Cities are eager to celebrate and market their creative communities, but struggle to address the challenges its artists face to live and create in a city. The Anita Louise House, a new project in New Haven founded by Mistina and Luke Hanscom, begins with a deceptively simple question: What would it mean to support artists by literally making room for them? This idea grew out of the Hanscoms’ twenty years of involvement in New Haven’s arts community. Through their work founding Lotta Studio and West River Arts, a collective of artist studios in Westville, they have seen how much of a city’s cultural life depends on artists and those who support them. However, it is difficult for all parties to secure the basic resources needed to keep that work going.
After the passing of Semi-Semi Dikoko, a West River Arts founding member, the Hanscoms considered transforming his former studio into a residency in his honor. This would offer an artist a place to work, but not a place to live, limiting the field to artists already housed in New Haven. Recognizing the housing insecurity that affects many artists, including through their own experiences of financial precarity, they began imagining a different kind of resource: a small house that would provide a place to stay and a place to make work, while helping local arts organizations accommodate visiting artists, performers, educators, and other creative professionals.
The founders' hopes were dashed when a promising property in Westville could not be acquired to build this residency. But in an unexpected turn, it was discovered that a mentor had purchased the house, had a change of plans, and agreed to sell it to the Hanscoms. In February 2026, they moved forward with their project, beginning the transformation of the property into a flexible and welcoming home for creative work and exchange. Though still under construction, the Hanscoms opened their door for the public to see their work-in-progress during New Haven's recent Open Studios.
The house is named for Anita Louise Ault, Luke’s great-grandmother, whose life is the model for the project’s philosophy. One of the first women to attend the Kansas City Institute of Art and Design, Ault studied fine art and fashion. Family stories describe her as an entrepreneur with a distinctive personal style, a love of bold colors, and an independent spirit. She also used her income to purchase small properties in her community, renting them to people who might otherwise have struggled to find housing. The Hanscoms carry on her belief that art and independence will create opportunities that reinforce one another.
The house aims to work with local arts organizations that need help accommodating visiting artists in New Haven for shorter projects. While specific partnerships are still in discussion, finding appropriate housing for these visitors is a common logistical and financial burden for organizations inviting them. A visiting performer might spend several weeks at the Anita House for a theatrical production while also having space to work on personal projects, visit exhibitions and engage with the city beyond their primary engagement. The house’s living areas and planned creative workspace are intended to accommodate the realities of artists’ lives, rather than treating a residency as a temporary escape from them.
That spirit is reflected in the design of the house itself. The entrance’s playful glass breeze blocks lead into a cabin-like interior. The ceiling is marked with surprisingly beautiful roof beams, with the same whimsical weight as the Tylosaurus at the Peabody Museum. The two bedroom house is designed to offer a comforting stay since guests can return to a home at the end of the day.
The interior is not meant to feel like a pristine, precious space, but one that encourages experimentation. Even the entrance to the basement is hidden beneath a countertop that slides open like a secret passage in the old Adam West Batman television series.
The studio, a converted ground-level garage with natural light, is designed as a flexible workspace. The planned equipment includes a photographic darkroom, screen-printing tools, a 3D printer, sewing equipment, a flatbed scanner, and a projector. An easel was also on view during the recent Open Studios event, suggesting the range of ways the space might be used.
Artworks from the Hanscoms’ personal collection also enhance the house’s character. They include a watercolor by Amanda Walker, whose soft, nostalgic palette holds an undercurrent of strangeness; photographic works by Linda Lindroth featuring pink and green cardboard packaging; and a photograph by Kim Weston that captures a child in traditional Native American clothing through a layered, atmospheric image of movement. The house also holds three works by the late Edith Borax-Morrison, who was represented by Westville’s Kehler Liddell Gallery. Keeping local art visible and engaged with viewers, rather than stored away, is deeply meaningful to the Hanscoms.
Other artworks reflect relationships beyond New Haven, including a piece by Los Angeles-based artist and tattooist Scott Campbell, a childhood friend of Luke’s. Mistina and Luke hope to continue adding works by artists whose practices and friendships have shaped them. As Mistina explains, “We’re curating around relationships, stories, and the emotional intelligence that exists within the work itself.” This reflects the kind of exchange it sets out to create. And while there is no expectation that artists who stay will leave behind artwork or even provide public programming, the Hanscoms imagine the house becoming a living archive of the people who pass through it, gathering stories as much as art.
The Hanscoms hope to introduce guests to New Haven's galleries, artist-run initiatives, performances, and neighborhood spaces, in which there are plenty in walking distance. The program’s collaborations will start by drawing from the relationships the two have already through their work in New Haven. The value of this endeavor lies in helping visiting artists experience New Haven as more than the site of a short term project but facilitating opportunities for relationships to grow and to continue after they leave.
The Hanscoms have personally invested in the property and its renovation. Their proposed hybrid approach combines short-term stays for visiting creative professionals, housing agreements with arts and cultural organizations, and, over time, its own artist residency. This flexibility will also make lower-cost stays possible for artists who might not otherwise be able to take time away from work or caregiving responsibilities. They are currently raising the funds to finish the renovations to get the Anita Louise House officially open. However with the recent highlights of questionable short-stay rentals in New Haven, there are some regulatory issues the Hanscoms will have to navigate. The business model does not fit neatly into conventional categories of vacation rentals or traditional artist residencies. But for now, they are moving forward turning the property into a home for visiting guests and a space for creative activity. “The Anita Louise House is our response to a question we’ve been asking for years: What does it actually mean to care for the artistic process?” Mistina reflects. “Not just on a gallery wall, on a stage, or in a studio. But in a city. In a community. In a life.”
Sometimes, making room for art begins quite literally with making room for the artist.
To learn more on how to support the Anita Louise House, visit its website.