New Haven Sketchers takes art to the commonplace; farmers markets, rivers, farms, canals and more, showcasing that an “official” space is inessential for producing powerful, inspired art.

Founded in Sept. 2023, New Haven Sketchers is a free and open group of creatives who meet weekly to explore the city through art making. Inspired after a work trip to San Francisco where she joined a national Urban Sketchers meetup, Celia Poirier worked with Alex Krofta to develop their frequent around-the-town sketches into an official group. Due to many local makerspaces having membership fees, New Haven Sketchers is an outlet for artists looking for an inclusive spot to create.

“We didn’t see any other groups that were currently doing this here in the way we envisioned — something that encouraged a consistent creative practice; observing and/or reimagining the landscape and our relationship to it; bringing in ecological / architectural / historical / cultural context where we could,” co-organizers Poirier and Krofta wrote in an email. “And above all, focusing on process, practice and fun over the final product, treating everything as an experiment and art-making as a kind of play.” 

Working in everyday places, besides being cost effective, pushes people to search for beauty in the “boring” or “basic.” Frank Dormer, a children’s book author-illustrator and meeting attendee since Oct. 2024, explained how “there is a range of the way people see and interpret the same thing.” Poirier added, “We do not provide instruction because we’re interested in what people come up with on their own. How do you use a paper and a pen to communicate your observations? To explore? To experiment?” 

When asked about a favorite project, Poirier and Krofta wrote about Long Water Land, a free community education and art-making series along the Quinnipiac River. In collaboration with the Ely Center of Contemporary Art and many community partners who provided introductions to each of six sites along the river, several historical, cultural, and ecological perspectives were shared. “This included the history of oystering in Fairhaven, Indigenous history at Quinnipiac Meadows, industrial history at Wallace Mill in Wallingford, conservation at Riverbend Audubon

Sanctuary, an abandoned floodplain neighborhood in North Haven, and a lesson on fluvial geomorphology with Save the Sound,” the co-founders described. 

Rachel Nussbaum, who received her Master of Public Health from Yale, attended her first meeting last week at the Farmington Canal. There, she sketched the plants along the canal, as well as a landscape of the tunnel. Although not inherently beautiful, all of the artists found strong inspiration in the group setting. 

“It’s so rare to find places where you don’t have to pay. Here, you can just be around the community without any pressure to spend. I’m so glad this group exists,” she said. “I feel like it’s been really exciting to find these parts of New Haven that are so community oriented. Anyone can come to these!”

“The hard part is definitely not having any financial support,” Poirier wrote. The group personally funds every project that they work on. “It’s a huge barrier to things that we want to do,” she said. 

Vera Ting, who has attended the sketch meetings four times, agrees that it can be a bit harder to get into the pricey community and “workshop-type things” in New Haven. 

Yet that doesn’t stop them from persisting. Their first pop-up show was hosted at the Creative Arts Workshop gallery only two months after the group began. Poirier wrote, “we continue to be inspired week after week by the people who show up. Alex and I are the facilitators, holding the space. It’s the people who fill that space that makes it what it is. I am so moved when people thank us for what we do — but in reality they are the ones who create this.” Additionally, the New Haven Sketchers collaborate with other groups and institutions, organize art shows and try to highlight small business, cultural events and environmental causes with their meet-up locations. 

“Certain places feel kind of walled-off or have barriers like membership or rental fees,” the co-organizers wrote. “But at the same time, artists are resourceful and create their own spaces where none exist — we love that the ‘space’ our group occupies is metaphorical, and hopefully even perpetuates this idea that art and collaboration can happen anywhere.” 

New Haven Sketchers continues to meet weekly across the city, encouraging creativity, connection, and accessibility in art-making.

This article was written for the Yale Daily News’ 2025 Summer Journalism Program for high school students.