Current Exhibitions

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New Haven’s Unfinished Revolutions

On view now

Exploring New Haven’s role in national movements that have redefined the meaning of freedom, this major exhibition offers a fresh perspective on the founding principles of our democracy, as the nation commemorates the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this year.
With bold and immersive design, New Haven’s Unfinished Revolutions emphasizes significant moments when freedoms were expanded or restricted in the Elm City.

Through original objects, floor-to-ceiling photographs, a captivating interactive, and other multi-media opportunities, visitors can consider transformative moments of change and the unfinished process of creating and maintaining a democracy.

Joanna Steinberg, the Museum’s Director of Learning and Engagement, served as Project Director. Steinberg worked closely with a team of advisors from across the community throughout the process: Daisha Brabham, Jenny (JHD) Heikkila Diaz, Sophie E. Edelstein, Eve Galanis, Aaron Goode, Steve Kass, Michael Morand, Brett Palfreyman, Clan Mother Shoran Waupatukuay Piper, Reva Siegel, Charles E. Warner, Jr., and Brittney Yancy.

The exhibition was designed by David Jon Walker and John Kudos of KASA Collective.
Support for New Haven’s Unfinished Revolutions has been provided by CT Humanities as part of its America 250 | CT program.

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Pronounced Ah-Beetz

On view through October 2027

From Frank Pepe’s original hat to celebrity-signed pizza boxes (including Gwyneth Paltrow and Yogi Berra!), if you love the crust, the crunch and the char of New Haven apizza, or simply have strong views on what comprises a good pie, you’ll find something to feed your personal pizza passion in the exhibit “Pronounced Ah-Beetz,” at the New Haven Museum (NHM), which is on view through October 2027.

“Pronounced Ah-Beetz” examines the fun, the flavor and the history of pizza, including its origin as an affordable means of feeding workers in the fields of Italy, and how it became the food of the poor in the U.S. The Italian migration to New Haven gave way to Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana, which gave birth to Sally’s Apizza, while a mile away Tony’s Apizza became Modern. How these three establishments became among the most iconically loved pizza restaurants in the country is a major focus of the exhibition.

While the exhibit highlights the “Big 3”original apizza spots in New Haven, it also extends through the family tree of New Haven pizzerias to present a picture of family, food and community that includes a host of other local pizzerias, including: Ernie’s, Zuppardi’s, BAR, Zeneli’s, Olde World, and the Big Green Pizza Truck, among others.

“Pronounced Ah-Beetz” is co-curated by Jason Bischoff-Wurstle, director of photo archives at NHM, and Gorman Bechard, Dean Falcone, and Colin M. Caplan, the producing team behind the documentary, ”Pizza A Love Story.” Bechard is a filmmaker who has directed over 20 feature films and written five novels. Falcone is a musician/composer who lured many of his famous friends to appear in the film. He has scored numerous films and played with the likes of Aimee Mann, Norah Jones, Neko Case, Eddie Vedder, and countless others. Caplan is the author of “Pizza in New Haven,” owner of Taste of New Haven and organizer of the yearly Apizza Feast.

Bechard notes that the exhibit evolved as interest in the local pies has grown dramatically over the past decade. He describes Caplan as the “brain trust” for the history of pizza in the Elm City. “The seeds for this exhibit took root back in 2009, when Dean and I began work on the documentary,” Bechard said, “Once we brought Colin into the mix everything came together.”

Fresh from a Caplan-arranged trip to D.C. where New Haven was proclaimed “Pizza Capital of the U.S.” by Representative Rosa DeLauro, he, Bechard, and Falcone obtained first-hand oral histories and apizza-related artifacts from personal collections. Combining video footage adapted from the documentary with vintage artifacts and photographs, “We fully immerse viewers into replicas of the ‘Big 3’ pizzerias, complete with a very realistic brick oven,” says Bechard. “We’ve also incorporated short histories of Foxon Park Soda, and some of the beer served locally.”

