Step inside the story behind one of New Haven's most iconic murals. Meet artist Tony Falcone and explore his original sketches, models, and artwork for the legendary Sports Haven mural, along with other pieces celebrating New Haven's rich artistic history.
Event Details:
Gallery Closing Reception for Tony Falcone
Date: Thursday, August 13th
Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Admission: $10 (Includes admission to the museum)
Parking: There are parking lots on both sides of the building and ample unmetered street parking.
The Anchor Bar will be open with snacks and refreshments for purchase.
About the Artist:
Tony Falcone has created art on a professional commissioned basis since 1974. This year, marks his fifty-second year as a wholly self-taught artist. In 2024, in collaboration with five long-time/repeat Patrons and arts organizations, Falcone celebrated his 50th anniversary with exhibits, artist-talks, and tours of his on-site commissioned work around the state, accompanied by receptions.
Born in New Haven, Tony served as a New Haven firefighter for seven years until he discovered his love of painting murals and established Falcone Art Studio in a vintage dairy barn located in Prospect, Connecticut. It is there, as well as on location throughout the country, that Tony creates his “imaginistic” murals, canvases, portraits, and sculpture. Falcone’s early monumental exterior murals include: “La Aquariata”, (10,000 sq. ft. mural on the Cinemart Movie Theater, Hamden, CT); “A New Dawn” (TYCO, New Haven); and “Fast Track” (Sports Haven, New Haven, CT). More recently in 2024, “Westbrook, a Friendly Port” was unveiled in Westbrook, CT.
From 2000 through 2014, Falcone was commissioned by the U.S. Coast Guard Alumni Association Class of 1962, to create a series of 14 highly-detailed, historically-researched, mural-sized oil paintings on linen for its Historical Murals Project, designed for the interior of its Cadet Reading Room at the USCG Academy in New London, CT. The artworks depict the history of the U.S. Coast Guard from WWII through September 11, 2001. A replica of Falcone’’s “9/11” painting, highlighting the Coast Guard’s critical role in the evacuation of 650,000 people from Battery Park in Lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001, was exhibited in 2011 at the Intrepid Museum in Manhattan in conjunction with NYC’s 10th anniversary Retrospective of 9/11, honoring first responders from all branches of the U.S. Military Service organizations. The ninth painting in the Historical Murals series, an 11 ft. canvas entitled “D-Day Landings at Omaha Beach”, was unveiled at the Academy on D-Day’s 65th anniversary commemorative ceremony June 5, 2009. For D-Day’s 75th anniversary in 2019, a replica of Falcone’s Omaha Beach mural was sent to Normandy for France’s 75th Anniversary of D-Day.
Other notable Falcone mural commissions in Connecticut include: a floor mural for the Yale University Peabody Museum of Natural History; a commemorative trompe l’oeil mural for the Alumni Center at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy entitled “Cadets’ Journey”; as well as murals at Yale University Law School, Floyd Little Regional Field House at Hillhouse High School in New Haven, Albertus Magnus College, the Fusco Corporation, downtown Old Saybrook, historically-themed artworks for the “Choo Choo Lounge” at Saybrook Point Resort & Marina, and an exterior mural in Westbrook, CT.
Tony’s executive, heirloom and architectural portraits are held in the collections of: Albertus Magnus College; AIDS Project New Haven; Gateway Community College; Hospital of Saint Raphael; International Aero Engines, Glastonbury; Michelle’s House (New Haven’s Sickle Cell Community House); New Alliance Bank; the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce; Ronald McDonald House; Saybrook Point Resort & Marina; the Sewall Foundation in Portland, Maine; Superior and Probate Courts in New Haven and Hartford; the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London; Yale School of Medicine; Yale School of Nursing; Yale New Haven Health Services; the Vidone Birthing Center and Smilow Cancer Center at Yale New Haven Hospital. In addition, Falcone’s portrait of America’s tall ship barque Eagle, entitled “Leading the Way” commissioned by the National Coast Guard Museum, Inc., was unveiled in 2015 at the New York Yacht Club to launch the Museum’s national capital drive.
Later on in his career, Falcone began sculpting. In 2014, his bronze portrait bust of NFL Hall of Fame star, Otto Graham, former Athletic Director and Coach of the U.S.C.G. Academy football team, was unveiled at the ribbon-cutting of the new USCGA Otto Graham Hall of Athletic Excellence in New London, CT. Next, a “prehistoric” fish sculpture was created for a private lake-side residence. More recently, Falcone’s 7’ tall statue of a French soldier, “Marching Toward Freedom”, has been installed in the Rochambeau Memorial Monument, in Meadowview Park, Middlebury CT, marking the encampment of Compe de Rochambeau ‘s French regiment on their round-trip march from Newport, RI to Yorktown, VA to assist American troops win the American Revolutionary War.
Today, Falcone Art Studio (https://www.falconeartstudio.com) is known for its broad spectrum of fine artworks. Falcone’s monumental murals, highly detailed canvases, heirloom quality portraits, and sculpture enhance public spaces, corporate and educational settings, parks and private homes. Widely known for his skill in capturing familiar landscapes and cityscapes, the Artist reproduces these nostalgic images as collectible fine art reproductions including prints, posters, Giclees, etchings, greeting cards, paperweights and medallions.
To balance his large and highly detailed commissions, Falcone enjoys teaching a variety of classes for Artsplace in Cheshire, CT, and has illustrated several children’s books recently, including: “Mermaid Under the Bridge” and “Jeffrey, the Prince of Perkins Cove” both by author Brenda Goodale; and “Leila Looks for a Moose” by Victor Visockis.
Falcone is the recipient of the Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, CT. He was featured in “Artists Next Door: A Great City’s Creative Spirit” published in New Haven, CT by Cheever Tyler and was selected to join New Haven’s Sister Cities’ Artists’ Contingent traveling to Avignon, France to exhibit his work. Falcone is a member of the Portrait Society of America, and lives in Cheshire, CT with Judith Andrews, his partner, business manager, and muse.