MISSION STATEMENT

To be an educational and cultural resource center, accessible to a broad and diverse population of all ages, devoted to fostering creativity through participation in and appreciation of, the visual arts.

HISTORY OF CAW

Creative Arts Workshop was founded in 1961 as a learning center for beginning and professional artists alike. From the outset, CAW had a dual commitment to excellence in visual arts education and service to the Greater New Haven community.

In 1972, due to an ever-increasing demand for classes, and with generous support from the New Haven Community, Creative Arts Workshop constructed its own permanent building on Audubon Street. The Workshop is now part of the Audubon Arts District, 1992 recipient of a Connecticut Arts Award for "extraordinary achievements".

Today, CAW offers a wide range of classes in fine arts and crafts in its own three-story building with fully equipped studio facilities. Over 2,000 adults and 1,000 young people now enroll annually in the 300 + courses offered by the school. Classes are open to students of all ages and levels of experience. For advanced students and professional artists working in the community, the Workshop provides specialized, intensive workshops and studio access. Over fifty professional artists serve as instructors, encouraging student commitment to the highest standards. Classes are kept small to ensure that individual attention can be given to everyone. The Workshop is committed to keeping tuition fees as low as possible and to providing tuition assistance to those in financial need.

The Workshop also maintains an active exhibition program in its two-story Hilles Gallery with a series of exhibitions presenting diverse aspects of the arts and crafts industry that relate to the school's educational programs. More than 30,000 people visit exhibitions in the Gallery over the course of the year. All exhibitions are open to the public free of charge.

Creative Arts Workshop is a nonprofit organization supported by tuition fees, its membership, and art related fundraising events. Many exhibitions are sponsored by local businesses. Special projects and programs have received grants from the Federal and State Government, private foundations, local corporations and individual donors.

Busy at Work in 1963

This photo of Ann P. Lehman , a founder of CAW, appeared in an unknown newspaper on January 24, 1963 with the following article:

Ann Lehman Exhibits in Festival on Feb. 3 (1963)

Sparks will be flying at High Plains School in Orange on Saturday, Feb. 3, when Mrs. Ann Lehman of Hamden, well-known metal sculptress, will be one of several artists giving demonstrations at the "Festival of Creative Arts" to be sponsored by the school Parent-Teacher Assoc. The sparks will fly as Mrs. Lehman demonstrates welding, cutting and brazing, working directly with metal and an oxy-acetylene torch. Masks will be provided for close observers.

Widely exhibited throughout the east, the sculptress has won many awards. Locally her work can be seen at the Ross Talalay Gallery and in the Temple Mishkan Israel. Recent commissions were for Brass and Copper Industry of Waterbury for the Waterbury Arts Festival, and for the Landow Insurance Company in New Haven.

Mrs. Lehman graduated as an Art major from Smith, afterwards studying sculpture in Italy, at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and the Yale School of Art and Architecture. She lives in Hamden with her husband and their three children and has been president of the Creative Arts Workshop since its incorporation in 1961.

The artists who will actively create their work at the festival will also display work. Among those artists will be: Mrs. Charles Schmidt, ceramics; E.S. Mullins, sketches and paintings; Jerry Dill, photography; Marvin Perlin, woodcarving; Mrs. Lois McCormick, copper enameling; Mrs. Albert Lehman, welded sculpture; Paul Geyser, glass blowing; Mrs. James Lass, weaving; Marvin Wallertstein, pottery; Mrs. Daniel Smith, Mrs. Willian Keller and Mrs. Helen Lynch, knitting and needlework; Miss Margaret Sanders, silk screening; Mrs. Ruth Davis and Mrs. Connie Charleson, rug hooking; Mr. and Mrs. John Burke, pouring and designing tin. The Garden Club of Orange will make and display arrangements and The Homemaker's Club of Orange will do quilting and crewel work.

Admission for adults will be 50c, children under 12 accompanied by parents will be free.

Caption: BUSY AT WORK on a piece of metal sculpture is Mrs. Albert P. Lehman of Allene Drive, who is to take part in a Creative Arts Festival in Orange on Feb. 3.