The exhibit’s title, “Pronounced Ah-Beetz,” comes from the way many people mispronounce the word apizza, which originally grew out of the Italian la pizza.

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Invitation to Engage: 60 Years of Long Wharf Theatre & Beyond

On view through September 4 2026

In honor of Long Wharf Theatre’s 60th anniversary and in partnership with the New Haven Museum, this immersive exhibition invites visitors to explore the company’s groundbreaking history through rare photographs, interactive displays, and recreated spaces like a rehearsal room and a production set. Rooted in the pillars of artistic innovation, radical inclusivity, and kaleidoscopic partnerships, Invitation to Engage is more than a retrospective — it’s a call to reflect, participate, and imagine the theatre’s next 60 years.

Learn more about Long Wharf Theatre’s history and legacy. www.longwharf.org

Amistad: Retold

Ongoing

The reconceived exhibition “Amistad: Retold” takes a new angle on the familiar story of the Amistad, centering the people who led the revolt and their collective actions to determine their own lives. It also foregrounds New Haven as the site of their incarceration and organizing by Black and white abolitionists.

The 1839 Amistad Revolt was led by 53 West African captives who were being trafficked from Havana’s slave markets on the schooner La Amistad after being kidnapped from their homelands, despite European treaties prohibiting the Atlantic Slave Trade. The Museum notes the diversity of the Amistad captives—their multiethnic, multilingual, and economic backgrounds, with trades that ranged from rice farmer to blacksmith, in addition to weavers, hunters, and merchants. 

Incarcerated for nearly 19 months in New Haven, the Amistad captives worked closely with anti-slavery activists who formed the Amistad Committee and connected with networks of engaged citizens to organize and fundraise for their legal defense. Artists, particularly those based in New Haven, gave representation to the movement by creating engravings and paintings that enabled the public to envision the circumstances of the captives and recognize their individuality and resolve in protecting their freedom. A number of those significant works made their way to the New Haven Museum collection.

Visitors will be immediately surprised by the new visual experience of the gallery – its vibrant colors, transformation of the space, as well as a new acquisition – the color serigraph of artist Jacob Lawrence’s “Revolt on the Amistad,” created in 1989 to commemorate the Amistad Revolt sesquicentennial. A cover image from a Golden Legacy comic book offers a 1970s pop-culture adaptation of NHM’s iconic Sengbe Pieh portrait, which was painted in 1840 by Nathaniel Jocelyn at the time of the trials. The painting has returned to view after two years, following its inclusion in “Afro-Atlantic Histories,” a major traveling exhibition organized by the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. 

In response to questions and comments from students and teachers during workshops, the new exhibition includes a large-scale map that charts the voyages of the Amistad rebels. The map provides context about the continual resistance to the slave trade in West Africa and across the Atlantic, as well as the changing Trans-Atlantic politics in the years preceding the Amistad Revolt in 1839. In addition, New Haven Museum educator Eve Galanis constructed the Amistad: Retold ArcGIS webpage, which illustrates key sites and figures associated with the trials; in New Haven and beyond. This webpage can be a useful tool for teachers and students to dive deeper into the events, geographic sites, and primary sources. Significantly, the permanent exhibition highlights the crucial leadership of Black abolitionists, incorporating excerpts from Black-owned and abolitionist newspapers.  Learn More

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From Clocks to Lollipops: Made in New Haven

Ongoing

Elm City Pins Company Trade Card, circa 1876, lithograph on cardboard, Collection of New Haven Museum

From the Colonial era to the present day, New Haven has produced an astonishing variety of goods, including hardware, carriages, automobile parts and accessories, firearms, corsets, clocks, carpeting, rubber overshoes, clothing, musical instruments, silver-plated wares, candy, and more. Guest Curator Elizabeth Pratt Fox selected more than 100 objects, advertisements, trade cards, photographs and other items for this fascinating look at the production of consumer goods in New Haven over the past 300+ years. 

Form and Function: Decorative Arts from the Collection