Hygienic Art’s YART Sale Digs Into the Closets for an Art-Lover’s Treasure Hunt

Hygienic Art’s YART Sale Digs Into the Closets for an Art-Lover’s Treasure Hunt Saturday, Oct. 3, when the New London arts institution empties its corners and storage spaces for three hours of abandoned artwork, old posters, prints, T-shirts, and whatever other creative oddities have accumulated over the years.

This isn’t a conventional gallery sale.

Hygienic is specifically pulling out unclaimed and abandoned artwork, along with its own memorabilia and assorted odds and ends, and offering it at what the organization describes as bargain-friendly prices.

There may be polished artwork worth hanging over the sofa. There may be a forgotten Hygienic poster from years ago. There may be something wonderfully strange for which no reasonable person has an immediate use.

That’s rather the point.

The YART Sale runs from noon to 3 p.m. at 79 Bank Street, with cold adult beverages also available for purchase.

What Exactly Is a YART Sale?

Think yard sale, except the attic belongs to an arts organization that’s been collecting things for decades.

Hygienic says it is clearing out closets, corners and storage areas, producing a sale that includes artwork that was never reclaimed as well as T-shirts, posters, prints, merchandise and miscellaneous pieces of Hygienic history.

That makes this less predictable than walking into an art gallery knowing what’s currently hanging on the walls.

The organizers aren’t promising a neatly catalogued collection. They’re inviting people to dig.

And at Hygienic, decades of accumulation could make that interesting.

The Place Has Been Collecting Art Since 1979

The YART Sale makes more sense when you understand the institution holding it.

Hygienic Art traces its beginnings to 1979, when a group of New London artists began staging an annual exhibition inside the old Hygienic Restaurant.

The idea was modeled on the independent salon tradition that challenged the gatekeepers of the established Paris art world.

New London’s version developed rules that remain central to Hygienic’s identity: no judge, no jury, no fees and no censorship.

Artists could bring one piece and participate without first convincing a curator or selection committee that their work deserved a wall.

It became an annual tradition.

The restaurant eventually closed, but the artists kept the exhibition alive at other locations. When the old Hygienic building itself was threatened with demolition in the 1990s, the arts community organized to save it.

Hygienic Art ultimately acquired the property in 1998, renovated it and reopened its galleries in 2000.

Today the organization operates galleries, artist live/work spaces and an outdoor Art Park while continuing the annual Hygienic Art exhibition that started the whole thing.

So when Hygienic says it has old art and assorted material tucked away in storage, there is potentially quite a history behind those closets.

Some of the Art Has Literally Been Left Behind

The phrase “unclaimed and abandoned artwork” is what separates this from a normal merchandise clearance.

These aren’t simply reproductions Hygienic ordered too many of.

They are pieces that, for one reason or another, remained behind.

The organization isn’t publishing a complete inventory in advance, which preserves the garage-sale quality of the afternoon. Buyers won’t necessarily know what’s waiting until they start looking.

Hygienic itself sums up the mystery nicely: some pieces have stories, some need new homes, and some apparently fall into a category that requires seeing them in person.

For anyone who enjoys flea markets, estate sales, thrift shops or digging through record-store bins, that uncertainty may be the best part.

Posters and T-Shirts Can Be Little Pieces of New London History

Don’t overlook the non-artwork.

A poster from an old Hygienic event isn’t simply advertising once enough time has passed. It becomes an artifact from New London’s arts scene.

Hygienic’s annual exhibitions have been happening for more than four decades, while the organization has also hosted concerts, festivals, performances and exhibitions throughout the year.

Its Bank Street home has an even longer history.

The building predates Hygienic Art and was associated for decades with the Hygienic Restaurant, once a fixture of downtown New London. The restaurant became the unlikely home of those early artist exhibitions before the nonprofit eventually took over the building itself.

Old Hygienic shirts, prints and posters can therefore carry a little of that history with them.

Exactly which years, designs and events will turn up Saturday isn’t specified. That’s another part of the hunt.

An Art Sale That Fits Hygienic

There is something particularly appropriate about unwanted artwork getting another chance at Hygienic.

This is an organization whose best-known exhibition was built around removing barriers between artists and gallery walls.

Its annual Salon des Indépendants has traditionally accepted work without judging whether it is fashionable, marketable or worthy of inclusion.

Saturday applies a similarly democratic principle to the other end of an artwork’s life.

Something was made.

Somebody left it behind.

Now somebody else gets to decide whether they love it.

No curator required.

More information is available at the Event Website link below.

Details

Event: YART Sale
Date: Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026
Time: Noon–3 p.m.
Location: Hygienic Art
Address: 79 Bank Street, New London, CT 06320
Sale Includes: Unclaimed and abandoned artwork, Hygienic Art T-shirts and merchandise, posters, prints, odds and ends and other creative finds
Prices: Described by Hygienic Art as bargain-friendly; individual prices have not been published
Adult Beverages: Cold adult beverages will be available for purchase
Admission: No separate admission charge is listed for the sale
Phone: 860-443-8001
Regular Gallery Hours Saturday: 11 a.m.–7 p.m.

 

Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.