We shape our unique year-long Fellowships program as an incubator. We combine support in administrative and theoretical aspects of the profession with individual mentorship. We bring leaders in the field to our cohort of artists, curators, and apprentices.

Our paid high school Apprenticeship program focused one-on-one mutual learning, gives the next local generation a chance to grow and excel in the fine arts.

We encourage collaboration between artists, art professionals, and local entrepreneurs to further New Haven’s growing creative community. Our space is a public, yet protected place dedicated to nurturing the growth of our Fellows and Apprentices as well as of our neighborhood. Our events and exhibitions respond to our community of artists, curators, and neighbors.

NXTHVN was founded by Titus Kaphar, Jason Price, and Jonathan Brand. Their core aim was two-fold: to build an alternative model of art mentorship and career advising through a specially designed curriculum, and to simultaneously set into motion significant opportunities for emerging local entrepreneurs.

In the spirit of adaptive reuse, NXTHVN is located in two former manufacturing plants in the Dixwell neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut. The space was designed by Deborah Berke Partners and opened its fellowship wing in 2019 to our inaugural cohort of studio and curatorial fellows.

NXTHVN is a registered 501C3 organization.

NXTHVN is rooted in the Dixwell neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut. We opened our first artist studio wing in 2019 and continue to grow as a multi-use arts and creative center. 

Dixwell is adjacent to New Haven’s downtown area and is bordered to the south by the Yale University campus. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the neighborhood was a vibrant and diverse worker’s community with a vibrant jazz scene and prosperous local economy. Traversed by the Farmington Canal, which was once a canal and later a railway connecting the New Haven Harbor with the Connecticut River, Dixwell was home to small-scale manufacturing interspersed with working-class residential living.

Now predominantly an African American neighborhood with ongoing economic challenges common to postindustrial regions, the area stands in contrast to its university neighbor. NXTHVN is committed to cultivating cultural entrepreneurship and social innovation in Dixwell and beyond through our signature programs, co-working space, and business incubator. Our public program of exhibitions and events deepens and strengthens the connections between local concerns and our Fellows’ creative research, building on Dixwell’s potential while honoring its cultural past.

Deborah Berke Partners redesigned, connected, and expanded a former laboratory supplies manufacturing plant with the neighboring defunct ice cream factory to construct a contemporary multi-use space that is particularly suited for innovative, creative work and community building. Preserving the humble, functional characteristics of the original buildings, they infused the site with light, to adapt focused working spaces for flexible forms of public, accessible use.

In addition to NXTHVN’s state-of-the-art co-working space, art gallery, forthcoming black box theater and cafe,  NXTHVN’s campus include 14 artist studios, business incubation offices, artist-in-residency tower, and reception spaces.