyer, two rectangular laylights at the top of the stairs, a leaded glass window behind the Information Center, and three half-round windows in the Tech Periodical Room.
His work can be seen in various hospitals, churches, and universities across the country.
Path of Stars
Artist: Sheila Levrant de Bretteville
Date: 1994
Material: Granite cast stone
Location: Ninth Square, Crown Street sidewalk
Sheila Levrant de Bretteville designed Path of Stars to illuminate a section of New Haven that had been neglected for more than two decades. The Ninth Square, one of the original in the 1638 Plan of the colonial settlers, is now in the midst of rejuvenation, with many new restaurants, businesses, and luxury apartments. Abandoned and decrepit historic buildings have been restored into vibrant spaces for working, living and gathering-filled with the kind of cultural life for which New Haven is well known.
The recent development fulfills de Bretteville's intent to pay "homage to the working people of the area" by honoring those who lived or worked in this historically significant district, once known for its thriving factories, businesses, and movie theaters. Clearly a response to Hollywood's Walk of Fame-de Bretteville the artist had just moved to New Haven after 20 years in Los Angeles-Path of Stars integrates local themes through the use of colors that reflect nearby buildings and celebrates the lives of ordinary workers, such as Joseph McAlpine, a janitor who worked for the New Haven Gas Company.
Path of Stars runs along a north-south axis on Orange and Crown Streets, with stars set at fifteen-foot intervals. Symbolically and literally, the artist aimed to "put people back into the neighborhood." As Yale's first tenured female art professor, de Bretteville hoped that the project would expand alongside new growth in the Ninth Square, with more stars added overtime.
Group A/Crown Street East stars dedicated to: George Lamberton, Ezekiel T. Scott, Jennie Missaro and Carl Reichbart. Group B/Crown Street West stars dedicated to: John Brockett, August L. Troup, Lee Chong, Ed Lawlor and Elnora Bess. Group C/Orange Street South stars dedicated to: Dinah Chidsey, Adolphus G. Snell, Emmaline Jones, Frederick D. Grave, James S. Johnson, Sr. and William & Jack Horowitz. Group D/Orange Street stars dedicated to: Titus Street, Abel C. Chamberlain, Sylvester Z. Poli, Helen Perez Hallock, Joseph A. McAlpine and Julia di Lullo.
Millennium Relief
Artist: David Colbert
Date: 2000
Material: Stainless steel
Location: Millennium Plaza, 200 Orange Street
According to artist David Colbert, Millennium Relief was designed to complement the plaza by mimicking the geometric patterns found in the facades of City Hall and the Atrium, as well as in the tower and wrought iron gates of the Hall of Records.
Stainless steel was chosen for its durability and reflective quality. The work changes with the light and with the viewer position, creating an interactive visual experience.
Passages: Entering the World (from Earth to Moon); Passages in Music; Passages to the New World; Passages in Literature and Architecture
Artist: Russell Rainbolt
Date: 2001
Material: Oil and enamel on lexan, gold leaf
Location: A. Conte West Hills Magnet School interior, 511 Chapel Street
New Haven artist Russell Rainbolt created these murals around the overarching concept of "passages". Visual continuity is maintained by the recurring using of red, yellow, and blue squares across the four murals.
The first mural Passages: Entering the World (from Earth to Moon). Originally title Entering the World: Image and Language-features large-scale paintings of Earth and the Moon, ending with the development of written language, including cuneiform, hieroglyphics, and early Phoenician/Greek. The second mural, Passages in Music (formerly titled Sound and Script), features abstract shapes and musical notes that dance across the surface. Beethoven, Gregorian chants and the score from La Traviata appear against a soft, sand-colored background.
The third mural, Passages in Literature and Architecture (originally Foundations: Architecture and Literature), blends elements of literacy and architectural tradition. The fourth mural celebrates the rich history of New Haven through iconic visual references such as East Rock, Roger Sherman and Cinque.
Rainbolt is well known in New Haven for his ability to work on a large scale, having spent many years as a billboard painter for Barrett Outdoor Communications, Inc.