2026 Annual Meeting session – Friday, June 12
Town and Gown: Models of New Haven’s Arts Community Partnerships
Join arts administrators from the Yale School of Art, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and the City of New Haven for a conversation highlighting unique partnerships across university arts programs, cultural institutions, and the city.
About this session
Attendees will learn what prompted these collaborations, what it took to realize the vision, and how these programs benefit students and community members alike.
Stay after the session to learn more about NXTHVN and tour their studio spaces with Jasmin Agosto (she/they), NXTHVN’s Programs & Exhibition Manager.
Speakers
Speaker
Annie Lin (she/her)
Director of Community Engagement and Strategies
Yale School of Art
Annie Lin loves to be around artmaking and artmakers. She is the daughter of immigrants from Taiwan and a transplant to New Haven from Morro Bay, California. As the Director of Community Engagement and Strategies at the Yale School of Art, Annie explores intersections between community and creativity through partnerships. Annie currently serves on the boards of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and facilitates artist development programs. She was previously the Director of Arts Programs at Yale-China, where she founded the annual New Haven citywide Lunarfest celebration, built out a Hong Kong artist residency program with the Yale School of Drama, and established a New Haven Free Public Library advocacy program with Dwight Hall for monolingual Chinese residents in the New Haven area. Annie studied music as an undergraduate at Yale and received her master’s degree in education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Speaker
Caitlin Daly-Gonzalez (she/her)
Education Director, New Haven Symphony Orchestra
Internship Coordinator/Lecturer, Arts Administration Minor, Southern CT State University
Arts Advocate and Educator Caitlin Daly-Gonzales has served as the Education Director for the New Haven Symphony Orchestra (NHSO) and the Internship Coordinator and Lecturer in Arts Administration at Southern CT State University. Her career as an educator has taken her from the classroom as professor at the University of Hawaii-Manoa to public schools in Connecticut, and now as a facilitator of arts learning and access. In her work at the NHSO, she designs and implements impactful educational programming, including innovative collaborations with regional schools, communities, families, and students. In addition to her leadership at the NHSO, Daly-Gonzales plays a vital role in shaping the next generation of cultural leaders through her work with Southern Connecticut State University’s Arts Administration minor.
Speaker
Joel M. Dodson (he/him)
Professor of English | Co-Coordinator, Arts Administration and Cultural Advocacy (AACA) Minor
Southern CT State University (SCSU)
Joel M. Dodson is Professor of English and a coordinator and founder of the Arts Administration and Cultural Advocacy minor at Southern Connecticut State University, launched in 2021. He holds a PhD in Early Modern English literature and drama from the University of Notre Dame (2011) and has published on the role of poverty, aesthetics, and religion in the Age of Shakespeare. His forthcoming essay, “Applied Shakespeare: Education, Precarity, and Careers in the Arts” (in Titanic Optimism, Bloomsbury Press, 2026) examines the intersection of arts administration and “applied humanities” programs at regional universities, drawing upon the early lessons and community partnerships of the AACA program at Southern. He is a board member of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven.
Speaker
Mike Skinner (he/him)
Chairperson, Department of Theatre | Production Manager, SCSU Theatre | Associate Professor of Theatre
Southern CT State University (SCSU)
Mike is an Associate Professor and Chairperson for the Department of Theatre at SCSU. For thirty years he has been involved in the performing arts scene in the New Haven area and is a founding coordinator of the Arts Administration and Cultural Advocacy program at SCSU. Mike received recognition from the Kennedy Center’s National American College Theatre Festival in 2022 for “Administrative Championing” for his arts and cultural advocacy. He curates the partnerships between SCSU and The Elm Shakespeare Company, Long Wharf Theatre, and the Shubert Theatre in New Haven. Mike has production managed over fifty productions at SCSU and sound designed for productions at Yale Rep, Long Wharf Theatre, Hartford Stage, and many more. Education: MFA, Yale School of Drama.
Moderator
Moderator
Jennifer Harrison Newman (she/her)
Associate Artistic Director
Yale Schwarzman Center
Jennifer Harrison Newman joined the Yale Schwarzman Center in 2019. An artistic director, producer, educator, choreographer, and performance artist with over twenty-five years in the visual and performing arts, she has collaborated extensively with artists across disciplines throughout her career pushing the boundaries of dance, opera, and theater. Jennifer has been an artist in residence at Princeton University, Yale University, Central Connecticut State University, The Field, Mabou Mines, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 651 Arts, and Sisters Academy Inkonst, and has led workshops across the United States, Sweden, South Africa, China, and Mexico. Jennifer received her BA from UCLA and her MFA from Yale School of Drama.