Schirra and Trace Mullings with their 2-yea- old daughter, Ryleigh. Abiba Biao Photos.
Siblings Ryangeo and Ryleigh Mullings studied the contours of a mural coming to life in front of their eyes, the colors filling Central Avenue beneath a cool gray sky. Surrounded by the slogan “Art lives here,” in bright bubble letters, the neon green cARTie bus roared to life on the pavement, with icons of paint splatters serving as a reminder of the artistic creative process.
Ryangeo, who is six, moved to another part of the mural to paint, engrossed in his brush strokes.
The siblings, with their parents Schirra and Trace, were among hundreds of attendees at cARTie’s inaugural fall festival. Held on the Central Avenue Patio in New Haven’s Westville neighborhood, the festival included 10 artist vendors, and food options like the Cinnabomb Mini Donut Factory and Love Lou Wine Cart. The celebration brought out 200 attendees, according to Clare Murray, co-founder and executive director of cARTie.
The festival is one of many celebrations in Open Studios New Haven, a monthlong art showcase from October 1 to November 1, featuring art exhibitions and studio openings across New Haven and West Haven. Other event collaborators included Westville Village Renaissance Alliance (WVRA) and Lotta Studio.
“Between Edgewood and Beecher [Schools], right here, two of our continuing school partners, how could we be anywhere else, you know?” Co-Founder Clare Murray said of the event location.
The non-profit, co-founded by Clare and her mother Tish Murray, seeks to combat accessibility barriers with art and museum education. Taking art and education on the road, the bus travels to schools across the state and exhibits work from middle and high school students.
The curatorial theme for the bus this year is confidence and bravery, with 16 student art pieces currently on display. The curatorial theme is selected by the organization’s student advisory board, which is made up of nine students. When the bus travels to different schools across the state, the exhibition becomes a starting point for arts education, which is often cut as school budgets become tight.
While the bus travels to schools across the state of Connecticut, that mission has also led Murray to make Westville cARTie’s home base (the neighborhood’s schools were featured as some of its early stops). Last year, the organization served 9,048 children and conducted 116 school visits according to its 2025 annual report. Statewide, it has 63 school and community partnerships, including many in New Haven. Once a month, cARTie’s student-artists have their work exhibited in the first-floor gallery at the shared artist space Lotta Studio.
“Clare is one of the most organized and efficient humans I have ever worked with … there's no shortage of ideas when it comes to what Clare wants to do,” said Lotta Studio Co-Founder Mistina Hanscom in a phone call Tuesday morning, before letting out a chuckle.
As the co-owner of Lotta Studio, Hanscom said that collaborating with cARTie seemed like a natural progression. She’s followed the nonprofit’s work for years and seen the impact of the organization’s programming at Edgewood Creative Thinking through (STEAM) Magnet School. But it wasn't until this year, around the early summertime, that the non-profit established a formal relationship with the Westville artistic hub, signing a lease at the co-working space.
Nestled at the corner of Whalley Avenue and Blake Street, Lotta Studio is physically close to schools such as Mauro-Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet School, L.W. Beecher Museum Magnet School, Elm City Montessori School, Westville Community Nursery School, and the Friends Center for Children. Hanscom said that cARTie’s addition to the space unlocks opportunities for youth, programming, and welcomes younger people into the studio.
“It’s been a really nice addition to be able to have youth programming happening here at Lotta Studio because that hasn’t existed to this point,” she said.
Those partnerships, which Murray navigated during and after the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic, were once hard to maintain, particularly with schools navigating new health protocols. Edgewood School was one of the first to step up, she remembered.
“The past principal had even said to us after three years of programming together, ‘You have a partner for life,’” she said. “And something like that, that kind of a statement, it just kept us wanting to be in this community with the students we get to serve at that school.”
cARTie also has plans of expansion, securing two grants from the Milliman Family Foundation and Good to Great Grant Program, from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development and Connecticut Humanities, to get a second vehicle that Clare called the “studio bus.” That will allow the organization to grow its mission.
While the studio bus will also have exhibitions and display art, she highlighted that a major distinction is honing in on interactive “art encounters,’” and having a “real emphasis and prioritization of kids needing time and space and materials to play with and encounter and experience and work through the languages of art.”
“It'll be a project that will be driven by youth voice, youth ideals, and the design of it just as that bus, you know, quite literally, is designed with, by and for kids,” Clare said, gesturing to the museum bus. “This next bus will be imagined with our student advisory board, prototyped with our family advisory board, and it'll do everything that that bus does.”
At a table vending a variety of prints, artist Nate Kolek said he has felt the influence of cARTie. After hearing cARTie from an art teacher in 2021, Kolek, then a senior at Staples High School in Westport, threw his hat in the ring. Seeking to encapsulate the stress of COVID and academics as a teen, he submitted a self portrait titled Enough.
In the portrait, Kolek’s left hand rests on the side of his face, brows furrowed. His eyes are closed in exasperation. The frustration, and quest for mental quiet, is palpable; a viewer can feel the intensity from the canvas alone. Created from a collage of math worksheets and colorful magazines, the mixed-media work represents the overstimulating and convoluted demands of life. The self-portrait was also exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Connecticut in Westport.
Not long after, he joined cARTie’s student advisory board, and the jurying committee, helping selecting submitted work. Just as he watched the organization expand, he also underwent an artistic journey, transitioning from doing physical art and drawing in high school to digital graphic design.
After graduating with a BFA in illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2025, Kolek went on to serve on the board of directors. He currently serves as the communications chair, assisting with social media and marketing.
“I always knew I wanted to do art. I think cARTie, like. kept me sort of connected to, like, my home, like, being in Connecticut,” he said. “It was just always great to have, like, a community of artists that, like, I related to at home and always fun to, like, bring up the next generation and young artists as well.”
“I see myself working cARTie for, like, a while,” he added, highlighting his involvement with the organization for half a decade, and the influence behind his educational journey.. “I think I’ll always be involved in cARTie in some way and shape.
Despite the array of paint cups and bottles on the floor, there was a method of for Lexi Baboukis, as she prepped paint colors and brushes for attendees.
“Miss, miss, do you paint faces?,” a person inquired behind her. In an instant, she whisked her head around, seeing her father Mario, with her mom and broke out in tears at her parents' surprise entrance, who came all the way from Long Island.
Lexi, who has a background in illustration and BFA from the University of Hartford, has recently assumed her new position as assistant director for cARTie in August. She highlighted the artistic freedom behind cARTie and resonated with the ethos behind their mission.
The concept for the mural was simple, coming up with three separate designs: one concept featuring the saying “art matters,” and two different concepts around the phrase “Art lives here.” In the end, the current design won, featuring iconic cARTie symbols like the museum bus and magnifying glasses, which are supplied on the bus for kids to use their close-looking skills..
Lexi described the painting process as “a giant coloring book,” incorporating bright colors, and being accessible for anyone to participate.
Seeing the people paint, it didn’t take long before her father Mario rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a paint brush, and started coloring in the paint tube on the ground with gray.
As a part of its Studio Series, cARTie will be at Lotta Studios at 903 Whalley Ave on Nov. 12, Nov. 13, and Nov. 14 and will have a community pop up at Common Ground High School on Nov. 28. Learn more on their events page. Young people interested in joining the Student Advisory Board can contact hello@cartie.org. This piece is part of the Pincus Family Foundation's inaugural Youth Content Collaborative, through which YAJI students and alumni are able to report on other Connecticut organizations that are generously supported by the Pincus Family Foundation, without which YAJI would not be possible.