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Hamden’s thriving arts community offers entertainment and cultural activities throughout the year.

The Hamden Arts Commission hosts programs for all ages year-round, including the acclaimed Saturday Afternoon Entertainment Series. Programs for families with young children feature puppetry, theater, magic and special appearances by actors like Roscoe Orman, who portrays "Gordon" on Sesame Street. Programs for adults have featured opera, Dixieland jazz, Irish dance and music, and a theater workshop.

The free summer concert series at Meadowbrook Golf Course has brought performers like the Temptations, the Drifters, Three Dog Night and the U.S. Coast Guard Band to Hamden. The Fourth of July concert showcases the talents of the Hamden Wind Symphony and ends with a thrilling fireworks display. This is one of the finest Independence Day celebrations in the state, attracting almost 25,000 people a year.

The Eli Whitney Museum, located in the inventor’s former gun factory, provides a fun and educational look at machinery and technology. Country dances, folk music concerts and summer theater performances are staged in the historic Eli Whitney Barn. Elsewhere in Hamden, the meticulously preserved Jonathan Dickerman House depicts late 18th-century farm life, complete with an herb garden filled with plants once used in folk medicines.

The Hamden Symphony Orchestra, composed of more than 50 volunteers from Quinnipiac University, is now in its 40th year. The New England Academy of Theatre stages plays, readings and original works with both professional performers and amateur thespians.

The Hamden Library System operates three facilities with more than 165,000 books, magazines, audiotapes, videotapes and CDs. Computers link patrons to the Internet and to more than 200 other libraries through a statewide online database.

Hamden residents also enjoy the cultural opportunities of nearby New Haven. Sites of interest include the renowned Peabody Museum of Natural History, the Yale Center for British Art and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which contains a Gutenberg Bible. New Haven also has its own symphony, philharmonic and chamber orchestras and theater groups.

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