Hartford has all the amenities of a regional cultural center. The city has resident professional stage, symphony, opera, and ballet companies, and is home to many excellent non-professional artistic organizations. Across the street from our CityPlace offices is the Hartford Civic Center, which hosts top-name performing artists regularly. Major concerts and musical productions also can be found at the historic Bushnell Auditorium, TheaterWorks, Hartford Stage and Bushnell Park is the site of a weekly summer program of jazz and contemporary music. Also downtown is the renowned Wadsworth Athenaeum, oldest public art museum in the nation, famous for its premier collection of American art. The several area colleges add to a busy schedule of music, drama, film, and art programs. The city also has a broad variety of restaurants and shops.

For sports fans, Hartford has many attractions. The Connecticut State Armory is the home of the Connecticut Pride, a Continental Basketball Association franchise. The Civic Center is the home of the Hartford Wolf Pack a franchise of the American Hockey League and the American Basketball League's New England Blizzard Team which features three players from the UConn Lady Huskies' Championship Team of 1995. NCAA Division I basketball action at the Civic Center includes the perennially powerhouse Huskies from the University of Connecticut, the University of Hartford, and frequently, NCAA regional playoff games. The Class AA franchise of the Minnesota Twins - the Hardware City Rock Cats - plays in New Britain, about 20 minutes from Hartford. The Canon Greater Hartford Open is a major PGA tournament that draws large crowds each summer, and the July Fourth Riverfest is the largest event of its kind in New England. The Hartford Marathon, usually held in October, and the Manchester Road Race, at Thanksgiving, are growing attractions for runners from all over the world.

Life in New Haven is equally active. With its Yale community, its location on the Connecticut shoreline, and its proximity to Manhattan, New Haven has a unique blend of attractions. The Yale Repertory, the Long Wharf, and the venerable Shubert all provide New Haven with some of the best regional theater in the country, and New Haven is often a first stop for plays headed for Broadway. From jazz concerts on the Green to the Pilot Pen International Tennis Tournament, there are many summer entertainment choices. Yale's art museums, sports teams and intellectual activity lend a youthful vibrancy to the Elm City. Best known in some quarters as the home of the world's finest pizzas, New Haven offers excellent restaurants of all varieties.