Ashley LaRue is a New Haven–based multidisciplinary artist who uses art as a therapeutic tool for expression, insight, and community building. She's worn a few hats.

Qommunity was born from Ashley's desire to find other queer creatives in the New Haven area.

Back in 2019, those connections felt harder to come by. Queer folx were here, of course, but finding one another often meant relying on chance, mutual friends, or being in the right place at the right time. Ashley wanted to make that a little easier.

Then the pandemic happened.

As the world slowly reopened, it became clear that people weren't just looking for something to do - they were looking for each other. Around that same time, Ashley was recommitting to herself as an artist, experimenting with photography, graphic design, and new ways of creating.

One day sitting in her backyard, she shrugged her shoulders and created a new Instagram page called Qommunity—with a Q!

What started as online watch parties, paint days in the park, and backyard cookouts gradually grew into something much bigger. Through collaborations, recurring events, creative projects, and countless introductions between strangers who became friends, Qommunity evolved from an Instagram page into a living, breathing community who’s ripples are felt throughout the New Haven queer scene today.

The goal has always been to make it a little easier for queer people to find one another - and to create the kinds of spaces we wished existed in the first place.