How do you connect with yourself, your roots, your world? Rethink community. Honor the Earth. Embrace your roots. Meet new neighbors. Baila en la calle. Break the fourth wall. Learn something new. Connect with the Festival, and connect it all.

The International Festival of Arts & Ideas returns for its 30th Festival from June 14th through June 28th, 2025, with over 150 events.

Arts & Ideas seeks to showcase how artistic genres connect to one another, and how our roots intertwine across generations, planting seeds for the future even as we embody the legacies of our past. Our city and community connect us all through shared space and vital issues.

The Festival embraces the multi-faceted nature of all of us by finding ways to connect performance and workshop, new skills and old, and strangers through the arts.

The International Festival of Arts & Ideas is a year-round organization that culminates with an annual celebration of performing arts, lectures, and conversations each summer in New Haven, Connecticut. The Festival convenes leading artists, thought leaders, and innovators from around the world for dynamic public programs to engage, entertain, and inspire a diversity of communities.

The Festival programs have an impact throughout the year and include additional performances, educational opportunities, and the annual Visionary Leadership Award. The Festival was established in 1996, by Anne Calabresi, Jean M. Handley, and Roslyn Meyer, who envisioned an annual celebration in New Haven—a city steeped in a rich array of cultural and educational traditions—distinguished from other arts festivals by its fusion of the arts with events centered on sharing ideas.

The Festival is presented with major support from Yale University, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Connecticut Office of the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts with additional support from The City of New Haven, Connecticut Humanities, a non-profit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, media sponsor Connecticut Public, and our generous community of individual supporters.