The Institute Library

Jazz
2026-08-21 17:15 - 20:00, 2026-08-14 17:15 - 20:00, 2026-08-07 17:15 - 20:00, 2026-07-31 17:15 - 20:00, 2026-07-24 17:15 - 20:00, 2026-07-17 17:15 - 20:00, 2026-07-10 17:15 - 20:00, 2026-07-03 17:15 - 20:00 (America/New_York) and 12 more dates | The Institute LIbrary, 847 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT, 06510
Although always subject to change as to artistic spotlight, Friday Night Jazz will continue a swinging tour of that great American art form, “LP Jazz”, meeting at 5:15 or so every Friday, in the third floor music room, to consider, contemplate and appreciate the wonders in the Collection.
Friday Night Jazz is, as always, a BYOB, BYO Snack evening; the crowd’s always appreciative and always excited to see what people bring. Updates to the schedule, including inclement weather closures, will be provided via the internal Jazz email list. Want to be added to that list? Let us know!
Please consider making a $5 donation when you come to Friday Jazz.
Friday Night Jazz is presented with support from Jazz Haven www.jazzhaven.org

BRIDGE
2026-08-10 19:00 - 20:30, 2026-07-13 19:00 - 20:30, 2026-06-08 19:00 - 20:30, 2026-05-11 19:00 - 20:30, 2026-04-13 19:00 - 20:30
A low key evening of bridge, for people who know how and people who don’t know anything at all.

Listen Here! -- June 16, 2026
2026-06-16 19:00 - 21:00
Short stories read by members of the New Haven Theater Company, with talkback afterwards led by Bennett Lovett-Graff. Tea and cookies available for those who need caloric sustenance and warmth; stories and dialogue takes care of warming heart and soul. This event is free and open to the public; donations to the Institute Library are, however, welcomed.

Listen Here! -- May 19, 2026
2026-05-19 19:00 - 21:00

Listen Here! -- April 21
2026-04-21 19:00 - 21:00

Panreality
2026-04-18 16:00 - 18:00
Panreality is a new exhibition curated by Maxim Schmidt, with a soft opening April 8 and an opening reception on the 18th. Panreality is an invented term to describe the whole of each of our experienced realities, colored beyond the literal, objective world by the ephemeral, the emotional, the surrealistic, the indescribable. This exhibition will highlight artists who explore this beyond, and how these additional facets of experience make a moment truly lived within.
This Gallery event is free and open to the public; we do want to remind people who’ve never been here before that the Institute Library can only be reached by walking up a flight of stairs, and the Library is not ADA-compliant. As always, donations in support of the Gallery Upstairs are welcome!

The Institute Library Goes to Kansas?: A Special Event at the Institute Library
2026-04-09 19:00 - 21:00
A free, open to the public talk about one of the most unlikely-sounding chapters in the history of The Institute Library: the chapter in which a group of members of this place (which was then known as The Young Mens’ Institute Library) decamped for Kansas to do their part to support the abolitionist movement in the developing American Midwest.
A man named Baldwin deeded land in Wabaunsee, Kansas, to the Library. No, really. And then a bunch of Library members went out to settle the land and… yeah. History happened.
Come to the Library on Thursday, April 9th and hear volunteers Frank Cochran and MT Taylor deliver a talk on their findings, which are the result of astonishing research efforts on their part. Scouring archives here in New Haven and in Kansas, Frank and MT made some astounding discoveries.
