The Connecticut Commission on the Arts, established in 1965, has 20 members appointed by the general assembly and 5 by the governor. It administers a state art collection and establishes policies for an art bank program. The Commission also partners with the New England Foundation for the Arts. The Connecticut Humanities Council was established in 1974 and has since distributed over $12 million to more than 900 nonprofit organizations statewide. In 2003, Connecticut arts organizations received grants totaling $1,232,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2000, $1,437,928 was granted to 16 projects through the National Endowment for the Humanities. State funds are also vital to both organizations.
In the 1990s, the state's arts programs had a total audience attendance of over 18 million people per year, and the number of participating artists totaled over 80,000. Connecticut's arts education programs were offered to 23,100 schoolchildren. There were approximately 900 arts associations in the state and 65 local arts groups.
Art museums in Connecticut include the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, the oldest (1842) free public art museum in the US; the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven; the New Britain Museum of American Art; and the Lyman Allyn Museum of Connecticut College in New London. The visual arts are easily accessible through numerous other art museums, galleries, and more than 150 annual arts shows and festivals.
The theater is vibrant in contemporary Connecticut, which has numerous dinner theaters, at least l00 community theater groups, and many college and university theater groups. Professional theaters include the American Shakespeare Festival Theater in Stratford, the Long Wharf Theater and the Yale Repertory Theater in New Haven, the Hartford Stage Company, and the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater Center in Waterford.
The state's foremost metropolitan orchestras are the Hartford and New Haven symphonies. Professional opera is presented by the Stanford State Opera and by the Connecticut Opera in Hartford. Prominent dance groups include the Connecticut Dance Company in New Haven, the Hartford Ballet Company, and the Pilobolus Dance Theater in the town of Washington.
The annual International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven has grown steadily since its inception in 1996 and now presents over 300 events throughout the month of June. The Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, presented every summer at the Hill Stead Museum in Farmington, reportedly draws about 1,500 to 3,000 people per reading event.