Culture & Community | Arts & Culture | Arts, Culture & Community
IfeMichelle Gardin. Photo Lucy Gellman.
Heading into the new year, three new arts administrators are ready to put decades of leadership in literature, poetry, theater, fashion, and community-building to work for the city.
The Board of Alders approved the appointments of Alisha Crutchfield, IfeMichelle Gardin, and Kelly Wuzzardo to the Cultural Affairs Commission in November. The Commission, which has a 2024 budget of $190,000, works with the Department of Arts, Culture, and Tourism to sponsor a wide variety of cultural programming across New Haven.
Alisha Crutchfield. Photo by Suzana Hallili.
Crutchfield is the founder of Bloom, a lifestyle store, community gathering space, and cafe in Westville. Since opening in July 2021, Bloom has quickly become an arts hub, hosting events on Black literature and Afrofuturism, providing space for student art shows, and giving local artisans a place to sell their wares.
“I love the intimacy of the arts community here,” Crutchfield said in an interview at Bloom.
Crutchfield grew up in Boston and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she earned a degree in marketing. After graduation, she moved to New York City to pursue her interest in fashion. She lived and worked there for 16 years as a stylist, buyer, and—for a short stint—designer, before leaving for New Haven in 2016 to live with her partner.
At first, she felt “reluctant” to be leaving behind one of the world’s most renowned arts scenes. Quickly, however, Crutchfield found creative community in the Elm City.
“Although being here was hard at first, connecting with artists was easy,” she said.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Crutchfield quit her job in New York—which she had been commuting to for four years—and fully immersed herself in New Haven’s arts scene. After taking time to slow down and reflect on her personal goals—even reading through her journals from when she was younger—she decided to start Bloom.
“It was one of those if-you-build-it-they-will-come moments,” Crutchfield said, with a laugh. “I make sure to connect with the well-known and the unknown; the latter is really who I advocate for in my business—those who don’t necessarily have a voice or a scene yet.”
Alongside Crutchfield, arts veteran IfeMichelle Gardin——who has worked for virtually every cultural organization in the city—is bringing her expertise to the commission.
Gardin, born and raised in New Haven, has been immersed in the city’s arts scene for almost six decades. From age 6 to 17, she attended celebrated Black dance school Bowen/Peters under the tutelage of choreographer and activist Angela Bowen. Gardin left to attend Morgan State University in Baltimore for college, where she continued dancing, and, following graduation, moved to New York.
There, her interest in the arts continued to grow. She worked at small theater companies in Harlem and Brooklyn, finding herself immersed within the milieu of the Black Arts Movement and its various outgrowths.
“I felt so connected there,” Gardin said.
In the mid-1990s, she moved back to New Haven and, festival after festival, job after job, has never stopped facilitating creativity in the city.
With Bea Dozier-Taylor, Gardin organized the Ifetayo Cultural Festival, a multimedia Black arts event, and worked with the organization City Spirit Artists to bring artists into local schools. She served as the first community liaison at the Shubert Theatre, creating an exhibit honoring the life of New Haven choreographer and activist Paul Hall, and started the Arts@Work program to teach high school students about theater production.
Gardin has worked for the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and Long Wharf Theatre, organized the city’s Kwanzaa celebrations, and created a theater production summer program for high schoolers.
Gardin’s most recent work has been the creation of Kulturally Lit, an organization focusing on African diasporic literature, which produces the Elm City LIT Festival and is currently planning a series of events to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of James Baldwin.
“Now artists are thriving,” Gardin said, reflecting on several decades of the city’s cultural infrastructure. “There’s a renaissance happening.”
As part of her work on the Commission, Gardin hopes to continue growing New Haven as an arts destination.
“People used to just see us on 95 passing between Boston and New York,” Gardin said. “We can be as major as that.”
Crutchfield and Gardin are joined on the Cultural Affairs Commission by Kelly Wuzzardo, the director of education and engagement at the Shubert Theatre. Wuzzardo has worked in the dramatic arts in New Haven since 2002.
Kelly Wuzzardo. Photo by Lucy Gellman.
“After 20 years of being here, it seemed like a good time to give back and join the Commission,” Wuzzardo said. “A lot of my job already is about access.”
In the past she has worked alongside community groups, nonprofits, and the Department of Arts, Culture, and Tourism to plan public arts events, and on the Commission she hopes to continue this work.
Wuzzardo particularly wants to focus on fostering youth programming. “It’s amazing to see a child see their first live performance, especially when they see people like them on stage,” she said.
“Everybody has something to offer, and we all have something to learn from each other, and it’s an exciting time to see what the next generation does with the arts.”