The New Haven Pride Center is moving from the basement of 84 Orange St. into a brand-new, street level space at 50 Orange St. Last month, they signed a 10-year lease on the space that Artspace New Haven previously occupied. The plan is to fill the bright, new property with community meeting spaces, a private room for support and affinity groups, an area for artist pop-ups and maker fairs, and much more—plus the visibility the street-front spot with provide.
“It just feels so good to think that this year, we came out of everything with this space,” Pride Center’s Executive Director Juancarlos Soto said in a statement from the Greater New Haven Arts Council, which reports on their website:
The move has been years in the making. Since the Center’s first paid director started in 2017, staff members have spoken often about the need for a space that can accommodate the organization’s growing footprint, which in a given week includes support and affinity groups, youth game nights and back-to-school celebrations, public discussions around LGBTQ+ rights, and a food pantry and clothing and hygiene closets. In the past year, the space has also been growing its lending library, with titles designed for LGBTQ+ readers and allies of all ages.
For years, all of that work has taken place out of sight, in the basement offices of Svigals + Partners at 84 Orange St. To get into the building—the front door to which doesn’t fit most motorized wheelchairs—people have to ring a bell, appear on a ring camera, get buzzed in, and then descend down to the basement. Downstairs, the space is cramped and often overheated, with offices and a central room that don’t always allow for the privacy staff and community members want or need.
While showing mayoral hopeful Liam Brennan around the space earlier this year, Executive Director Juancarlos Soto stressed the importance of simply being visible, and not wanting patrons to feel like they were being forced back into the closet while they were seeking out services. Now, he and the Center’s six fellow staff members are able to build their vision for a larger community resource hub, where multiple groups can be meeting at any given time.
In what was once Artspace’s street-facing front gallery, Soto plans to have an office just for case management, supervised under the direction of Support Services Coordinator Bennie Saldana. Behind it, he sees public and private space for the community, including enough room for multiple support groups to meet at any given time. In the back, Artspace’s former kitchen will become a well-stocked food pantry; two restrooms will become community resources. Outside, he plans to fly a large Pride flag, so there won’t be any question about where the Center is.
“We’re making sure that we’re inviting community members and organizations that haven’t always worked with us,” Soto said. Those include the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK), three churches that surround the New Haven Green, Junta for Progressive Action, Connecticut Students for a Dream (C4D), the Connecticut Oral Health Initiative and a relationship with YNHH that provides free clinical support for LGBTQ+ youth seeking therapy.
“We’ve always wanted to provide those things, but we didn’t have the space,” he said. “In every sense, we want to make this as much the community’s [space] as it is our space.”
Read the complete story at newhavenarts.org; more: newhavenpridecenter.org
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